{"id":67381,"date":"2026-06-25T17:56:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/ryan-beatty-sweet-fortune-album-review\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:56:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:56:27","slug":"ryan-beatty-sweet-fortune-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/ryan-beatty-sweet-fortune-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Beatty &#8216;Sweet Fortune&#8217;: Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/ryan-beatty\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ryan-beatty\" data-tag=\"ryan-beatty\">Ryan Beatty<\/a> is trying to find the right way to say \u201cI love you\u201d on \u201cSecret Language,\u201d the rustic, horn-backed lead single from his fourth album, <em>Sweet Fortune<\/em>. He admits early on, \u201cI\u2019m a bit of a mess cause I\u2019m fragile and tired, wounded and weak, and my words are a useless defense.\u201d And yet words are all he has.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOver the past few years, Beatty has quietly positioned himself as a virtuosic songwriter operating on the fringes of pop. The roots he put down on his 2018 debut <em>Boy in Jeans <\/em>showed promise that continued on the more experimental <em>Dreaming of David <\/em>in 2020. But <em>Calico<\/em>, his breakthrough from 2023, was a treasure trove of chilling revelations and picturesque stories about loss and finality. His writing on <em>Calico<\/em> is uncomplicated without being overly plain, in a way that suggests a deep familiarity with emotional minefields.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIt seems obvious \u2014 they\u2019re his own feelings and his own experiences, so of course he would know which memories are most explosive, or which have wreaked the most havoc in his life. The point, though, is that on <em>Calico, <\/em>he\u2019d already spent enough time excavating his past to write about it from a distance. It\u2019s the biggest contrast from <em>Sweet Fortune, <\/em>a record that spends 10 tracks fighting to hold onto the present and love that might not last beyond the moment in which he finds it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn real time, Beatty outlines his fears and uncertainties with reluctant optimism. \u201cYou can stay if you don\u2019t break my heart,\u201d he sings on \u201cWhite Lighting.\u201d \u201cSometimes I don\u2019t know what I want until you take it away.\u201d There are moments where Beatty can\u2019t contain his own desire. \u201cKnowing there\u2019s nothing I can do, I would pay the cost for every loss so I don\u2019t lose you,\u201d he sings on the closing track \u201cFleur De Lis.\u201d \u201cAnd I would love the both of us for you\/If only I could love the both of us for you.\u201d He\u2019d do anything to keep this love from turning into what he seems to fear most: a blip that turns into memories he\u2019ll have to spend years making sense of.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Sweet Fortune <\/em>finds Beatty unguarded. His words act as armor \u2014 he accepts his anxieties about being alone, even considers how lingering religious shame could factor into how present he allows himself to be in his relationships. But he also doesn\u2019t dismiss the need he feels to fill that space. Solitude isn\u2019t what he wants \u2014 he craves touch, familiarity, and the kind of all-consuming attention that he might have shied away from in the past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHesitation makes him a flight risk on \u201cVirtuoso,\u201d a backwoods country song laced with swelling strings. \u201cJust because I gotta leave you here doesn\u2019t mean I love you less,\u201d he sings. \u201cTrying to hold me down is like holding onto rain\/I\u2019m not an empty gun, I\u2019m the bullet flying away.\u201d Like \u201cSecret Language,\u201d the track carries the influence of the time Beatty spent digging into country music while working on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/beyonce\/\" id=\"auto-tag_beyonce\" data-tag=\"beyonce\">Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/beyonce-cowboy-carter-review-1234996919\/\">Cowboy Carter<\/a><\/em>. The singer-songwriter earned his first Grammy Award for Album of the Year for his work on \u201cBodyguard,\u201d \u201cProtector,\u201d \u201cJust for Fun,\u201d and \u201cII Hands II Heaven.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Sweet Fortune <\/em>finds its own secret weapon in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/clairo\/\">Clairo<\/a>; she appears across the credits on nearly half of the record. Her soft tone glides beneath his own on \u201cSweet Fortune,\u201d a brief moment of emotional surrender midway through the album. \u201cBe good to me,\u201d their layered vocals plead. \u201cDon\u2019t say what you don\u2019t mean.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBeatty holds himself to this on \u201cToo Many Ways,\u201d where he gathers a crowd of instrumentalists for a sprawling folktale about loving from a distance. \u201cI\u2019ve got a life in California and a family and a band,\u201d he sings. The band, in this case, contributes a banjo ukulele, an organ, and a pedal steel guitar, among other things, to get that country feeling just right. Beatty brings it home with an anecdote about the man from Massachusetts he never seems to get enough time with. \u201cHe said, \u2018It\u2019s cold rain and winter frost in Boston, but my arms will keep you warm tonight.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Sweet Fortune <\/em>finds one of its sweetest moments in \u201cDust,\u201d a stripped-back ballad that cradles the musician\u2019s sharpest vocal arrangement on the album. There\u2019s an ease to his performance that contrasts sharply with his writing. \u201cLove of mine, don\u2019t cry for me\/love of mine, don\u2019t die for me\/even if I ask you to,\u201d he sings. \u201cYou\u2019re the last thing I\u2019ve left to lose.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe song reflects his live shows, where enthralled crowds sing along in a fragile whisper.\u00a0Beatty is often seated for these performances, surrounded by his band and lost in the moment. The opening piano ballad \u201cPhantom\u201d lends itself to this structure, as does the bluesy \u201cAnnie, Anything,\u201d two instances in which he almost feels too comfortable<strong> <\/strong>compared to the rest of the album. These cuts can come off as less challenging than the more intriguing explorations of his ear for arrangements. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cDelancey\u201d dispels this feeling. It makes itself at home in the dark corner of a jazz club, the kind that offers refuge on rainy nights in New York City. \u201cI\u2019m as dim as a deer you left dead in the road,\u201d Beatty sings. He grasps for something more meaningful in what sounds like sirens blaring from a distance in the back. They\u2019re tucked just behind a stirring saxophone performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFour albums in, Beatty is still finding new angles through his distinct perspective. <em>Sweet Fortune <\/em>revels in its intimacy without over-intellectualizing it. And while it falls just short of the heights <em>Calico <\/em>reached, the album accepts the challenge of trusting the full spectrum of emotion and experience that fuels him as a songwriter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThere\u2019s a moment on <em>Calico<\/em>, on the closing track titled \u201cLittle Faith,\u201d where Beatty sings about plants that keep withering and dying under his care. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be a killer,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it died right there that day.\u201d By the end of <em>Sweet Fortune<\/em>, Beatty doesn\u2019t give into defeat as easily. He finds a new way to flourish, instead. \u201cI\u2019ll throw seeds and reap what I sow,\u201d he sings on \u201cFleur De Lis.\u201d \u201c\u2018Cause in the dirt, all my flowers will grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/ryan-beatty-sweet-fortune-album-review-1235583534\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ryan Beatty is trying to find the right way to say \u201cI love you\u201d on \u201cSecret Language,\u201d the rustic, horn-backed lead single from his&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":67382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}