Mitchell Tenpenny’s “This is the Heavy” is the country album we've been waiting for

After a long drought without a full album, this new release may make up for it.

By Jake Goldberg

On December 14, 2018, then-up-and-coming country singer/songwriter Mitchell Tenpenny released his debut album titled Telling All My Secrets. Containing songs like Drunk Me, Alcohol You Later, and Somebody Ain’t You, this album inevitably began Tenpenny’s journey to stardom. 

Since then, he has released many EPs and singles, each with its ideas and charm. Although very successful throughout his career, Tenpenny had not released a full-length album (excluding his 2021 Christmas album) since his first release back in 2018. That is, until now. 

This past Friday, September 16, Mitchell Tenpenny released his sophomore album titled This is the Heavy. This new album, which takes the beloved pieces of his first album and merges them with modern country music, really shows his growth as a singer, songwriter, musician, and person. 

This 20-track album contains a few songs previously released over the past year, as well as 15 completely original tracks with wide ranges of tempo, rhythm, melodies, and many other things that make each song unique. 

The album starts with a 40-second intro and doubles as the title track, namely “This is the Heavy”. This intro contains only instrumentals and sets the tone of who Tenpenny is as well as what listeners should expect from this album. The intro isn’t anything crazy on its own, but if you listen to the album chronologically, you will hear that it flows perfectly into the second track, “Good Place”. 

“Good Place” is a great start to the album, not only for the perfect transition from the intro but also for the fast and strong instrumentals. It grabs your attention early on and does not let go. 

As mentioned previously, there are 5 songs on this album that were previously released as singles: “Bucket List” (originally released way back in January of 2021), “Truth About You”, “Good and Gone”, “Something With You”, and “Elephant in the Room”, which is the only song on the album that contains a feature, artist Teddy Swims. All of these songs did well on their own, especially the fan favorite “Truth About You”, which has gained around 60,000,000 streams on Spotify alone since its release as a single in July 2021. 

While it’s cool to see some already established songs from Tenpenny’s catalog make an appearance on this album, the new songs are just as good as the known ones. Towards the middle of the album, “Obsession” is a classic upbeat country love song that is a little reminiscent of the stylings of Thomas Rhett, but with that Mitchell Tenpenny spin on it that his fans know and love. 

Another song, “Miss You Cause I’m Drinking”, is a typical post-breakup song that has light reggae influences in the melody and instrumentals. This song highlights the idea of “I ain’t drinking cause I miss you, I miss you cause I’m drinking”, and it does this very well. 

“Happy and I hate It” follows the album’s genre-bending theme with a modern-day attempt at rock, blended with a country twang. 

One of the later tracks, “Losers”, isn’t what you’d expect from the title. It talks about a bar called Losers, and the lyrics provide a great sense of setting and understanding of the true point of the song. 

Finally, there is a groovy song titled “Still Thinking ‘Bout You”. It takes the same ideas shown in the previous songs but does it with an acoustic guitar and light drums that make you want to sway your body. 

After a four-year silence (at least in terms of albums), Mitchell Tenpenny comes out swinging with an album that shows how much he has grown since the beginning of his career. This is the Heavy has the potential to be one of the best country albums this year. Although it was just released, Mitchell Tenpenny fans are already eagerly waiting for what the singer/songwriter is going to put out next.