The new Thomas Rhett album will be released this Friday, April 1st. “Where We Started” will feature his current single, “Slow Down Summer,” along with 14 other songs. Check out the full tracklist below!
In early 2021, the path ahead seemed all too obvious for Thomas Rhett.
Ten years after signing with Big Machine Label Group’s The Valory Music Co., the 2020 ACM Awards Entertainer of the Year had just released his most reflective LP to date – COUNTRY AGAIN: SIDE A – the Country-roots masterpiece of a MULTI-PLATINUM star who, like everyone else, found himself stuck in the limbo of a global pandemic, foregoing the live fan-filled arenas across the globe for his living room in Nashville, TN.
Inspired by his return to the road, Thomas Rhett’s sixth studio LP WHERE WE STARTED marks a similar return to his in-the-moment mix of tempo, transcendent romance and tip-of-the-spear sonic trailblazing, as Country’s resident good-life philosopher shakes away a year-plus of off-stage dust.
One of the modern format’s most dynamic stars, Thomas Rhett has certainly earned the right to follow that muse. With each of his first five albums debuting inside the Billboard 200 Top 10, the hitmaker now boasts 18 MULTI-PLATINUM and GOLD-certified No. 1 singles, 12 BILLION global streams and the longest current active streak of consecutive No. 1s in the format (Mediabase /Country Aircheck Chart).
Over the years he’s scored not just the 2020 ACM Awards Entertainer of the Year title, but eight ACM and two CMA Awards overall, five GRAMMY® Awards nominations and hardware from the CMT Music Awards, Billboard Awards and more – plus two CMA Triple Play awards for writing three No. 1s in a 12-month period.
Meanwhile, crossovers like the 7X PLATINUM “Die a Happy Man” and his stop on Saturday Night Live showed mainstream appeal, even as 2021’s introspective COUNTRY AGAIN: SIDE A kept his backwoods credentials intact. A showcase of songwriting skill anchored deep in his roots, the set was a creative triumph, spawning the meditative No. 1 hits “What’s You Country Song” and GRAMMY-nominated “Country Again” – but it was built for a different moment, something changed.
It started with scattered live shows at the beginning of the year, and by the time Thomas Rhett and his band hit Billy Bob’s Texas for back-to-back sold-out weekends last May, the epiphany was complete.
“It was like, ‘Dang, it’s been a year since I’ve done this in front of people. And news flash – people still want to party!’” he says. “My brain just started to be in tempo land. We started writing, and suddenly this record morphed into a whole different project.
”Featuring 15 songs, all but one co-written by Thomas Rhett himself, the project does indeed feel like something different – his signature infusion of Country tradition with kinetic romantic energy.
Mixing raw, unfiltered joy with Thomas Rhett’s uniquely personal, small-town Shakespeare writing – and perhaps his biggest collaborations to date – producer Dann Huff returns alongside co-producers Jesse Frasure and Matt Dragstrem, as the star embraces the moment once more.
“Where We Started will be really cool for my live show…so it feels fun and fresh,” Thomas Rhett explains.
“Slow Down Summer,” is the entry point. A dreamy blast of Country pop with a 14-piece string section and all the unstoppable momentum of a changing season, it was co-written by Thomas Rhett with his father, Rhett Akins, Sean Douglas, Frasure and Ashley Gorley, capturing a moment too magical to last. Two young lovers spend the months after high school caught in a transformative spell, but they’re headed in opposite directions for college. So with a heart-pounding pulse and a stirring piano melody, they hold on for dear life, as time slips away. “It’s like, ‘I wish we could put time in slow motion, because we know what’s coming,’” Thomas Rhett says.
Meanwhile, the star continues mining his own romantic story, often weaving playful charm and poetic bliss into songs dedicated to his wife, Lauren, and their four children. Long celebrated for his emotional fluency, Thomas Rhett once again finds inspiration in one of Country’s most-endearing relationships, leading to flirtatious tracks like “Bass Pro Hat,” “Bring the Bar,” and “Paradise,” or heartfelt ballads such as “The Hill,” “Mama’s Front Door,” and “Us Someday.”
“Every year when we start writing songs, the writers are like ‘Do you want to write a love song?’ and it’s like, ‘What else can we say?’ How else do you say, ‘I love you?’” Thomas Rhett admits. “But literally every week I find new things that I’m just like ‘Gosh, I’m just infatuated with you.’”
Elsewhere, the star teams with Riley Green on the weekend-anytime groove of “Half of Me,” and brings the same built-for-comfort energy of hits like “T-Shirt” to the foot-tapping “Church Boots.” The stoic “Death Row” takes a sobering detour with Tyler Hubbard and Russell Dickerson, and the project finishes off on a cloud-nine high – a dramatic roots-pop collab with superstar Katy Perry.
Written with Jon Bellion, Frasure and Gorley on the farm Thomas Rhett shares with his father – a place representing both ten years of work, and the bright future ahead – “Where We Started” once again uses Thomas Rhett and Lauren’s love as a guide. With Perry giving a gorgeous performance and Thomas Rhett’s vocal more serene and grateful than ever, they look to the past for a clue of what tomorrow holds, landing on the crux of his whole project in a single, arm-in-arm line: “If you wonder ‘bout our future / Think about our history.”
“In a weird way I feel younger than I ever have,” he says. “My heart feels young, and I attribute that to how much fun we had this year. I’m just enjoying life so much right now, getting to be a dad and to play shows with my friends, getting to collaborate with my favorite people in the world and watch people smile from the stage. It’s just been such a fun year…it really filled my soul.”
TRACK LISTING
1. The Hill (2:46)
2. Church Boots (2:58)
3. Bass Pro Hat (2:56)
4. Anything Cold (2:47)
5. Angels (3:34)
6. Half Of Me (featuring Riley Green) (3:03)
7. Bring The Bar (3:29)
8. Paradise (3:09)
9. Death Row (featuring Tyler Hubbard, Russell Dickerson) (3:51)
10. Mama’s Front Door (2:43)
11. Slow Down Summer (3:38)
12. Simple As A Song (3:22)
13. Us Someday (2:24)
14. Somebody Like Me (2:50)
15. Where We Started – Thomas Rhett + Katy Perry (3:02)
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