MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Zac Brown Band is one of my personal favorite rock/country groups since their second studio album, “The Foundation,” burst on the scene in 2008. Since then, they’ve continued to accumulate success.

On Oct. 15, the ZBB released “The Comeback,” their latest studio album since they released “The Owl” in 2019. This is what many would consider a “return to form” and on the surface, they’d be right. Since their initial success, the group has continued to experiment with various genre infusions. One of my favorites of these genre bending works was their 2013 EP, “The Grohl Sessions Vol. 1,” produced by former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters lead man, Dave Grohl. I appreciated Zac Brown’s vocal talent lent to heavier music.

The group has continued to develop their alternative and pop sound in albums such as “Jekyll + Hyde” and to a lesser extent, “Welcome Home.” 

But for “The Comeback,” there is no denying that the group has decided to go back to those country roots they grew up on and garnered popularity with. The album title has a variety of meanings.

Acoustically, the sound is a blend of contemporary and classic country. One of the best examples of this is the disc’s sixth track “Stubborn Pride ft. Marcus King.” While King is one of the best in contemporary blues, Brown’s melodramatic voice complements King’s grass rooted guitars in a unique way. I hope to see more collaborations from them in the future. 

The title track directly tackles the COVID-19 pandemic which, like so many other bands, took ZBB out of the recording studio for a while and pretty much changed the shape of the album.

“This one was definitely more of an intentional one, because we set out to write everything for this,” Brown said in an interview with Apple Music. “And when we boiled down all the songs that we’d written, and we left off a good 10 songs that we didn’t record on this to try to make that journey, we knew that the best ones would stick out.”

I do think there are some very memorable tracks on this record such as “Wild Palomino,” “Fun Having Fun,” “Closer to Heaven ft. Gregory Porter” and “Old Love Song.” The reason these songs stand out is ZBB’s ability to take all they’ve learned in the genre inspirations they’ve attempted over the years and masterfully put them together. It’s a subtle thing that you wouldn’t really notice if you hadn’t been following their career. You’d just think they were great musicians. 

I hate to gush week after week about bands that I like without ever offering some constructive criticism but I really couldn’t think of anything. This is a solid album that will appeal to a multitude of people. Do I think that ZBB will ever capture the magic that propelled them up the charts like they did on “The Foundation” or their 2017 album, “You Get What You Give”? No I don’t think they will. 

But they have come a long way musically in between and since those albums’ releases and I look forward to seeing where they go from here.

Jack R. Jordan is a reporter for The Moultrie Observer. Contact him at jack.jordan@gaflnews.com.