Brett Young is tugging on heartstrings with his new album, Weekends Look a Little Different These Days.
The country artist has built a career around love ballads, including six No. 1 hits on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. But Weekends Look a Little Different These Days features Young at his most emotionally vulnerable.
The artist takes a look back at past relationship failures, weaving together a love story for the ages. Married to wife Taylor, with a second child on the way, Brett is currently living his happily ever after. And he’s also turned his lens to the future.
“We picked the songs that seemed to go together the most,” said Young during an online media scrum on May 26. “This feels like part of the story. This feels like part of right now. I hope as a total project—I try to make a record where you don’t skip a song.”
From Heartbreaks to Happily Ever Afters
At the heart of Brett Young’s new album is his 13-year relationship with wife Taylor. As a songwriter, Young takes listeners back to the very beginning. The couple first met in California during Thanksgiving 2008. At the time, country stardom was little more than a dream for Brett.
But the couple had a rocky journey to the altar. They broke up a handful of times early in Young’s career. The artist channels heartbreak with new emotional maturity into songs “You Didn’t,” “You Got Away With It,” and “Leave Me Alone.” Modeled after Brad Paisley’s “Letters to Me,” “Dear Me” is Brett’s letter to his younger self, promising it would all work out in the end.
“I’ve told me and Taylor’s love story. I talked about the baby,” Young continues. “I felt like it was okay to go back and tell me and Taylor’s entire story. If I could tell the young man, who had his heartbroken, if he just settled down and be patient, it’s going to come back around.”
But like all the great will-they-or-won’t-they relationships, Brett and Taylor figured it out in the end. They married in 2018 and had their first child, Presley, a year later. Young’s new album captures all the highs of moving into a different stage in both his relationship and life.
“Lady” beams with fatherly pride, a tender and emotional song that’s already captivated listeners. It’s another No. 1 hit for the artist, and become an anthem for parents on TikTok.
Brett Young Reflects on New Chapter
And at the center of the album is the titular track, “Weekends Look A Little Different These Days.”
The tune kicks off the album and is Brett Young’s ode to growing older. Just as he’s reached a new emotional maturity in his relationship, Brett is finding new heights in his career. As his song “Not Yet” signifies, Young still has a lot left he wants to do in life.
“This is a very different chapter in my life. The goal was just to capture that in eight songs,” Young says. “Pull back the curtain a little bit to let fans know they’re going to continue to get an honest, very vulnerable me every time they come to a show. Or every time they buy a record.”
Brett Young’s Weekends Look a Little Different These Days will drop on June 4.
