“Really proud to call the writing and production on somethin’ all mine,” Bryan shared in an album announcement shortly before the new collection came out. “Thank y’all for your patience, I didn’t make this album to appease people who will never be happy anyways, I made it for my people.”

Zach Bryan‘s self-titled album has become the Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter’s first No. 1 album. Bordering country, Americana, rock, and folk. “Zach Bryan” is the first rock set to appear at the top of the charts in over a year, and also ends Travis Scott’s consecutive four-week reign with “Utopia.”

The album features guest stars like the Lumineers, Sierra Ferrell and Kacey Musgraves, with whom he shares his first No. 1 on the Hot 100 for “I Remember Everything.” This is the first No. 1 single for both Bryan and Musgraves, who hadn’t managed to break into the top 20 of the all-genre-inclusive list until now.

All 16 songs on “Zach Bryan” are scattered across the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100, launching the LP to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the equivalent of 200,000 sales in the United States and 233 million streams. Although Bryan’s music is difficult to categorize, Billboard has included “Zach Bryan” on both its country and rock charts. With that in mind, “Zach Bryan” is the first rock album to score a No. 1 slot since the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Unlimited Love” led the list at the beginning of 2022.

The rising country star from Oklahoma works with a traditionalist’s appreciation for songwriting and the intense, earnest emotion of heartland rock. Although claiming the songs have no specific meaning, Bryan is able to put the listeners into his shoes through his talents in song-writing and use of the instruments to illustrate his deepest feelings. In his songs, these big emotions—love and anger, hope and fear—are all tangled up, and getting crushed by their waves is always preferable to feeling nothing at all. Whatever effect his songs have on you, there’s never any doubt they’re coming from the heart.