Eric Church leans into his outspoken, rebellious side on the new song “Break It Kind of Guy,” the latest (and final) preview of his album trio Heart & Soul. The collection will be issued over the course of a week beginning April 16th with Heart; Soul arrives April 23rd and features “Break It Kind of Guy.” The middle portion, &, will be available as a vinyl-only release, first to members of his Church Choir.
A lean, uptempo country-rock tune propelled by 16th-note hi-hats and throbbing bass, “Break It Kind of Guy” is the defiant, “Chief” side of Church as heard in “Drink in My Hand,” “Smoke a Little Smoke,” and “The Outsiders.” With soulful backing vocals from longtime bandmate Joanna Cotten, Church stresses that he’s his own man, not one for rules or being told what to do. “I tell my eagle where to fly/If it’s not broke, I’m a break it kind of guy,” he sings, slipping into his Bee Gees falsetto for the first half of the couplet.
Church wrote and recorded Heart & Soul in a month-long session with producer Jay Joyce in a North Carolina cabin, composing and tracking one song per day to shake up his creative process. The idea for “Break It Kind of Guy” came during an appointment between Church, Casey Beathard, and Luke Dick.
“Luke was talking about how refreshing it was and how creative he felt in that setting, and then he said, ‘I’m so surprised you would do it this way because normally people are like ‘if it’s not broke’ – and when he said that, I went ‘you break it,’” Church said in a release.