Mack Geiger’s debut album navigates heartbreak, loneliness, and life’s various challenges—but that’s only half the story. Certainly there are tales of romantic woe (“String By” is about leaving a manipulative ex; “Pouring” captures the emotional pain of lost love), but Geiger is also capable of injecting humor into the heartbreak. “His & Hers” turns infidelity and divorce into a rollicking barroom anthem, while the fiddle-led “How Crazy Is That?” relates the madness of not learning from past romantic mistakes. There is also hope among the wreckage, primarily on the wistful “How It Ends,” a “what if” song about meeting someone and wondering where it might lead. Family is another recurring theme, with Geiger paying tribute to his grandmother on “Nothing Like Grandma” and fantasizing about leaving touring life behind to start a family and settle down on “Walk a Straight Line.” Raised on a cattle station in rural Queensland, the singer-songwriter was fed a diet of ’90s country artists such as Travis Tritt, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, and Tim McGraw, influences that shine through on Dying in This House. Combining that with his smooth baritone, Geiger’s debut feels like an album from another time, albeit one with themes that are universal and timeless.