★★★⯪☆

Tucker Pillsbury, better known by his stage name Role Model, rose to fame with his most recent album ‘Kansas Anymore’. His song ‘Sally, When The Wine Runs Out’, released on the album’s extended edition, was an immediate success, and his live performance only earned him more acclaim. With ‘Kansas Anymore’ being Role Model’s first big commercial success and so different from some of his early work, fans patiently awaited what evolution his career might take next. No one expected that his next album would involve the creation of a new alter ego named Chuck Timely.

‘Chuck Timely & The Hourglass’ opens with ‘Chuck’s Mantra’, which elicits the feeling of being at a church service with chorus-backed vocals and high energy. As the title states, it’s ‘Chuck’s Mantra’ and seems to serve as a reminder of what he wants out of life. He asserts that he’s ‘deserving of something real’ and that he feels a need for change. Already this ushers in a sharp diversion from Role Model’s previous sound.

The gospel sound continues into the second track ‘High Hopes 3000’ where Role Model laments the defeating nature of modern dating. He finds himself going through the motions with different girls only to find himself starting over again with someone new. Just like his romantic life, the song has a repetitive yet slightly hopeless feeling.  

The tenth track on the album, ‘Stain’, seems to serve as the bridge between eras. While it’s more yacht rock adjacent than anything on ‘Kansas Anymore’, it shares the storytelling-driven heart. In it, Role Model feels trapped in a relationship that he knows is over, but just can’t force himself to leave. He sings “Well, I'm sorry that it didn't work out with your man / But there's nothing fun in feeling like a backup plan” and completely conveys the limbo between something ending and being able to move on. ‘Stain’ is set apart both sonically and lyrically from the rest of the album in a way that makes it the project’s most memorable. 

Closing everything out, ‘Harmony’ is clearly meant to tie together the album as Role Model looks back at the last few years of his life. While in the opener, there seems to be a hidden fear beneath the mantra, ‘Harmony’ seems more authentically optimistic, even if it doesn’t immediately sound like it. Although he couldn’t see the way out of the journey while he was in it, Role Model is able to realize “Hope has got a funny way / Of showing up way too late / But now I feel like it all makes sense”. It perfectly encapsulates how hope can elude us until we’re far enough along in the process to see the light. 

While ‘Chuck Timely & The Hourglass’ has the same catchy country bar feeling as several tracks on ‘Kansas Anymore’, it lacks some of the emotional depths that made his previous album so successful. While earlier songs like ‘Frances’ so obviously come from an honest place of emotion, this album’s emotional breakthrough, ‘Wedding’, doesn’t deliver that same cutting feeling. Role Model has more than established his ability to create a song that sticks in your head; ‘Chuck Timely & The Hourglass’ highlights his backing tracks over his lyricism.