Brett Young ‘Wanted Something for Everybody’ on New Project ‘Weekends Look a Little Different These Days’

Brett Young‘s weekends look a little different these days since welcoming his daughter Presley in 2019, and that major life change served as the inspiration for the title of his latest project, Weekends Look a Little Different These Days, an eight-song collection released on Friday, June 4. There’s something for everyone on the new release, which retains Young’s signature sunny sound and a letter to Young’s former self, a kiss-off to an ex, and, of course, a few songs about Presley.

Speaking to PopCulture.com and other media, Young shared that he had to stretch himself with his new songs because, for the first time in his career, he didn’t want to exclusively write about what was going on in his life. “With this project, I couldn’t just do that because you guys would have gotten lullabies,” he joked. “I can’t just write eight songs about Presley and be like, ‘And all of you guys that are falling in love or dealing with heartbreak, just skip this record.’ So the interesting thing writing for this project was that I had to write things that I wasn’t living in the moment, and it was a stretch, but it was a good stretch.”

Kicking off with the title track, in which Young appreciates the turns his life has taken, Weekends Look a Little Different These Days moves through the 40-year-old’s recent single, “Lady,” the aforementioned letter to his younger self, “Dear Me,” and kiss-off, “Leave Me Alone,” as well as a handful of love songs including current single “Not Yet.”

The project ends with its most emotional song, “You Didn’t,” a ’90s-inspired reflection on a relationship that ended without any hard feelings. “I think we just picked the songs that seem to go together the most,” Young shared. “People will say this, they’ve already said it, the sad song, ‘You Didn’t,’ at the end of the record, it seems out of place, that’s on purpose. That’s for anybody that needs to skip that song. That’s literally why it’s at the end. I feel like there are a ton of people that need that song.”

“I wanted something for everybody on this record, and there are people that are in that place and then they need that song,” he continued. “But picking the songs for the record was really what you would expect. It was like, ‘This feels like part of the story, this feels like part of right now, and this doesn’t.’”

The California native will take the project on the road this fall with his newly-announced The Weekends Tour, which begins on Sept. 11 with a two-night run at Billy Bob’s Texas. Tickets are on-sale now at www.brettyoungmusic.com and you can stream Weekends Look a Little Different These Days here.