Cody Jinks’s new album Change the Game sees the Texan outlaw at his absolute best and returns the Texas native to his roots. The boot-tapping diddys are cleverly written and will catch a nerve with some of the country’s most faithful fans. The tunes, perfect with a glass of whiskey, are pronounced with an outlaw feel; these regretfully told tracks give us a look into the life of torn characters and the struggles that haunt them. Catchy, to say the least, the album is chock full of earworms and faithfully told renditions of some of the genre’s classic story tropes. Producing lively bangers has not been Cody’s focus over the last several years, but on Change the Game, his output is both imaginative and concert-ready.
The album starts with “Sober Thing,” an honest look into a tortured soul facing alcoholism and the distance the individual is from drunkenness and becoming sober. Its slow guitar and even slower vocals proceed like a person watching their own life fall apart ever so slowly, never knowing what’s worse, the nightmares, the hangovers, or passing out to free themselves of the past pains. It’s a frank look into the world of alcoholism and the lost soul underneath, and the revealing nature of the song doesn’t end there. The narrator opens the song by talking directly to another individual, like it’s a therapy session or seeing an ex-lover. A song like this is classic Cody Jinks, and it’s a depressing opening to an album that swings your emotions around. It also correlates strongly to another song on the album. “Take This Bottle” seems to continue “Sober Thing.” Featuring Pearl Aday, the song describes two ex-lovers confronting the demons that alcohol has caused in their relationship, with the man pleading for her to take the bottle away and hopefully be able to mend the relationship. Listening to these songs back to back tells a longer story that fits together like a hand and a glove and reads almost like a novel. The lyrics, vocals, and instrumental are top-notch and some of the best musically we’ve received in recent memory.
“Deceiver’s Blues” is a quick-witted track with a red dirt attitude and a classic Nashville twang that’ll have you tapping your foot throughout. It’s easy to get lost in the instrumental alone, but if you read between the lines, you receive a true lesson in life. The song follows the idea that you’re born into this world as one of the lucky ones, a wealthy family, and can get whatever you want whenever you want. Still, on the other side of the coin, you’re born into nothing, facing an uphill battle from day one. You either buy food to live or steal food to live. It’s a unique way to call out the system many Americans are trapped in, and although its message may fall on many deaf ears, those who really listen may find sobering truth hidden behind the groovy sounds.
A notable highlight of the album is “I Would.” The stomping intro sounds like a classic Western film and the lyrics are all about Cody Jinks giving a love song a fair try. It’s not very deep, but with such an attention-grabbing instrumental, “I Would” forces repeat listens, making up for any credit lost in the lyrical department. Simply put, it’s one of the most musically clever love songs of the year so far; with a grasping outlaw sound combined with Jinks’s deep voice, it’s like a cowboy love song that rocks.
“The Working Man” pays homage to all the blue-collar workers across the land and is probably the most beautiful song on Change the Game. It strays far away from the red-dirt feel of the rest of the album and does its own thing as a swaying honky tonk ballad. It perfectly captures the life of an old-fashioned American, working hard to provide for his family and how that’ll never change, just like the man himself. The writing on this one is top-notch, and it’s some of Texan’s best work from an already pretty spectacular album. It won’t be one of the most talked-about songs on the record, but already feels like one of the many hidden gems in the Cody Jinks arsenal.
Top to bottom, Change the Game is a spectacular album. Every song on this record has the potential to become a hit, but the title track will almost definitely achieve that goal in the Texas country scene. Swinging from the start, it’s quick-witted and absolutely rocks. It’s Jinks’s autobiography against some fiery guitars. We see him performing at local bars and hearing the critics tell him he’ll never make it, only to turn around and prove them all wrong by blazing his own trail as one of the most successful independent artists working today. It takes an artist of Jinks’s pedigree to turn a powerful story about their professional journey into a bar-rocking anthem. For Cody Jinks, this entire album is a complete game-changer for his already highly successful career.
9.0
