Criminally underrated.
In case you weren’t quite on the Zach Bryan bandwagon back in 2022, I’m going to take you back in time. By now, everyone is aware that his mammoth, major label debut, American Heartbreak, as well as his EP, Summertime Blues, both came out within a three-month span that year. However, what some people tend to overlook is the fact that he released another four singles that year, including the severely underrated “Starved,” which was released two years ago today.
Like a few of Bryan’s releases, “Starved” had a pretty odd rollout. A live version of the track was first posted on YouTube only before being taken down shortly later on October 1st. In typical fashion, fans quickly noticed and began begging the “I Remember Everything” singer for an official release.
Ten days later, Bryan gave the fans what they wanted and released not one but three versions of the track, including a studio, demo and live version, to streaming.
In the Instagram post announcing “Starved’s” official release, Bryan said, “My life is calm now, the days all don’t run together and I’m enjoying myself a lot more. While on the 40 day run we just did my friend Noah and me were messing around with guitar lines and melody’s. I was trying to make Starved a happy song and then we agreed that the guitar line deserves its own words. I stayed up for three days straight writing one long poem and didn’t sleep until we all had it recorded on 80th & Columbus in New York at 8 a.m, I played a show at Pier 17 about ten hours later and I’d do it all again. It’s an incredibly long story that I’ll tell another time but this song, for whatever reason needed done now. Starved is everywhere. It’s an ugly, drunken and sloppy piece of beauty and I want to thank all of my true friends for seeing it through with me. I love you and I didn’t & never will deserve any of you.”
As Bryan himself said, it’s an ugly, drunken and sloppy piece of beauty and it remains one of his most underrated tracks to date. There’s something about the demo version that truly sticks out, harkening back to the DeAnn and Elisabeth days of Bryan through its raw, acoustic nature.
Like many of Bryan’s standout tracks, “Starved” captures a sense of longing through some incredible imagery in the verses with lines such as “It’s you in the late fall, all warm, swarmed with the midday light” or “The corners of your lips lifting, lift me when I’m low.”
This nostalgia-filled ode to a failed relationship cumulates with the absolute gut punch of a bridge that sees Bryan reflecting on his mistakes and declaring “There ain’t no world in which I am good for you.” There’s something about “Starved” that feels equally heartbreaking as it does at peace with the heartbreak that is so fascinating, and to me, that’s why it will always remain one of his best and most underrated songs so far.
Listen to the demo and studio version here: