Out on Friday: the new album from Lindsay Ell

This past January, I caught Lindsay debut some of these new songs at The NAMM Show (see elsewhere on this blog) and I've reviewed her in concert as well. I'm looking forward to hearing this...

Three years since her debut album, singer/songwriter/guitarist Lindsay Ell’s sophomore album Heart Theory is set to arrive this Friday, Aug. 14. Pre-order it HERE.

Beginning 11pm CT on Aug. 13, Ell will go live on her Instagram for 24 hours through release day. The livestream will include special guests, performances, and surprises.

The current ACM New Female Artist of the Year nominee will perform the record’s hit single “Want Me Back” on the TODAY show on Aug. 17 during the 10am hour from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The track was #1 most-added at Country radio in its debut week and continues to climb.

Ell is additionally nominated for Music Event of the Year at the upcoming 55th ACM Awards for “What Happens In A Small Town” with Brantley Gilbert – for which she garnered her first No. 1 at U.S. Country radio.

With her fellow New Female & New Male Artists nominees, she appears on the special Aug. 13 release of “On The Road Again (ACM Lifting Lives Edition)” alongside Willie Nelson, with downloads of the song benefitting ACM Lifting Lives COVID-19 Response Fund. Ell will also appear on “ACM Wine Down Wednesday” on Aug. 19 and “The ACM Weekly” on Aug. 25. Both series can be accessed through ACM®: The Hub, now LIVE at TheHub.ACMcountry.com.

Heart theory is a concept album that explore each stage of grief: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance. Ell co-wrote 11 of the songs, enlisting help from Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line and Brandy Clark among others on the project. Heart Theory was completed by Ell and producer Dann Huff from a distance and two different locations during the early stages of quarantine.

Lead single Want Me Back was co-written with Kane Brown (his first outside cut as a writer) along with Matt McGinn and Lindsay Rimes.

"Make You," co-written by Ell with Brandy Clark, marks the first time Ell publicly addresses being a survivor of sexual violence and appears as the first song in the acceptance stage of heart theory, a reflection of Ell’s determination to use her platform to help other sexual trauma survivors.

In July, Ell launched the Make You Movement, a charitable fund whose mission is to help organizations that support at-risk youth, domestic abuse and sexual assault survivors by providing funds on an as-needed basis. For more information, please visit http://www.cfmt.org/makeyoumovement.

“If theory is the science of music, heart theory is the science of a heart,” Ell says of the album. “I hope this roadmap can be a comfort if you need it, reassurance when you need to remember to believe in yourself or maybe just a glimpse into a memory that’s made you who you are.”

The Project – Ell’s first full-length album – debuted at No. 1 on the Country Album Sales Chart and was named Billboard’s Best Country Album of 2017. Over the course of her career, Ell has amassed more than 123 million on demand streams to date.

Track listing:

shock

1. “Hits me” (Lindsay Ell, Tyler Hubbard, Corey Crowder)

denial
2. “how good” (Lindsay Ell, Brandy Clark)
3. “i don’t lovE you” (Adam Hambrick, Melissa Fuller, Neil Medley)

anger
4. “wAnt me back” (Lindsay Ell, Kane Brown, Matt McGinn, Lindsay Rimes)
5. “get oveR you” (Lindsay Ell, Gordie Sampson, Kelly Archer)
6. “wrong girl” (Lindsay Ell, Steph Jones, Matt McGinn, Luke Niccoli)

bargaining
7. “body language of a breakup” (Lindsay Ell, Laura Veltz, Sam Ellis)

depression
8. “good on you” (Lindsay Ell, Sam Ellis, Micah Premnath)

testing
9. “The oTHEr side” (Lindsay Ell, Jessie Jo Dillon, Matt McGinn)
10. “gO to” (Lindsay Ell, Nicolle Gaylon, Jordan Reynolds)

acceptance
11. “make you” (Lindsay Ell, Brandy Clark)
12. “ReadY to love” (Lindsay Ell, Jessie Jo Dillon, Matt McGinn, Joey Hyde)