Can we be normal? Yeah. Hi, everyone. Northony Mualtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Tyler Childers album, Snipe Hunter.

Here we have the seventh full-length album from Kentucky country singer-songwriter, mister Tyler Childers. This album is produced by none other than Rick Rubin and follows a little project named Rustin in the Rain, which was not my favorite of Tyler's, but it was still a refreshing change of pace, seeing him go for a little bit more of a traditional-ish sound, purposefully pulling on a lot of plucky tones from bygone country eras that certainly set the stage for the genre.

But that record was also a notable change of pace from 2022's Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven, a much more modern combination of country, soul, and rock, with some occasionally funky grooves and progressive structures a Sturgill Simpson fan could appreciate create.

Staying true to his tendency to always shift and try something new, prior to that record was Long Violent History, which saw Childers dabbling in a lot of Appalachian folk music and instrumental fiddle numbers, which were refreshing, even if a lot of the performances were mild.

But with Snipe Hunter, yes, again, Childers continues to prove the validity of his versatility, but also his pen. He's doing so on a lot of tracks that stylistically lean pretty deeply into groovy, low-down, loud, brash swamp rock with a lot of strong Southern vibes and the occasional touch of psychedelic guitar or a heavily affected vocal, some hyper-distorted organ. Tyler matches this more aggressive sound with some over-the-top vocal performances. In fact, there are key moments on the opening track, "Eatin' Big Time", where he's just short of screaming his brains out as he's describing "making it" in a sense, living high off the hog, essentially coming from nothing and getting to a place where you can just like, blow a thousand bucks on a watch and think nothing of it.

So yeah, Tyler goes into that and the short term highs that come with that behavior, making him sound like a total madman on this track. And the more extreme energy this record has to offer isn't just there in the instrumentation or the vocal performances, but also in the writing, too, because on this record, we also have "Biting List", a song that is very like what you see is what you get, and what you get here is pretty hilarious. That thing being rabies, as the song is literally about Tyler contracting it and then having in mind a certain person or people who he doesn't like and would like to contract rabies to by biting them. This track also comes complete with some crazy sound effects from what sounds like a kennel of dogs.

So yeah, a lot of very energetic and loud highlights on this thing. But even the tracks across this record that are more downtrodden and low-key – even these moments have a certain grit to them, like "Getting to the Bottom", as well as "Nose on the Grindstone", for example, a track that has a bit of a traditionalist flair to it. Both these songs are very much about trying to bounce back from the throes of a deep and horrifying drug addiction production. Meanwhile, "Cutting Teeth", while it does have a smoother performance and sound instrumentally than many other songs on here, some weepy pedal steel, a sentimental spoken word bridge as well, the nostalgic stories of trying to make it as a performer in a bunch of different bars traveling around – it's all covered in some pretty surly surroundings. Even these moments through Tyler's eyes are not seen through rose-colored glasses.

So yeah, there's always a bit of an edge or a dark angle to the music or the material on this LP. This also comes through on "Oneida", which is this beautiful little love song about a woman whose best or maybe happiest years seem behind her at this point. But she's being sought after by what seems like a much younger guy. It's quite romantic, even if the age gap is very much emphasized in the lyrics here. It seems like the age gap discourse could go crazy around this one.

The song "Watch Out" is very much about great fears and literal threats, snakes and bears and the like. I would say, instrumentally, there's big Credence Clearwater Revival vibes on this one.

The interesting writing angles continue on to tracks like "Down Under", where Tyler gives a bit of a travelogue about going to Australia and their elements of his surroundings and the culture there that he finds interesting. There are others he would like to prefer to just observe at a distance, most notably the koalas, which he doesn't want to touch due to maybe possibly contracting syphilis or chlamydia. He says What's the difference on the song?

But maybe my favorite bit of writing on this album comes in the form of "Tirtha Yatra", which I will admit, I don't know if I'm pronouncing 100% correctly, but that's the point of the song. As the track is all about Tyler talking about his experience, reading about and diving into Hindu religious teachings and trying his best to genuinely understand them while simultaneously taking account of how far and away the context he was born into is just from all of that, culturally speaking, of course. However, that doesn't stop Tyler from musing about going over to India to learn and understand even more, making an attempt to, I guess, try to embody some of the teachings of this religion in his own life, specifically when it comes to the way he exists and performs, and it creates a pretty heartening moment.

The final tracks on this LP are a bit of a mesmerizing one-two punch, I would say. "Tomcat and a Dandy" is the other acoustic ballad with a traditional flair, 3/4 time signature that is actually pretty entrancing, considering all the droning fiddles and big grandiose group vocals just all sun in a droney fashion. The performance and space and just aura around the song is so huge and immersive. Meanwhile, Tyler's lead vocals, which are just loaded and packed with conviction – not just on this song, but every song here – just cut through all of that and command it, just demand your attention. The guy is just a great intense singer and just leaves me on the edge of my seat with nearly every song here.

Then there's also the closing track "Dirty Ought Trill", which is this fantastic rocker with bass that really just puts me into a trance. And the grooves on this thing, too. It's really some of the funkiest country music I have heard in years.

But yeah, in this tracklist, I do think some songs paled in comparison to others, and maybe a few cuts here and there don't really amount to much more than pretty boilerplate country rock. Still, that doesn't change the fact that I do think this is Tyler's most badass, fun, and biting album yet. I even enjoy it more than 2017's Purgatory, which to a lot of fans is his big classic masterpiece record, which is pretty much why I'm feeling a decent to strong 8 on this album.

Anthony Fantano, Tyler Childers, forever.