New album spotlight

Josh Slone - Thinking Too Much

Post, presave, release date, release. If you’ve spent any time on the music side of social media, you’re familiar with this cycle. Self-made acoustic superstar Joshua Slone has broken the mold for “TikTok Artists” with the release of his debut album, Thinking Too Much. With his first TikTok covers dating back to 2021, the original titled, “Your Place at My Place,” initially posted mid-2024 increased Joshua Slone’s traction on the app. Country and alternative fans alike began swarming Joshua’s page with his views increasing tenfold. Originals including “Demons”, “Adeline”, and “Shark Attack” followed his initial hit in a very raw, authentic and acoustic manner on his account; often in an outdoor setting, backtracked by the natural sound of his surroundings. Hundreds of comments reflected the fear that his studio versions may not match the authenticity and rawness of the versions he posted online. This is, however, if they would be released anytime soon. Among the comments that praise Slone, frustrated fans expressed their vexation regarding the lack of an album release date. Months and weeks pass, the comments persist, and the release date remains unknown. October 29th, a Wednesday, with a warning of only a few hours, Joshua releases the album and hits over a million streams on its first day. Slone completely ditched the structure of the usual TikTok artist cycle and instead posted, opened for Zach Bryan, gave a few hours of warning, and released the album. Somehow, over the course of a little over a year, despite challenges securing a release date, Slone maintained and developed enough fan loyalty to have a successful debut album; climbing to #2 in country albums released that week.

Despite the criticism that over-production has muted the rawness of his music, this album still reads as an acoustic yet unrepressed masterpiece. With popular country taking over the charts with artists like Luke Bryan and Morgan Wallen, a self-proclaimed “non-country” artist is exactly what the genre needed to bring it back to its roots. Gut wrenching, straight from the heart, and productionally minimal, tracks like “Wanting More” explore the thoughtflow of heartbreak and the spiraling feeling of feeling that you will never be enough. While reading initially as a folksy-country album, it’s not hard to hear production influences from indie rock artists such as the Backseat Lovers, especially audible in “Anna” with bluesy keyboard hints. Despite the lack of outdoorsy background noise, the whole album still puts the listener in the same setting that it was written in. A lot of acoustic artists struggle to preserve the atmosphere of their music when adding production elements but I can still feel it with these studio versions.

It’s clear that there are several narratives that drive the story of this album, yet all of the tracks remain unified; bringing the listener through the true ups and downs of the way that the brain organically works. This album is not only a collaged cumulation of life experiences, it lives and breathes. As someone who is not usually a country fan, Thinking Too Much has drawn me in and has not let go. This is only the beginning for this melancholic, authentic storyteller, and his standard-breaking business model proves that loyalty can still be built from the soul–even in the age of social media.

By Sophie Ayers