Kelsea Ballerini will examine the forces shaping and reshaping her life with the new album Subject to Change this fall. The follow-up to her 2020 album Kelsie, Subject to Change will be released on Sept. 23.
“In my younger years, the idea of change scared me. It had proven to be a faceless force that patterned my past with uncertainty,” Ballerini said in an Instagram post announcing the album.
But she said when she embraced the inevitability of change, it allowed her to begin to break free.
“When I unclench my fists, un-dig my heels, unravel the architecture built by youth, a true metamorphosis can happen,” she says.
Now, instead of fighting or dreading change, she’s empowered by “finding blissful acceptance in the cracks I once cursed but now let the light in, to grow taller within myself.”
Along with the announcement, Ballerini has released a new song, the contemplative ballad “Love Is a Cowboy.” Built around acoustic guitar, piano, and touches of other classic country instrumentation, the tune imagines love to be as simultaneously exciting, restless, and frustrating as a relationship with a stoic range-riding type. “All the bad ones say they’re the good and all the good ones ride way,” Ballerini sings.
Earlier in July, Ballerini performed her single “Heartfirst” on Jimmy Kimmel Live. She has a handful of dates scheduled this summer, including an Aug. 11 stop at Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Subject to Change track listing:
- “Subject To Change”
- “The Little Things”
- “I Can’t Help Myself”
- “If You Go Down” (I’m Goin’ Down Too)
- “Love Is a Cowboy”
- “Muscle Memory”
- “I Guess They Call It Fallin’”
- “Weather”
- “Universe”
- “Walk in the Park”
- “Heartfirst”
- “You’re Drunk, Go Home”
- “Doin’ My Best”
- “Marilyn”
- “What I Have”