Photo: Phil and Sara
Keith Urban’s Flow Sate is an album he admits, “I never thought I would release.”
Urban delivered his collection of yacht rock songs — featuring 10 covers and one original — on Friday (June 12). The project features collaborations with Little Big Town, John Mayer and “king of yacht rock” Michael McDonald, who joined Urban as a surprise guest at the Country Music Association’s CMA Fest over the weekend in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Creating FLOW STATE was one of the most unexpected albums I’ve ever made,” Urban said in a statement on Friday. “In a lot of ways, it felt like the whole album had an energy and life of its own and I was just following where it lead me. The songs we recorded were all so natural though, and I discovered a lot about how much they’ve helped shape my own music. There’s a reason these songs have stood the test of time, and equally so, the need for their spirit of fully disconnecting from ‘the grid’ and swimming in blue sky simplicity.”
1. Steal Away
2. Baby Come Back
3. Magnet and Steel (ft. Little Big Town)
4. Just the Two of Us
5. On and On
6. We Go Back (ft. Michael McDonald)
7. Help Is On It's Way
8. How Much I Feel
9. Summer Breeze
10. I Just Wanna Stop
11. Guitar Man (ft. John Mayer)
Urban wrote in a post on Instagram that he “never thought I would release an album of yacht rock covers, but this record found me and raised its hand.” He said Flow State “is intended to bring escapism...to help you look up and see a blue sky,” and hoped listeners would “play it at the beach, on the boat (of course), at the backyard barbecue with your family & friends...wherever and whenever you need a moment to exhale.
Urban teamed up with Dann Huff to produce Flow State, which he recorded at his Nashville-based studio, per a press release issued Friday morning. The release deems Flow State “an antidote to life’s stresses as it creates an atmosphere for community gathering, deep exhales and optimism.” Find the full Flow State album on iHeartRadio here.