Lindsay Ell Announces Upcoming Album ‘Heart Theory’

Lindsay Ell has announced that she will be releasing her newest album, Heart Theory, on Aug. 14, first sharing the news with fans on TikTok on Wednesday. The 12-song set is a concept album that sees Ell work through the stages of grief, starting with shock and ending with acceptance. “I more was just writing songs in the progression of going through a breakup last year, turning 30, like going through all of these transformative spots in my life,” Ell told PopCulture.com and other media of how she developed the idea for the album.

“Eventually about halfway through, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m taking my fans through this journey,’” she recalled. “What if I really brought them in on this from beginning to end in the order that I’ve written the record and that I’ve felt all of the seven stages of grief?’” Ell explained that she decided to write Heart Theory around the seven stages of grief, making the choice, to be honest in a way she never had before with her music. “Everybody’s path through grief is completely different, and you can bounce back and forth and bounce all around. It’s never linear,” she mused. “But I just want to share my story with them, and share the process of how I got from here to here.”

The Canadian singer said that some stages were easier to write about than others, revealing that she initially had a difficult time with anger but that shock came more naturally to her. “Probably my favorite is acceptance,” she said. “Because there’s nothing like the feeling of doing the work, going through the tunnel that seems so long, and you can never see the light, and you’re wondering where the end is, and finally getting to that point and just feeling so proud of yourself for doing the work and coming up the other side as somebody who’s ready to finally take control of their lives. We’re not talking about packing up messy emotions into neat packages. It’s difficult and you need to fully go through them and do the work in order to able to recognize everything.”

Ell co-wrote every song on the album save for her recent single “I Don’t Love You,” and the record was produced by Dan Huff. The 30-year-old worked with a number of hit songwriters and artists on the project including Brandy Clark, Kane Brown and Florida Georgia Line‘s Tyler Hubbard. “Songwriting is one of my deep loves,” Ell said. “It’s why I moved to Nashville 10 years ago. And the fact that I was really able to write my whole heart on this record, it’s just a special moment.”