Keith Urban just dropped “Straight Line,” the first release from his forthcoming new album. The song, written by Urban, along with Chase McGill, Jerry Flowers and Greg Wells, is according to Urban a good indication of what fans can expect from his next record.
“‘Straight Line’ was just one of those songs that, it happened from a feeling in the studio, playing, and that melody coming and the lyric coming,” Urban shared with Everything Nash during a recent virtual media event. “The song just sort of grew. It just grew really quickly. There are two songs that are on this album that came from two days of writing with three of my buddies that I love writing with, and ‘Straight Line’ was the second of the two songs we wrote.”
Although tour plans have yet to be announced, Urban is already looking forward to playing “Straight Line” live.
“I just loved the spirit of it,” Urban shares. “I think if anybody has seen us play live, this song for me captures a lot of that feeling of what I’m trying to create in the room that we’re playing in, the feeling I want people to have. I felt like ‘Straight Line’ has that feeling about it, and it seemed like a perfect first song.”
When releasing “Straight Line,” Urban said it was the perfect introduction for his next set of tunes.
“This is the song that kicks off an album I’m jonesing to share with you all,” Urban said when the song was released. “I chose it first for a lot of reasons, but particularly because I think it represents an energy and spirit that became a through line of the whole record. I’m gonna cover a lot of themes, emotions and vibes on this album but a very human spirit runs through them all.
“‘Straight Line’ is wanting to break out of a soul-sucking routine that you might be stuck in: maybe in a relationship, a job, with creativity, with yourself…whatever it is !!” he continued. “It’s a message of feeling alive again and getting out from under that dark cloud. If you’ve seen us in concert, I hope it gives you that same feeling. ‘Straight Line’ is out now!”
Urban has openly revealed that the new record was a labor of love. The New Zealand native finished another project, before realizing it wasn’t the album he wanted to release, and returned to the studio to try again.
“It was the worst feeling of like, ‘Okay, it’s back to the drawing board. I got to get in there and start writing some songs,’” Urban told the Associated Press last year. “And so really from February all the way through to now, the whole record just took a whole different direction when I had time to write. It was the missing heart of the body of songs that I’d recorded. And everything started to pop, and all three of the next single contenders we’ve got right now, I’m a writer on all three of them.”
Find “Straight Line” and all of Urban’s music and upcoming shows at KeithUrban.com.
Read ‘Keith Urban: 11 Things to Know About the Country Music Hitmaker’ here.