The new album that Keith Urban announced at his surprise show in Nashville on January 17 has finally come out from Capital Records in Nashville. Titled Graffiti U, the new album that intentionally bears his initial has topped the chart as the #1 country album this week. His album takes the place of Jason Aldean’s Rearview Town which held the number one spot last week, knocking it down to number two. The album has thirteen songs, one of them being his single from November of 2017, “Female.”

Now let's talk about the music. Normally, I like my country and pop separate (yes it is possible to like both pop and country), especially now that most of the new country songs coming out aren’t really very country at all. But I think I might just give Keith Urban a pass because his new album bridges the gap for some pretty cool songs for the summer. But Keith, I’m only allowing this for summer, so after this you gotta start doing some real country. One of the reasons that I’ll allow it is because this album is made up of a lot of cool collaborations. Some of his collaborators include triple platinum and grammy nominated singer-songwriter Julia Michaels, the rising country singer Kassi Ashton, talented singer and multi-instrumentalist Lindsay Ell, and songwriter Shy Carter. Carter and Michaels are very accomplished songwriters, but looking at their resume, what I don't see are very strong ties to country. They are predominantly pop writers, and it shows in the songs in this album as well as their client list. They have worked with the likes of artists Meghan Trainor, Jason Derulo, Charlie Puth, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Billy Currington, Justin Bieber, songwriter for The Weekend Benjamin Levin, Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol, and Ed Sheeran collaborator Amy Wadge.

Speaking of Ed Sheeran, he collaborated with Urban to write one of the songs on this album. The showcase of Urban’s upper range and falsetto, “Parallel Line” is an emotional love song that might be one of the best songs on the album. It is a really beautiful song, but I’m a little lost on where it fits into country music. Ed Sheeran’s influence on the song is pretty clear, which I don’t mind because I like Ed Sheeran, but this song may belong on the pop charts not the country ones. And with Keith Urban and other country artists continuing to attempt to bridge the gap between country music and pop, they may have inadvertently crossed over to the pop side. But I’m worried these efforts made to increase the popularity of the country genre may have made it lose its roots. Only time will tell if they will pay off or not. In the meantime, we have some cross genre songs that are perfect for the summer.