Oliver Tree - Cowboy Tears (LP) - Yellow Vinyl

Oliver Tree rode into 2022 with Cowboy Tears, his second full‑length on Atlantic, arriving 18 February with a Stetson, a smirk, and a proper curveball of an alt‑pop record. It takes his prankster persona and flips it toward something earnest. He still plays the clown, but this time the jokes come wrapped in twangy guitars and songs about heartbreak and bravado, the kind you hum on the tram and then realise are a bit sad when the chorus hits.

The album leans into a kind of no‑frills folk‑pop that suits his nasal, stop‑you‑in‑your‑tracks voice. You get bright acoustic strums, sing‑along hooks, and that scrappy, DIY edge he loves, just with more dust on the boots. The cowboy shtick could have felt like a meme stretched to album length, yet he threads a proper narrative about vulnerability and the myths we build around toughness. It’s still tongue in cheek, but there’s a soft centre here that wasn’t as front‑and‑centre on Ugly Is Beautiful.

Cowboys Don’t Cry is the pitch‑perfect entry point. It kicks off like a mock‑anthem for stiff upper lips, then cracks open into a big, arms‑wide chorus that admits the opposite. The writing is simple and sticky by design, which is why it works. You can hear the radio instincts at play, but the production keeps it scuffed, like a bar stool with initials carved in it. Freaks & Geeks pushes harder on the pop throttle, a rush of drums and bright guitars built for festival fields. He’s always had a knack for slogans you can shout back at him, and this one lands as both pep talk and outsider pride badge. Those two tracks set the stakes: broad appeal, but with splinters.

Dig a little deeper and the record rewards you with sly little choices. He throws in cartoonish ad‑libs and sudden dropouts, then lets a chorus bloom with layered harmonies that feel pinched from a dusty country 45. The palette stays consistent, yet each song finds its own pocket. He doesn’t go full Nashville crooner, thank goodness; it’s more a collage of folk, surfy indie, and playground chant pop, dressed in denim. That balance is the trick. Plenty of artists try on genre costumes and disappear under the weight. Tree uses the costume as a prop and keeps the writing front and centre.

If you followed the rollout, you’ll know he paired the singles with high‑concept videos and took the album on the road for the Cowboy Tears tour in 2022. The live show made the songs snap into place. These choruses are built for communal yell‑alongs, and the bittersweet undercurrent comes through when a roomful of people sing them like they mean it. A deluxe edition followed later that year with extra tracks, which extended the theme rather than muddying it, and gave fans more ammo for setlists.

On wax, the album’s charm really pops. Spin the Cowboy Tears vinyl and those acoustic guitars sit a touch warmer, the low end thumps a bit friendlier, and the choruses feel built to fill a lounge room. If you’re chasing Oliver Tree vinyl locally, a good Melbourne record store will probably have a copy tucked alongside the indie‑pop oddballs, though you can also buy Oliver Tree records online if the shelves are bare. For collectors, keeping an eye out for Oliver Tree albums on vinyl is half the fun; different variants tend to drift in and out of shops across vinyl records Australia, and this one suits a weekend play with friends who swear they “don’t like country” and then ask to borrow it.

What makes Cowboy Tears stick is how neatly it reframes him. The memes and scooters are still part of the lore, but these songs stand up even without the visual gags. He writes choruses that feel like messages scrawled on a school desk, honest and a bit cheeky, and the production stays just rough enough to keep you on your toes. It isn’t trying to be a capital‑S Statement. It’s a tight, replayable set that carves out its own corner between radio pop and bar‑band strum, and it shows a songwriter who’s sharper and more sincere than the costume might suggest.

Put simply, Cowboy Tears is the rare concept‑leaning record that works as an everyday listen. Come for the jokes. Stay for the hooks, the heart, and the way it turns a cowboy hat into a confession booth.