If you're going to reinvent yourself, there's no point in being shy about it, and Orville Peck has learned that lesson well. Transforming into a cosmic cowboy took vision and hustle, and Peck has not only made it work, he's shown he knows how to grow within his persona. Peck has the talent to pull it off as a vocalist and a songwriter, and as strong as his 2019 debut album Pony was, 2022's Bronco builds on it in every way. If the sonic vistas of Pony evoked a classic John Ford western, Bronco takes him from Stagecoach to The Searchers, with a bigger, more colorful, and more nuanced variation on those themes. It helps that Peck had greater resources at his disposal this time out, and working with a major-label budget allowed him to record at first-class facilities in Nashville, and augment his road band (which includes members of the Canadian indie rock band Frigs) with a number of session players and Punch Brothers banjo picker Noam Pikelny. In this case, the extra money went toward detail, not excess gloss; Bronco maintains the spirit and sound of Peck's debut, but builds on it with added instrumental details and atmospheres, and he wisely does so without cluttering the landscape, still leaving enough space for the dynamics that serve this music so well. If anyone feared Peck would fall victim to the Sophomore Slump, he's dodged that bullet with style on Bronco. He has no trouble writing songs that have the dramatic sweep his Roy Orbison meets Morrissey voice demands, and as a lyricist, he's an effective storyteller who doesn't shy away from a dollop of melodrama while still making his characters ring true. The artfully woven queer subtext of Pony is present and accounted for, while the universality of his lonely cowboy's mingled desires for independence and companionship will make this speak to all sorts of listeners. And while songs like "Daytona Sand," "Lafayette," and "City of Gold" fit Pony's template, the caffeine-addled rockabilly of his road diary "Any Turn," the countrypolitan grace of "C'mon Baby, Cry," the spectral acoustic arrangement of "Hexie Mountains," and the twang-infused rock of the title cut demonstrate this cowboy can go anywhere he pleases and make himself at home. Orville Peck's image as the glamorous and subversive masked man of country music still feels a bit gimmicky, but in the grand show biz tradition, it's a character that puts the spotlight firmly on a genuine talent, and Bronco is a glorious achievement that fulfills Peck's promise and then some. ~ Mark Deming