Backflip Boone released his second studio album (“American Heart”) today, and reviews from some big publications have not been kind…
Benson Boone wrote his album in only 17 days, and unfortunately, it sounds like it.
“American Heart” makes scattered attempts to capture the cheekiness and cockiness that define Boone’s performing image, but ultimately falls short.
Read the full album review here:… pic.twitter.com/OLeO5aykgJ
— Variety (@Variety) June 20, 2025
REVIEW: Benson Boone Can’t Land the Backflip
The “Beautiful Things” singer plays it too safe on his sophomore album ‘American Heart’
⭐️⭐️
More: https://t.co/lt4nxpMMnJ pic.twitter.com/99LCxDqJLJ
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) June 20, 2025
At times swaggerless and too pristine in his attempts to corner the market of retro-pop stardom, Boone loses the youthful edge of his debut and the rawness that made his biggest hit soar so high. On American Heart, songs like “Man in Me” and “Mystical Magical” are the worst offenders of his retromania, the latter too cloying and unconvincing in its whimsy.
Benson Boone’s new album, American Heart, lacks a unique creative identity, boasts undercooked lyrics, and feels designed for TikTok → https://t.co/xb4zBqaLIn pic.twitter.com/eglO0NA8TF
— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) June 20, 2025
Slotting “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else” in as the opener, though, is both a blessing and a curse. It starts the tracklist off with surprising energy, only for the following nine tracks to take the vibe from ‘driving in the summertime listening pop radio’ to ‘letting out an audible groan at the music selection of this Kohl’s.’
Benson Boone’s ‘American Heart’ shows an endearing willingness to grow his craft but also a steely reverence to older, better pop forebearers. https://t.co/mwSqxEMhL0
— Vulture (@vulture) June 20, 2025
But Heart veers away from the Christian-college coffeehouse vibes and the stomping, whooping ballads of the debut album and the big hit. Painting broadly on a still relatively fresh canvas, Boone expresses an endearing willingness to grow his craft but also a steely reverence to painfully obvious points of reference. Boone’s predecessors and influences — pop-vocal Grammy nominees like Harry Styles, Sam Smith, and Shawn Mendes — are never hard to spot.
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It’s not immediately obvious why certain corners of the internet have so taken against Benson Boone. He’s sort of the Lidl Harry Styles, and everyone loves a bargain. … This brief, 10-track new album was written in 17 days with collaborator Jack LaFrantz and seems to have been rush-released to capitalise on the Grammys moment. -NME
