Keith Urban is opening up more about the album that wasn’t. The 56-year-old has been vocal about his new, still-unnamed record, which is the follow-up to the project he completed in its entirety, before realizing he wasn’t happy with the end result, and returned to the studio to start over again.
“The previous album, I felt like I was 98 percent in when I was listening to it,” Urban says (via Country 103.7). “And that may sound like that’s good enough, but not for me. I have to believe in them from top to bottom. There can’t be one that I’m like, ‘Not sure about that one.’”
We already know that Urban’s next set of tunes includes “Straight Line,” his current single, “Messed Up As Me,” and his “Go Home W U” duet with Lainey Wilson. Urban is also revealing how many songs are on the record, which isn’t as long as his previous projects.
“The album got shorter, forty minutes, top to bottom,” Urban reveals. “The sequencing was important, as to how the album starts and how it ends. The stories, the tempos, the energies, and everything that happened in between are like an eleven-song set list for me. It all made perfect sense to me.”
Urban’s fans might be excited to hear his new record, his first since The Speed of Now Part 1 came out in 2020. But likely no one is more eager than Urban to have the album out for the world to hear.
“We’ll keep working our way towards a release date later this year, but I’m psyched to get it out,” Urban tells People. “It’s been a very unique journey putting all these songs together and shaping the record. And in a lot of ways, the record shaped itself. It had an energy and momentum of its own that I just started following. And I can’t put that into any other way, but that’s kind of what happened is that it felt like the record told me where to go and how to make it. It’s wild.”
The father of two has been vocal about his disappointment over the album that wasn’t, and how devastating it was for him to realize he needed to start over again.
Courtesy of NBC
“I hate saying this, but it’s so true: I left that meeting, went out, sat in my car, and I bawled my eyes out,” Urban recently told Audacy’s Rob + Holly. “I literally did, I know that sounds pathetic to a lot of people, but after putting in that much work and knowing what was ahead of me workwise, which I didn’t want to do, it just gutted me. It was like being kicked in the stomach. And sure enough, it took a year. It took a year to finish out the record.
“And I’m so grateful for everybody giving me the time to do it, having the willingness to do it, and for the music saying to me, ‘Trust us. Just go with us. We’re gonna get you to a place where you’re going to be so much happier with everything, but you just gotta trust us,’” he added.
Urban will kick off his HIGH in Vegas residency on October 4 at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Alll of Urban’s music and upcoming shows, at KeithUrban.com.