As country superstar and 2019 CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year Keith Urban continues his summer North American “Graffiti U World Tour,” two of his acclaimed albums, Keith Urban and Defying Gravity, will be released on vinyl on September 13 via Capitol Nashville/UMe. The vinyl releases commemorate two milestones in the multi-GRAMMY winner’s career: the upcoming 20th anniversary of his eponymous breakthrough and the recent 10th anniversary of his Defying Gravity. Both will be released on standard weight black vinyl as well limited edition color vinyl with Keith Urban, which is making its first-ever vinyl release, pressed on lavender vinyl, and Defying Gravity, which was previously only released on vinyl in a limited edition, on white vinyl. All versions are available for pre-order now.
Pre-order Keith Urban: https://UMe.lnk.to/KeithUrbanLP
Pre-order Defying Gravity: https://UMe.lnk.to/DefyingGravityLP
Released in 1999, Keith Urban was Urban’s first platinum-selling album, introducing him to the world and propelling him into country stardom. Four singles from the quintessential album earned spots on Billboard’s Hot Country Chart, with the song “But For The Grace Of God” reaching #1, “Where the Blacktop Ends” reaching #3, and “Your Everything” reaching #4. For his self-titled album, Urban worked with Grammy-award winning producer Matt Rollings of Lyle Lovett’s Large Band. Together, the two produced 12 songs, nine of which Urban co-wrote. The Billboard Top 200 album also featured a number of tracks co-written by Mardi Seidel and Emily Robison of Dixie Chicks, Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go’s, and Steve Wariner. Two decades after the release of Keith Urban and his enduring critical success, his breakthrough album will always mark a pivotal moment in Urban’s career, as he told The Boot, “It’s a monumental feeling to get to the top of the charts. Especially now, there’s so many records out.”
Defying Gravity, released a decade ago, was Urban’s first album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200, which also soared to #1 on the Top Country Albums chart. The multi-platinum global blockbuster featured the hit singles “Sweet Thing,” “Kiss A Girl,” and “Only You Can Love Me This Way.” Urban worked with longtime producer Dann Huff, CMA-nominated songwriter Monty Powell, and country mega-hit songwriter Steve McEwan. Hit singles “Sweet Thing” and “Only You Can Love Me This Way” garnered Urban his third GRAMMY and eleventh #1 hit song. Defying Gravity received rave reviews with All Music describing the album as “seamlessly combining hook-laden crafty songwriting with a pop sensibility in the modern country vernacular that blazes a new trail,” and Entertainment Weekly declaring he “has a gift for making radio-baiting hooks and production feel enthusiastically fresh.”
Now, for the first time ever, these momentous, platinum-selling albums are available on vinyl in wide release, allowing fans to celebrate the album that started it all for the Australian musician and the album that would cement his place as country royalty.
Keith Urban Track List
SIDE A
1. It’s A Love Thing
2. Where The Blacktop Ends
3. But For The Grace Of God
4. Your Everything
5. I Wanna Be Your Man (Forever)
6. A Little Luck Of Our Own
SIDE B
1. You’re The Only One
2. If You Wanna Stay
3. Don’t Shut Me Out
4. Out On My Own
4. Rollercoaster
5. I Thought You Knew
Defying Gravity Track List
SIDE A
- Kiss A Girl
- If Ever I Could Love
- Sweet Thing
- ‘Til Summer Comes Around
- My Heart Is Open
SIDE B
- Hit The Ground Runnin’
- Only You Can Love Me This Way
- Standing Right In Front Of You
- Why’s It Feel So Long
- I’m In
- Thank You
Audio / When his song “Where the Blacktop Ends” was released in 2001, Keith Urban talked about wanting to record the song that Steve Wariner co-wrote with Allen Shamblin for his self-titled album.
DownloadKeith Urban (Blacktop) OC: …what we do. :34
“It’s actually a song that Steve (Wariner) brought into Capitol Records as we’re still recording my album. He brought in a demo – Steve does great demos – and it was just such a great sounding song and I could really hear myself do it. So, I heard it and asked if I could do it, and he said, ‘Yeah, you can record it if you let me come and play on it (door shuts). So, you know, I had my arm twisted (smiles) and was very happy for Steve to come; he sang and played on it. I think it fits perfectly with what we do.”
Audio / When he released “Sweet Thing” from his 2009 Defying Gravity, Keith Urban said he and co-writer Monty Powell loved writing about “courtship.”
DownloadKeith Urban (Sweet Thing) OC: …that innocence. :29
“We had an unexpectedly warm, sunny day here in Nashville during the winter, and I was writing with Monty Powell, and it was just a fun, easy song to write… But I love, Monty and I both love writing about courtship, you know, courting and again, if you’re not in love and want to be, that’s a beautiful part of it. If you’ve been in love for a long time, that’s a nice thing to be reminded of in your own relationship and try not to lose a bit of that innocence.”
