What Good’s the Medicine? by Croy and the Boys

It is confusing and frustrating to feel at home and out of place all at once, stuck trying to meet the world’s expectations. Croy and the Boys explore these complicated emotions and the ways the world at large contributes to these struggles in their new release What Good’s the Medicine?. This concise release serves up anticapitalist Texan americana inspired by classic country music and cowboy culture while incorporating introspective lyrics that demand answers for the ways life fails us. To the beat of shuffling drums, delicate guitar picking, pleasant squeezebox accompaniment and shimmering organ chords, this sad cowboy croons along, voice complimenting the music seamlessly with a drawl that doesn’t sound the least bit forced.

What Good’s the Medicine? Is by no means an outlaw country stampede, but rather a gentle afternoon stroll as Croy and the Boys explore both personal hardships and injustice on a societal scale. Exploring the woes of the healthcare industry, rampant racism, and the overworked / underpaid labor force in the United States, the band reflects on the country’s history and the systems put in place to suppress groups. Furthermore, they critique the ways in which people all over the country, but primarily in their southern context, misremember the 20th century as a time of peace and facility, turning a blind eye to the hardships. Midway through the album they grow dissatisfied with these unanswered questions, ramping up the energy and resigning to the mantra “I get by, I get by, I get by” dedicated to making it through the world somehow. That being said, there aren’t many “happy” songs here as Croy and the Boys wander the world displeased and uncomfortable. As it shuffles to its end, the only solution the album offers is to throw out the system and reframe society away from that which is selfish and uncompassionate, acknowledging that the problems feel so much larger than our ability as people to implement the solutions. Alt country is in a great place right now and Croy and the Boys are right on the pulse with their contemplative new release.