Jason Aldean has released his 8th studio album, Rearview Town (April 13th), and is celebrating his new music with fans during his intimate iHeartCountry Album Release Party on April 12th.
Rearview Town follows 2016’s They Don’t Know, and features 15 new songs, including a collaboration with Miranda Lambert called “Drowns the Whiskey” and lead single “You Make It Easy.” Speaking of which, Jason did something different for his “You Make It Easy” music video, and produced three separate videos to tell one very emotional and moving story starring actor Luke Benward.
“‘You Make It Easy,’ which is the first single off this record, has been one of the fastest moving songs of my career. And that’s pretty impressive considering we’ve had some pretty big ones over the years. I knew there was something special about the song when I heard it. And, I thought people were gonna like it. And, to finally put it out there and see the reaction it’s gotten from everybody has been pretty crazy. So, really excited about that song. Glad that we picked that one for the first single and glad people are digging it like they are and can’t wait to get on the tour and start playing it for everybody.”
“Rearview Town” is a song on Aldean’s new album, as well as the its title, and the country star explains why he decided to give his new record its name:
“The reason I decided to name the album Rearview Town, for me, I think it’s probably a metaphor for me. In my career and in my personal life, over the last few years, it’s sort of been a little bit of a rollercoaster ride. So, I think to me the song means putting things that have maybe weighed you down a little bit, putting those behind you and looking ahead to what’s down the road. And for me it just kind of seemed like a really fitting title.”
Jason explains that “Rearview Town” was written by Neil Thrasher, who he’s worked with over the years and has helped to shape the country star’s sound. He explains, “‘Rearview Town’ is a song on the record that was written by Neil Thrasher. He was one of the writers on it, and I don’t think people realize this, but Neil has been a huge part creating what has sort of become my sound over the years. He’s been a huge part of that and he’s written a ton of songs for us over the years. ‘Rearview Town’ was one that he was a writer on and played it for us, and I just thought it was cool. There was something kind of dark and kind of mysterious about it and cool. I felt like it really sort of fit the vibe of the album and really kind of helped to set the tone for the rest of the record.”
Rearview Town is different for Jason in a lot of ways, and as he describes, he was able to incorporate different music that his albums has showcased over the years. He tells us:
“I think this record is different in a lot of ways from albums we have done in the past. Throughout my career, we have had different albums that have sort of showcased different kinds of music, whether that be rock or whether that be a little bit of hip hop or blues or whatever. On this album, we sort of grabbed all those things and put them in one album, and it was really cool. We got some new people involved in the album this time around, as far as who was mixing the record and things like that, and I think just doing that makes the record sound completely different. So I think there are a lot of things about this record that are cool. The songs are really different in a sense that over the years there have been times where I would cut songs that were kind of tongue in cheek type songs to go with the record, and there is none of that stuff on here. There is nothing on there that I feel like has that tongue in cheek lyric. I feel like from top to bottom, you listen to the record and it’s just a cool vibe. It’s just a cool album all the way through and that was kind of our goal going into it, but pulling also from all those influences that we have that we have had over the years; things that we have sprinkled out on all those albums. I think we took all those things and sort of combined them into this album, and put them all in one record for the first time, and I think that makes it kind of different.”
Watch Jason Aldean talk about his single “You Make It Easy” below.
