On her debut full-length, Zoey Tess doesn’t just raise her voice — she raises the temperature in the room.
There’s Gonna Be a Reckoning arrives like a storm system you can see forming miles away: dark, charged, inevitable. Across seven tightly wound songs, Tess plants herself squarely in the lineage of American protest songwriters while sounding unmistakably like a product of now — furious, heartbroken, and spiritually exhausted with the state of things. This is an album that stares directly into the moral fractures of modern America and refuses to blink.
From the opening notes of “Knocking at Your Front Door,” Tess establishes the record’s thesis with startling clarity. The track — previously praised in an earlier review — remains a centerpiece here. Built on acoustic guitar and swelling into a percussive, anthemic confrontation, it carries the mystical authority of Stevie Nicks, the grit of Joan Osborne, and the confessional clarity of Jewel. But Tess’s lyrical bluntness is all her own. Lines about prison systems, religious hypocrisy, and constitutional decay aren’t dressed in metaphor — they’re delivered like charges read aloud in a courtroom.
The title track strips things back to haunted fingerpicked guitar and mournful cello from Dave Eggar. It sounds like it was recorded on a wooden porch as thunderheads gather in the distance. When percussion finally enters halfway through, it lands like the first crack of lightning. Tess sings, “Mama’s angry,” not as a slogan, but as a warning shot.
“You Just Missed Him” may be the album’s lyrical knockout. A song about weaponized religion and selective compassion, it delivers one of the most cutting refrains in recent memory: “I’ve heard you’ve been searching for Jesus / Well hey man, I think you just missed him.” The song’s power lies in its calm delivery. Tess doesn’t shout — she indicts.
Then comes the stunner: “All of the Beautiful Things.” A jazzy, piano-led ballad with orchestration that feels like a lost collaboration between Linda Ronstadt and Nelson Riddle, penned in the spirit of Carole King. It’s timeless, lush, and aching — proof that Tess’s songwriting isn’t confined to protest; she can pivot into introspection with equal command. It’s one of the album’s most beautiful moments.
“Stable Ground” shifts into Americana territory with shades of Wilco and a touch of Tom Petty in its laid-back groove, piano flourishes, and slide guitar accents. But don’t let the relaxed feel fool you — the lyrics again take aim at the myth of American stability, suggesting the foundation has been rotting for a long time.
If there’s a track destined to make listeners uncomfortable, it’s “Children of the USA.” A deceptively cheerful, folksy sing-along that drips with biting satire, the song skewers performative Christianity and nationalist hypocrisy with surgical precision. It’s funny until it isn’t — and then it’s devastating.
The album closes with Tess’s rendition of “Fare Thee Well Miss Carousel” by Townes Van Zandt. Performed primarily on piano with subtle phrasing that occasionally evokes Billy Joel, the cover feels less like a reinterpretation and more like a passing of the torch. Tess inhabits the song fully, anchoring the album’s final moments in quiet, reflective gravity.
Produced by Spencer Hattendorf and mixed by Mario McNulty at Clubhouse Studio in Rhinebeck, New York, the album sounds warm, organic, and intimate — the perfect sonic bed for songs that feel like they were written in the margins of history books.
There’s Gonna Be a Reckoning is not easy listening. It’s not meant to be. It’s an album that demands engagement, confrontation, and reflection. In an era where much of popular music aims to distract, Zoey Tess aims to awaken.
And she succeeds.
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