"At an expansive 80 minutes, With Heaven on Top unfolds as a musical odyssey: from Kansas City to Chicago, Colorado to California, bull-riding in Oklahoma to running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Sometimes Bryan's nervous mind leaps between locations in a single breath. In "Skin," he sings, "Are you walking 'round Tribeca with him?/ Can you still feel that Wisconsin wind from that late October?" His mind stays restless, even on the rare occasions that his body holds still."
"Bryan first introduces these themes with a poem in opener "Down, Down, Stream." Here a New York man "told me everything had gone down, down stream from him/ Like that cold water of his life had gone up his back, down his front, and around his legs/ And before he could drink any of it, it'd already passed him by." There's an undercurrent of fear in With Heaven on Top: a hoarding of memories,"
With Heaven on Top runs about 80 minutes and functions as a musical odyssey, tracing travels from Kansas City and Chicago to Colorado, California, Oklahoma and Pamplona. The music juxtaposes sunny, expansive arrangements with lyrical darkness: hoarded memories and fear of forgetting exes, friends and old dogs. Opener "Down, Down, Stream" uses a poem about life passing by, and "Skin" leaps between locations and memories. "Appetite" captures both small-room frustration and soaring joy with fiddle and chorus. The album repeatedly contrasts restlessness of mind with moments of physical stillness and wide, cinematic sound.
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