No matter what anyone says, this song is already a hit.
Koe Wetzel recently released his song “High Road” in what was the biggest debut of his career, when it came in at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after the first week of it being out earlier this month.
Part of his forthcoming album 9 Lives, it was written by Koe along with Amy Allen, Carrie Karpinen and producer Gabe Simon, and finds Koe taking the “high road” both literally and metaphorically, as he uses a different approach to a conflict in a rocky relationship, deciding not to fight back but rather take some time to cool off (which also includes getting stoned, if that wasn’t obvious).
And it also features guest vocals from his Columbia labelmate Jessie Murph, which a lot of his fans seemed to take issue with and left plenty of comments online (head over to his music Instagram page and you’ll see plenty of them there).
I guess after they heard the initial teaser, they wanted and expected a solo effort from Koe, but Koe had been wanting to work with Jessie and quickly realized she would be the perfect addition to this song.
I spoke to him earlier about his forthcoming 9 Lives album (more to come there), and he says he decided to put out this version first because he loved her part and what the song became as a duet:
“Yeah, the first time I saw that there was anything being brought up about it, I didn’t really understand it at all. Jessie’s just such a bad**s. And so I think we had a plan… the ‘High Road’ version, the single version, will eventually come out.
But I was asked if we wanted to put it out sooner rather than later, and I was like, screw that. I believed in this version since Jessie cut her part on it.
I think she kind of made the song what it is, and so yeah, that song, it fit with both of us. It fit with us both very well.”
Obviously, in this day and age with social media being what it is, Koe says people just have to “b*tch” about something and I wholeheartedly agree:
“We had tried to do something for a while, and this song came up, and it was good to get her side of a story compared to mine… I think she absolutely killed it.
So I didn’t really understand why people were so upset, but with this day and age, people gotta b*tch about something, and apparently it was just ‘High Road’ at that time. And most of the people b*tching hadn’t even heard the whole song yet, so I was like, this is ridiculous.
And then once the song came out, people kind of bit their tongue on it a little bit more, because they were like, holy sh*t, you know, they got to hear what I’ve been hearing the whole time.”
Jessie’s part has grown on me a lot since the first listen and I can totally see why Koe tapped her to be on this song with him… sure, her delivery is a little bit different (especially if you’ve never heard any of her other music), but I do think it’s neat, and necessary, to hear the woman’s side of what went down with this fight through her voice.
And it sounds like he’ll eventually release the original solo version, but I honestly really love this one and can’t imagine it as anything other than a duet. I think it’s important to hear the other side of this fight, and shows a different sort of growth and evolution to Koe’s writing and music in general.
The production of “High Road” is definitely in line with what we heard on the previous release “Sweet Dreams,” with a lot of R&B flavor that I do think he pulls off with his rock-infused unique brand of Texas country and actually really enjoy on these first couple of songs.
And clearly, most fans are loving “High Road,” and I’m sure it will only continue to do well as we get closer to the albums release day.
They actually just put out the music video earlier this week, which you can watch here if you haven’t seen it yet:
Koe has released three other songs from the record thus far, including “9 Lives (Black Cat),” “Damn Near Normal” and the aforementioned “Sweet Dreams.”
9 Lives was produced predominantly by Gabe Simon (Noah Kahan’s Stick Season) alongside a lineup of trusted collaborators like Josh Serrato, Carrie K and Sam Harris (X Ambassadors) and is due out everywhere on July 19th.
9 Lives Tracklist:
“Continued” Skit
“9 Lives (Black Cat)” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Gabe Simon)
“Depression & Obsession” (cover)
“Damn Near Normal” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Gabe Simon, Carrie Karpinen, Sam Harris)
“Leigh” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Gabe Simon)
“Twister” (Ropyr Wetzel, Steve Rusch, Ben Burgess, Josh Serrato)
“High Road” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Gabe Simon, Carrie Karpinen)
“Reconsider” (Charles John Brocco, Keith Quenton Gattis)
“Hatchet” (Gabe Simon, Mike Coogan)
“Sweet Dreams” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Josh Serrato, Gabe Simon, Sam Harris)
“Runnin’ Low” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Sam Harris, Gabe Simon, Ben Burgess)
“Bar Song” (Blake “Shy” Carter, Breyan Isaac, Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II, Dave Gibson)
“Last Outlaw Alive” (Josh Serrato, Ben Burgess, Sam Harris)
“Sweet Dreams”
