Cory Branan has never been interested in fitting into a genre. For him, the only constant has been the song itself - where it wants to go, what it needs, and how honestly its story can be told. Across a career that has spanned two decades, seven albums and more than a few vans, hes built a reputation as a restless writer dedicated to the exploration of it all, pulling from punk, folk, country, rock and Southern roots music without settling long enough to claim any one of them as home. His latest, Youll Live, leans into that instinct.

This is an orphanage, says the Memphis native, nodding to a record whose 10 songs were collected over nearly 20 years, each one initially tossed into the archives for not quite fitting whatever album he was making at the time. Taken together, they form a proudly unruly mosaic - fragments of different eras, different impulses and different versions of the same songwriter. Theres no overarching narrative here, no singular thread tying things up neatly. Instead, Youll Live unwinds like 10 self-contained stories that sit side-by-side, recorded quickly in Nashville and pulled together by a musical lifer that Rolling Stone calls a country boy with a punk-rock heart.

Refusing to conform has always been central to Branans identity. Raised on a collision of sounds - Top 40 radio, MTV, church music, heavy metal, Hill Country blues - he learned early on that music didnt have to stay in one lane. John Prines Southern storytelling moved him. So did The Replacements ragged rock & roll. Branans own music made room for all of it.

Inspired by cult heroes like Tom Waits, he approached songwriting as a wide-open canvas, viewing genre as a set of colours to choose from. Im an acquired taste, he admits, speaking with the wry self-deprecation that inspired album titles like The No-Hit Wonder. In his mind, there are no distinct eras or stylistic pivots in the Branan catalogue - just songs, each one demanding its own treatment. Whatever role hes slipping into - the road-tested heartland rocker, the folksinger, the punk with an electric guitar - the direction is always dictated by the material itself. The material steals the show once again with Youll Live.

Theres The Wreck of the Sultana, a shipwreck ballad with 10 verses of airtight wordplay. Theres the existential meditation of The Nothing I Know, draped with spacey atmospherics from producer Anthony da Costa. Theres Teeny Says, a 70-second blast of melody and punky muscle and Steppin Outside, featuring vocals from former tourmate Tyler Childers. Some songs wrestle with spirituality from opposing sides; others, like Kathleen and Ricochet, try to make sense of whatever sticks around after lifes illusions fall away. Everything is delivered with heart and humour, a combination that extends to the album title itself. Youll Live is both a shrug and a punchline - a recommendation to just walk it off, delivered with a wink and a clap on the shoulder. It's also an ode to the revival of long-shelved songs, breathing life back into ideas that mightve otherwise stayed buried.

If theres a unifying thread to Youll Live, its not sonic as much as philosophical. Branans best releases have always circled around the same question once the veneer wears off and reality reveals itself, what do you do with whats left? His answer - keep searching for something true in the fragments. Those fragments are the true stars of Youll Live, and they paint the picture of a journeyman who knows that songs dont need to belong anywhere except to themselves. Sometimes, the ones that dont fit are the ones that endure. With Youll Live, the songs live on.

Coloured Vinyl LP

LP pressed on Opaque Blue vinyl.