Tucker Beathard is proof that coming from a musical family doesn't necessarily guarantee smooth sailing in Nashville. Back in 2016, he was tipped to be the next big thing from Big Machine but after the Fight Like Hell EP, relations between the singer and the label soured, sending
Beathard into an extensive legal battle.
Nobody's Everything finds him coming out on the other side, allowed to make the rock-oriented country he believes is his calling. Not that
Nobody's Everything is strictly old-fashioned arena rock. Although
Beathard cops a few moves from
Eric Church and
Kip Moore, he is also keenly aware of what constitutes modern country, so he embraces sly drum loops and the digital sheen that suit playlists as well as they suit radio.
Beathard doesn't quite land upon a seamless formula -- sometimes, the gloss gleams a little bit too hard, sometimes he strips it away so it's not much more than a guitar and a voice -- but that's also the appeal of
Nobody's Everything: he's embracing the freedom to be awkward within the confines of commercial country, which gives the record an identity even when it doesn't quite succeed. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine