In 2023,
Zach Top
traded the high lonesome sound of bluegrass for straight-up country, landing a Top 40 hit with his uber-melodic '90s-throwback "Sounds Like the Radio." The newly mustachioed singer/songwriter leaned heavily on neotraditionalist influences like
Randy Travis
and
Alan Jackson
to create a catchy, boot scootin' sound that made reference to era tropes like mullets and jukeboxes. He even namedrops
Jackson
's 1993 hit "Chattahoochee" in the lyrics. "Sounds Like the Radio" serves as the lead cut from
Top
's similarly nostalgic debut full-length,
Cold Beer & Country Music
. Tracks like "The Kinda Woman I Like" and "Ain't That a Heartbreak" land in the same vein as its breakout single, while the entire album makes good use of Top's sweet tenor vocals which lend an amiable tone to the more earnest fare. Coming from an acoustic instrumentalist background,
wisely employs a band of hotshot players who help breathe life into the otherwise slick production. ~ Timothy Monger