These days in the music business, speed is the name of the game.
We live in a world where artists will tease a song on TikTok and immediately fans are begging them to drop it. And as soon as that one’s out, it’s on to the next one. Rinse, repeat.
If you’re not constantly releasing music to stay in the algorithm and keep your streaming numbers up, there’s this (harmful, in my opinion) perception that you’re falling behind as an artist.
But when it came time to make his new record, Corey Kent didn’t care.
Corey recently announced his third major-label album, Heartland Rock & Roll, which drops on September 25. It will mark his first project in over two years, with his last album Black Bandana being released in September 2024.
Two years is an eternity in today’s music business, and there’s no doubt concern for an artist like Corey who’s still on the rise that going an extended period of time between albums runs the risk of getting left behind in the fast-moving country music world.
If you’re not already familiar with Corey, the Oklahoma native and current Texas resident had his first major hit with “Wild As Her” back in 2022. His sound is a fusion of country, Texas country, rock, blues, soul, and everything in between – another challenge for an up-and-coming artist in a genre that tries to neatly categorize artists to make things easy for fans (and for radio).
Put it all together and there’s no doubt that the pressure was enormous on Corey to pick a lane and drop another album, especially after having radio success with “This Heart,” his only single off Black Bandana.
Sometimes though, it’s important for an artist to slow down and get it right. And as Corey explained when we sat down with him recently, that’s what he decided to do for this upcoming album:
“I had success in an era where we were expected to put out music faster than ever.
It’s a necessary evil, I think now more than ever you can have success and be completely irrelevant faster than ever. I think a lot of the artists are feeling that pressure to move quicker, and I do think it’s compromising some of the art itself, but it doesn’t feel like people have much of a choice.
So on this specific record, I just decided to do away with that pressure and I was like, ‘I want to write the record that I’ve always wanted to write.’ And if it takes a couple years, then that’s what it will do, but I trust that the art will speak for itself when it’s finally time for that to come out.”
Of course it’s already paying off with the songs Corey’s released from the record so far: His first single from the upcoming album, “Rocky Mountain Low” featuring Koe Wetzel, has been the fastest-climbing radio single of his career. And the follow-up single, “Empty Words,” has been his fastest streaming single of his career, already surpassing 15 million streams on Spotify alone.
(Side note: “Empty Words” is easily going to be in contention for my favorite song of the year. The vulnerable lyrics showcase Corey’s masterful songwriting, while his gritty vocals manage to shine with a restrained desperation framed by a soulful groove. It’s just incredible).
But Corey realizes the risk he took by taking so much time between albums – and by refusing to be boxed in to one sound:
“It has been a journey of kind of the balance of trying out new things and putting new influences into my new music, but also staying true to what got us here … and that is kind of this alt-country rock thing that we’ve been doing for a long time.
But I grew up playing a lot of western swing music and more traditional country stuff, and so trying to find this balance of all of my influences over the years. … I was the weird kid in the back of the bus that liked classic rock. I wanted that California rock and roll vibe. And I think finding the perfect way to bring that in is something I’ve always aspired to do.”
The result, though, is an upcoming album that Corey hopes to be his defining record with Heartland Rock & Roll:
“This record that I just put the finishing touches on feels like the arrival of my sound. I fully anticipate that when people think of Corey Kent, they will think of this record.”
If the rest of the album is as great as the songs we’ve already heard, I think it was well worth it to slow things down.
