Keith Urban on His New Album, ‘High,’ Why Performing at a Gas Station Is as Much Fun as an Arena, and Curing the Blues With ‘Whistling in the Dark’ Songs
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Keith Urban‘s new album is titled “High,” and there’s a reason you probably won’t ever find him releasing one called “Low” (besides the fact that David Bowie already took that) — the country-pop superstar is known for his buoyant material.
In an interview with Variety, he explores where that comes from with him, including the fact that he can get the blues as much as anybody, but some of these upbeat songs are emotionally aspirational tunes… “whistling in the dark” numbers, as he calls them.
In fact, Urban did originally an entire album that was in a reflective mood just prior to this one, which was to have been titled “615,” but upon its completion a year and a half ago, he felt it really didn’t reflect the full spectrum of moods he likes to pull off in a concert setting.
So he mostly went back to the drawing board, keeping what he felt were the four best ballads from that project — including “Break the Chain,” a candid number that deals with his relationship with his alcoholic father — but then bolstered them with eight more songs he knew would show off his more galvanizing side, like “Straight Line” and “Wildside.” Although he’s not afraid to refer to some of these barnburner-style songs as “cheeseburgers,” he spoke in our interview about why he needs these upbeat tracks, as much as the audience does.
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