The Owl is the sixth studio album by American country music band Zac Brown Band. It was released on September 20, 2019, through Wheelhouse Records.

Content It is described as the band's "most personal album to date". For this album, the band worked with pop and EDM writer and producers such as Poo Bear, Shawn Mendes, Max Martin, Benny Blanco, Ryan Tedder, and Skrillex. One of the tracks features a collaboration with Brandi Carlile.

Critical reception Kelly Dearmore of the blog Sounds Like Nashville gave a largely negative review, criticizing the lack of country sound relative to the band's preceding albums and comparing many songs negatively to Brown's electronica side project Sir Rosevelt. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic also noted parallels to the Sir Rosevelt album. He concluded his review with "The fact that a good chunk of the numbers work does not erase how deeply strange this album is."

Pip Ellwood-Hughes of Entertainment Focus gave a negative review stating, "Zac Brown Band have shown what they can do in the past and this set of songs doesn't come close. If this were the debut album of a new pop band, it may be received kindlier but this is a misjudged project from a beloved Country band that attempts to push boundaries but will likely just turn their fans off."

Commercial performance The Owl debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 with 106,000 album-equivalent units, including 99,000 pure album sales. It is Zac Brown Band's sixth US top 10 album. The album has sold 137,100 copies in the United States as of March 2020.

Track listing

Personnel

Zac Brown Band Zac Brown – lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars Coy Bowles – electric guitar, electric slide guitar, Hammond organ Clay Cook – background vocals, clavinet, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric slide guitar, Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, Mellotron, pedal steel guitar, piano, tambourine, Wurlitzer Daniel de los Reyes – percussion Jimmy De Martini – acoustic guitar, background vocals, banjo, cello, electric guitar, violin Chris Fryar – drums John Driskell Hopkins – background vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo Matt Mangano – acoustic and electric bass guitars, Moog bass, acoustic guitar

Additional musicians

Brandi Carlile – vocals on "Finish What We Started” Colette Carlson – background vocals Johan Carlsson – arranger, bass guitar, clapping, drum programming, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Hammond organ, percussion, piano, solina, synthesizer, tambourine, background vocals Andrew DeRoberts – acoustic guitar, drum programming, electric guitar, keyboards, synthesizer bass, background vocals, wurlitzer Michael Engstrom – upright bass Phil Hanseroth – acoustic guitar, background vocals Tim Hanseroth – acoustic guitar, background vocals Luke Laird – drum programming Tove Lo – background vocals

Max Martin – background vocals Shawn Mendes – background vocals Doris Sanberg – background vocals Don Satchmo – Roland TR-808 Sasha Sirota – background vocals, drum programming Skrillex – electric guitar, keyboards, drum programming Peter Svensson – nylon-string guitar Ryan Tedder – background vocals Andrew Watt – drum programming

Production

Brandon Bell – engineer, mixing Cory Bice – engineer Michael H. Brauer – mixing Johan Carlsson – producer Alex Chapman – photography Clay Cook – engineer, producer Dan Davis – Assistant engineer, engineer Andrew DeRoberts – engineer, producer DJ Riggins – mixing assistant Serban Ghenea – mixing Chad Gibson – art direction John Hanes – mixing assistant Sam Holland – engineer John Driskell Hopkins – engineer Jaycen Joshua – mixing Shivani Kapoor – art direction, design Peter Karlsson – vocal producer Dave Kutch – mastering Paul Lamalfa – engineer Nicole Larson – vocal coach

Jeremy Lertola — engineer Victor Lopes – photography Matt Mangano – engineer, producer, production coordination Max Martin – producer Michael Mechling – mixing assistant Happy Perez – producer Diego Pernia – art direction, photography Poo Bear – producer Fernando Reyes – mixing assistant Jacob Richards – mixing assistant Andy Sapp – photography Mike Seaburg – mixing assistant F. Reid Shippen — mixing Sasha Sirota – engineer, producer Skrillex – engineer, producer Ryan Tedder – producer Matt Tinsley – art direction Andrew Watt – producer Preston Tate White – assistant engineer Evan Wilber – assistant engineer

Charts

Weekly charts +Weekly chart performance for The Owl Chart (2019) Peakposition US Billboard 200 2

Year-end charts +2019 year-end chart performance for The Owl Chart (2019) Position US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 44

References