Fuse Is “Keith Urban 2.0”

“Fuse” is Keith Urban’s first album of new music in almost 3 years.  The previous album, “Get Closer,” had 8 songs.  Keith doubles his output on the deluxe edition, with a total of 16 new songs!  But it isn’t just quantity, but also quality that marks this latest project.  Keith told Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton he had high ambitions: “In a lot of ways, it feels like the first part of the next chapter.  It’s Keith Urban 2.0.  For me it was intentional to start again. I wanted to figure out a different way to make records, and wanted to work with people I hadn’t before.  It was all to put me in an environment I’d never been in before.”

Let’s talk about “Cop Car,” one of the more unique love songs I’ve heard: “I got sent this song around Christmas.  Good Lord, the first thing I heard was the melody, and I loved it.  Then the story started to open up.  This guy and girl are getting thrown in the back of a cop car, he’s getting arrested, she’s going nuts at the cops, and the whole time this is happening, he’s falling in love with her!  It’s a song I wish I’d written, and as a songwriter, that’s what you want.”

I’m also a fan of “Shame,” and it’s written by 7 people, none of whom are you, but what attracted you to it?  “The raw honesty of it, the transparency of the lyric, there was no metaphor, it was so confessional and honest.  I loved it so much.”

You have Miranda Lambert on “We Were Us,” and it surprised me that it began with her voice: “Yeah she sings the first verse.  It was written that way.  A couple people said, ‘You can’t have her sing first,’ and I asked why.  It sounds better that way.  It’s a duet, she’s not doing backup vocals.  She opened some shows for us a while ago, and she did a song with me every night, and I loved the way our voices sounded together.  I thought if I ever found a duet, she’d be the one I called.  Then I heard this song, and she was the only person for it, because she has the right spirit for that lyric.  I hoped she’d love it as much as I did, and she did.  She & Blake came to the studio, and the second I heard her voice, I got chills.”

There’s also a song that features Eric Church: If I was to define Eric, he has a cinematic quality to him.  And so when I heard Raise ‘Em Up, it was a very cinematic song.  I was floored, the lyric, the imagery, particularly the second verse that Eric sings is so powerful.  So I sent it to him, and he thought I wrote it.  He sent me a text, calling me every name under the sun.  I invited him to sing, and he said yes.”

Had you been looking for a song to do with Eric? “Yes.  The song wasn’t written as a duet, and my producer suggested to do it that way.”

Category: Audio, VIDEO