Daughtry – Dearly Beloved (2021) Review

As the brooding synths of Desperation crash against a wall of drums and a burst of guitar feedback, one thing is immediately clear: Daughtry have stopped second-guessing themselves.

After the pop-gloss detours of Baptized and Cage to Rattle, Dearly Beloved lands like a statement of intent — not a nostalgia retreat, but a proper reset.

It’s heavier, sharper, and more direct, yet it keeps the modern textures the band picked up along the way.

Most importantly, it’s their first studio album outside RCA, and you can hear the relief in the writing: less “format”, more conviction.

The Sound of Freedom

A lot of “return to rock” albums are mere marketing copy.

Dearly Beloved, on the other hand, feels like a band finally writing with the handbrake off.

Chris Daughtry has talked about the process as one defined by freedom — not chasing a specific lane so much as chasing what felt honest. That lines up with what you hear on the final record: a confident blend of crunch and atmosphere, with hooks that land because they’re built to land, not because they’ve been sanded into radio compliance.

“This is the record which I’m most proud of in my career, because we did it ourselves. Until now, each record has had at least one song — sometimes more — that I wasn’t fully on board with. We have real freedom now. I wasn’t trying to write a radio song, or a rock song, or whatever, I just wrote what I was feeling inside. It ‘s been such a rewarding experience.”

– Chris Daughtry

Hybrid Sound

This isn’t the sound of Daughtry reverting to factory settings.

Instead, they merge the best aspects of their earlier work into a new, hybrid sound:

• the post-grunge thickness of their debut
• the chorus-first polish of Break The Spell
• the synth lanscapes they flirted with on Cage To Rattle — now used as mood and scale, rather than as a replacement for guitars

It’s impressive to hear each of these jigsaw pieces slot together to form a record so full of life, brimming with renewed artistic confidence, and a sense of vibrancy that has been missing for the best part of a decade.

"When the weight of the world's crashing,
Pushing you closer to the edge"

HEAVY IS THE CROWN

The Hit-Rate

There are a lot of highlights across Dearly Beloved, but Evil is the clearest mission statement: synth shimmer, an instantly hummable chorus, and — refreshingly — a guitar solo.

The duo of Changes Are Coming and Cry for Help see the welcome return of the crunchy pop-rock that longtime fans have missed, while The Victim finally pulls off the funkier, synth-driven direction the band were reaching for back in 2018 — this time with proper bite.

Then comes the one-two punch of … Lioness and Heavy Is the Crown.

The former is a dramatically arranged ode to Chris Daughtry’s wife that features one of the best bridge sections in recent years, and the latter is a towering mid-tempo bruiser that earns its lift, saving its heaviest impact for exactly the right moment — indeed, fans who have found Daughtry’s recent efforts “too pop” will be delighted to hear those guitars come crashing in after the first chorus of this song.

Where It Dips

Dearly Beloved isn’t flawless.

When Daughtry allow themselves to drift toward safer, blander shapes, you feel it immediately — because the rest of the record sets such a high bar for intent and atmosphere.

Somebody is the main offender: a track that feels smoothed-out in a way the album otherwise avoids, both lyrically and dynamically. It’s not a disaster — it’s just the rare moment where Daughtry sound like they’re reaching for “serviceable” rather than “essential”.

It is joined by Call You Mine, a by-the-numbers acoustic track that pales in comparison to the band’s earlier work. This type of material is usually an easy win, but it clashes with the record’s atmospheric production, leaving a weightless sensation that eats itself.

"Gotta take our power back,
Before they take us all."

ASYLUM

Daughtry – Dearly Beloved

Given the misfires and identity wobble of the previous decade, this shouldn’t work as well as it does.

But Dearly Beloved isn’t a desperation play — it’s a band reclaiming their sound with enough confidence to keep the modern colours, not fear them.

It manages to successfully blend their trademark crunch with synth atmosphere, delivering a genuinely stacked line-up of rockers, and — crucially — this sounds like a group with something to say again. Against all expectations, Daughtry have reclaimed their place amongst rock’s elite with an instant classic.