With ‘Bronco,’ Orville Peck Goes In An Unexpected Direction

metroweekly.com:

Bronco (★★★☆☆), bouncing back from a rough couple years with a newfound sense of confidence and a surprising willingness to offer a peek behind the mask.From the beginning, Peck has made a name for himself as a queer country star, dealing with decidedly queer subject matter in his videos and promotional material, headlining gay events and collaborating with a stable of A-list drag queens.Despite embracing that sense of unapologetic queerness in his career writ large, it has never felt quite as prominent in his music, where it comes off as subtle and somewhat impersonal when it does show up.Bronco is a departure here too, feeling more full-throatedly gay than his previous outings.

On “Daytona Sand,” his love letter to Florida that kicks off the album, it is easy to imagine him making doe eyes when he sings, “So hit the road, big blonde/Take me home to Mississippi.”On the viscerally relatable “Blush,” he cheekily sings about the frustrations and pitfalls of loving other men.

The video for the outstanding, Roy Orbison-channeling “C’mon Baby Cry” takes a leaf from his earlier hit “Queen of the Rodeo,” featuring dramatic lighting, a deadpan sense of camp, cameos from Margaret Cho and Kornbread Jeté, and a hunky love interest for good measure.Peck has called Bronco his “most authentic and impassioned album to date,” and he certainly comes off as more animated and three-dimensional than he did on Pony or Show Pony.

Aside from the humor and unexpected playfulness be brings to the album, the arrangements are more expansive and adventurous.Peck seems more confident in his vocals, hitting higher and more sustained notes and exploring his range in new ways that reflect and augment the album’s sense of catharsis.Inspired by a rough.