Photo by Seth Kupersmith.
As one of modern country’s most consistent stars, crooner Brett Young has been laser-focused on one thing for almost all of his career—the ever- inspiring, ever-elusive romantic relationship. And so far, there’s been no reason not to.
The clean-cut Californian has posted six straight Number Ones to country radio since 2016, with more than a dozen Platinum plaques to go with it. But on his new album, Weekends Look a Little Different These Days, he’s looking at a different kind of love.
“I specifically was sitting and watching football with my daughter in my lap, and a bottle in her mouth, and I just thought, ‘This is not what college football Saturdays used to look like,’” Young says with a laugh, speaking by phone just a few weeks before the project’s June 4 release.
Indeed, Young dedicated the album and its tender-hearted title track to the massive changes that come with becoming a dad. Normally fond of late nights onstage and a fast-paced routine of travel, he’s instead been living the life of a girl dad for more than a year and a half now. And since he and wife Taylor are currently awaiting the arrival of their second child (another baby girl to join big sister Presley Elizabeth), that’s not likely to change anytime soon. But as far as inspiration goes, he says nothing compares.
“I had a song on my last record called ‘Chapters,’ and the motivation for that was looking back and realizing all the different stages of life I’ve gone through,” he says, trying to put the experience into words. “But of all the chapters of my life, this is the most significant change I’ve experienced. There’s still that same eighteen-year-old, wide-eyed kid in there somewhere—I just don’t really know where he is.”
In some ways, it feels like this chapter was always coming. Young is a singer/songwriter who says he “writes his life,” thriving off the been-there- done-that details of a song’s backstory. In the past, it’s always been his love story with Taylor that provided those details—first as on-again off-again paramours with longing tracks like “In Case You Didn’t Know,” then as a deeply committed couple in others like “Here Tonight.” In other words, Young’s family life and career have always gone hand in hand. But with a fanbase built around red-hot romanticism, that now presents a problem.
“To me, the writing only really changes when the landscape changes,” he explains. “So, this was the most challenging record to write, because if I were to follow that by the book, I would have basically written eight songs about my daughter. And that leaves a lot of listeners and fans out there hanging. I had to dig a little deeper, rather than just go, ‘This is how I’m feeling today, let’s write this song.’”
In the end, Young found a way to do both, offering some emotional variety while staying true to country’s three-chords-and-the-truth ethos. And as always, he’s done it like a blue-eyed soul star who commands one of the smoothest, most relaxed vocals in the business. Eight fresh tunes explore everything from the rush of new romance to the devastation of coming up short. But it’s the joyful pride of fatherhood that takes center stage, and it all started with “Lady.” Released in 2020 just a few months after Presley’s arrival, the album’s charming first single was dedicated not just to Young’s little lady, but also the powerful example of womanhood her mother would provide. It even featured Presley’s eight-week-old heartbeat pumping throughout the track, and provided the album’s jumping off point.
“I felt so authentic and honest in that song,” Young says of the endearing chart topper. “It was from the heart, and I realized that was a stage of my life I needed to explore a little deeper.”
The title track dives further under the surface, capturing the start of Young’s new chapter with uplifting gratitude. But elsewhere, it seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same. Young gets back in the head-over-heels headspace with the single “Not Yet,” an upbeat romantic anthem that seems to say exactly what his love interest would want to hear—in crisp, California-roots style. On the flip side is “You Didn’t,” a soul-crushing ballad which closes the album in the same brokenhearted vein as 2017’s “Mercy.”
Those are both examples of “vintage Brett Young,” as the hitmaker offers a strong defense of his country-crooner crown. He hasn’t suddenly become a different person, Young explains, and is still just writing what he knows. But like any new dad, he knows a lot more these days.
“I hope it’s just a little clearer picture of who I am as a person,” he says of the album. “Hopefully fans can tell it’s still honest and it’s still me, and when the music changes, it’s because my life has changed.”