Keith Urban Refuses to Categorize 'Graffiti U' Album

Keith Urban's latest Graffiti U album is out! The record, released on Friday, April 27, is an eclectic mix of sounds that blends country, R&B, pop and other influences, which is why Urban doesn't want to label the record into one specific genre.

"The listener is always going to decide what genre it fits into," Urban tells Rolling Stone Country. "I've always made music that has felt not as country necessarily, that someone in Nashville may say, 'Oh, this isn't very country,' but everybody else would say, 'That's totally country. What else is it?' It's all relative to where you are, what you're immersed in, and how you define genres as a listener. My goal was to keep capturing my musical heart where it is right now. And it's in motion. So this is musically where I'm at right now."

One of the tracks on Graffiti U, "Gemini," was written by Urban, along with Justin Tranter, Ian Kirkpatrick and Julia Michaels, and inspired by his wife, actress Nicole Kidman.

"Julia and Justin asked me about Nic, they go, 'Tell us about your wife,'" recalls Urban. "I said, 'Well, you know, she's Gemini.' Julia started singing, 'Baby she's both,' just that line... The whole song started to unfold from there. So I told them more about my wife and I said, 'She is Gemini, but she's not a contradiction. She can roll with things.' And there was the opening line right there. It was quite therapeutic to get it all out."


"Gemini" also includes the lines, "She's a maniac in the bed / But a braniac in her head / And I know that everybody knows / Ooh, that she's both / Wears a lot of light dress / But she's pretty even in a mess," which Urban admits he was initially hesitant to include.

"My first reaction was, 'Oh, I don't know if I'd say that,'" says Urban. And [Michaels] goes, 'You pretty much just did.' Again, it's really one of the things I love about the way she writes. It's unfiltered. It's pure. It's truth. It was such a playful song, that in the context of that kind of song, which is super sexy to begin with, it just went together for me."

Michaels also co-wrote Urban's current single, "Coming Home," and also sings on the tune.

"Julia's writing contribution extended into the idea of the need to want to physically be home," Urban boasts. "She summed up the whole story in one sentence. "Yeah, I know
it's only one call away, but it's not the same." For me, that simple phrase said so much,
especially when she sang it!"

The Graffiti U title was inspired in part by Urban's desire to make his fans a part of the entire experience.

"I hope that people can find their own personal connection to the stories, and how the songs make them feel," says Urban. "Graffiti U is such personal expression, that I hope that the album makes someone feel inspired to be personally expressive in whatever they do in their own life. If the music does that, it's a beautiful thing."

Purchase Graffiti U on Amazon and iTunes.

Photo Credit: Instagram/keithurban