Album: Jekyll + Hyde Artist: Zac Brown Band (Southern Ground/John Varvatos/Big Machine/Re public Nashville) 1/2

Zac Brown rightly names his new release after a famous, fictional schizophrenic, for few artists in this genre-focused era so openly embrace an eclectic muse. Brown sets the tone immediately on Jekyll + Hyde, which opens with an aggressively rhythmic Beautiful Drug, the most electronic-driven track Brown has recorded.

The variety doesn’t stop there, as he brings a Celtic melody to Remedy, bigband swing to Mango Tree (a duet with Sara Bareilles) and a grunge-rock guitar crunch to Heavy Is the Head. That said, there’s plenty of Brown’s breezy, island-influenced rhythms and his acoustic, folk-derived style, both of which emphasize his voice and his lyrical smarts.

This time, he includes a rare cover on a powerful interpretation of Jason Isbell’s Dress Blues.

Brown and his large band changed record distributors and producers for Jekyll + Hyde, but the album sounds like a logical next step by a talented band. They make it all sound coherent. They’re music lovers with a broad range of influences, and they don’t let pre-determined genres limit their scope.