Backroads

Release Date: July 31, 2026

Genre: Folk Pop / Indie Folk

Label: Mom+Pop

On July 31, RYMAN released Growing Pains, a lovely folk-pop album about growing up, looking back, and dealing with everything that changes along the way. On my first listen, “Backroads” was one of the songs that touched me immediately, alongside “Proud” and “Cut the Cameras.”

The song is about knowing a relationship is ending and trying to delay the goodbye. Taking the long way home is definitely a familiar breakup-song idea, but RYMAN handles it so neatly here. “Turn’s coming up way too fast” works as both an actual moment on the road and the realization that the end of the relationship is arriving before he is ready. He cannot stop what is coming, so he takes the backroads, drives slowly, and buys them a little more time.

Built around acoustic guitar, piano, and layered vocals, the track stays intimate and lets the writing do most of the work. The line “while you’re still fitting your hand in mine” is especially painful. They are still physically close, even though both of them already know they are heading toward a broken heart.

“Backroads” turns every extra mile into one more excuse to stay together: one more look, one more touch, and one more turn before he finally has to drive them home. Huge congrats on such an amazing track.