They don’t miss.
This morning, Koe Wetzel released a new song called “Jaded,” which features Ella Langley and is part of the deluxe edition of his album The Night Champion, and of course, it’s not the first time these two have worked together.
Ella previously featured Koe on a song called “That’s Why We Fight,” which was the lead single from her debut Excuse the Mess EP she released in 2023. Ella also toured with Koe in the beginning of her career, which is when she really started to pick up steam, and of course, we’ve seen how she’s exploded in the several years since.
“Jaded” was written by Koe and Ella along with Jordan Schmidt and ERNEST, and it finds them in a messy relationship, wondering how the other person got so, well, jaded. Koe says Ella has been one of her favorite people to collaborate with for a while:
“Ella’s been one of my favorite people to write and sing with for a long time. We recorded ‘That’s Why We Fight’ early on in both of our careers, and getting back in a room together was something we talked about every time we saw each other. When she sings, you believe it and I’m excited we could get this one out there to the fans.”
Ella added that she will always be thankful for Koe because he was one of the first artists she got to tour with on a big tour back in 2022:
“Koe and I have known each other and been friends for a long time. He was one of the first artists I ever got to collaborate with and one of the first I went out on the road with back in 2022. Getting to write and record another song together is special.”
Their first duet, the aforementioned “That’s Why We Fight,” was super rock and roll and had a ton of edge, and “Jaded” is very different sonically than they’re original collab, which makes sense because they’ve both gone in a bit of a different direction musically since then.
It’s honestly kind of crazy how far they’ve both come since “That’s Why We Fight,” especially Ella because she was a very fresh, young artist at the time, and I feel like I was just writing about “That’s Why We Fight” yesterday… she’s the hottest star in country right now, you could easily argue that goes for all of music, and Koe really was probably the first artist much bigger than Ella at the time to support her and put her on a big tour.
Since then, her career has more than taken off, and so it’s kind of nostalgic in a way to see them working together again, and this new one definitely feels more like mainstream radio country than a rock-infused anthem like “That’s Why We Fight,” but like I said, they’ve evolved, and I still think they’re styles work really well together.
Check it out:
“Jaded”
“That’s Why We Fight”
