Tyler Childers
Snipe Hunter
RCA
Oct 07, 2025
Internet Unique
On “Bitin’ Record,” Tyler Childers seems like a rotten son of a bitch. In the absolute best means. The standout monitor from the burgeoning Kentucky singer/songwriter’s instantly important new album, Snipe Hunter, finds Childers writing from the attitude of a comically vindictive prick who needs to be contaminated by rabies so he may cause most injury when biting his foe. The track’s musical minimalism, particularly its stomping percussion, squirming banjo, and spare manufacturing (chalk all that as much as legendary studio guru Rick Rubin and Childers’ crack backing band, The Meals Stamps) all fittingly evoke tantrum fueled pacing. All of the whereas, Childers hoots and hollers so convincingly, and with such catchiness, we by some means not solely root for this heinous protagonist, but in addition laughingly sing alongside.
“Bitin’ Record” is however one of many immediately memorable character research that make this album much less like a collection of tracks than chapters in a twisted Southern gothic novel. Higher but: a compilation of brief tales loosely however inescapably sure by taboo urges, looming violence, and Childers’ knee slap worthy humor. Prime instance: the protagonist on hilariously bittersweet ballad “Oneida.” He plans to woo an older girl, with the hope she’ll purchase his manipulative underage ass some wine, regardless of her baffling him with ’80s popular culture references (this good previous lady simply desires to have enjoyable, in spite of everything). Then there’s the globe trotter singing about dreading his return to Australia—due to syphilis troubled koalas, naturally—buoyed by The Meals Stamp’s careening rhythm part on gripping halfway monitor “Down Below.” Brace your self for the thrill noticed guitar solo closing that track out. It’s an alt-country all-timer.
“Down Below” is adopted by the equally stirring, although not as humorous, “Poachers.” At occasions its vocal results subtly however eerily contort Childers’ voice, as he sings from the vantage of a equally ravaged character who “likes my medication meth-y” and who’s dodging wardens over state strains. Its percussion sounds hand clapped to the purpose of evoking rattling, loot loaded baggage in a dashing getaway automotive on a forlorn again street.
Highly effective as these novella-esque later tracks are, Childers instantly units a excessive watermark with the rip roaring opening monitor, “Eatin’ Large Time.” His items as not solely a author, but in addition performer are on full show on this track, as he brays laborious sufficient to virtually sound hoarse throughout a church organ laden parable about consuming the wealthy, maybe in each sense of the phrase. Similar goes for “Cuttin’ Enamel,” one other vivid character examine deepened by Childers’ selections as a performer, this time elevating the pitch of his voice on the finish of sure strains to firmly tug your heartstrings. And on “Watch Out” Childers’ chemistry with The Foodstamps all however combusts, because the drums burst forth from silence in a cacophony, earlier than vocal distortion brings to thoughts “Oh What a World,” the singular Daft Punk meets Bon Iver homage by one other Americana savant, Kacey Musgraves. “Watch Out” is extra lyrically ambiguous than Snipe Hunter’s different tracks, however nonetheless boasts a powerful narrative, particularly as its narrator makes the listener really feel like a part of the story whereas warning them to be careful for copperheads writhing within the woodpile.
In an engrossing current GQ profile forward of Snipe Hunter’s launch, Childers cited Jack Kerouac as a formative affect by way of each subject material and the On the Highway life-style of a touring musician. That lineage is clear on Snipe Hunter key monitor “Tirtha Yatra,” whose themes of wanderlust and enlightenment-yearning take the protagonist to India in a four-minute yarn that’d make Kerouac beam with approval. All that being stated, Mark Twain’s wry Southern humor and sophistication consciousness are evident all through these 13 tracks. The epic sweep and huge forged of magnetic characters additionally carry John Steinbeck to thoughts. And like alt-country pioneer Kris Kristofferson, who based mostly a complete basic deep reduce on a vignette from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Childers is likely one of the style’s foremost wordsmiths. He additionally brings to thoughts one other good alt-country lyricist on the finish of “Cuttin’ Enamel,” when he forgoes singing for folksy, conversational spoken phrase in one of the best ways since John Prine did so on “Lake Marie.”
Due to all that, Childers makes plain his depth and prowess as a younger alt-country nice. Higher nonetheless: Snipe Hunter firmly establishes Tyler Childers’ place within the style’s expansive, humorous, heartfelt, at occasions oddball, and definitely literary pantheon. (www.tylerchildersmusic.com)
Creator ranking: 8.5/10
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Common reader ranking: 7/10
