NOW STREAMING: 52: This Year
As Kristian Bush approached his 52nd birthday last year, he had an idea to create 52 songs on four unique albums, reflecting the diversity of influences on him as a musician, the musical journey he has been on throughout his career, and the truth of who he is and where he is in life at 52. On Friday, Kristian released the final album in the year-long experiment, titled 52: This Year.
Kristian Bush – 52 – This Year 1:38
“52: This Year, the last piece of this puzzle, I guess, was a lot of things. I thought that this particular volume would be just the orphans, would be the leftovers of me trying to make things fit that just didn’t fit. And I know when I first started out, because I was trying to do these linearly, I was in fear of what this last one might look like, that it was gonna be the worst. And I started to play a game with myself of what I call best song wins. It doesn’t matter where it comes from or why, or whatever, but literally until about two weeks before due date, it was gonna be a record of love songs, and I scrapped it. And I went back to the drawing board because I had sort of in the background constantly been concerned about what is the best song. And I decided that the best song was the song that felt the most true, which is a song called ‘New Year’s, Resolution #7, ‘ which is the last song on this whole collection. And even after all of these things were put together, that song is why I went back and started to say, well, what songs are true, really true? And they weren’t the leftover Lego pieces. It was like college applications. There were hundreds of songs applying for these 14 positions, and it became one of the hardest ones to put together because of that. So it is a very diverse sort of little journey, but in essence, I realized that this is the end of catching you up as a listener over the last 15 years of my life, to get you to where I am. Because we have a lot of work to do, but I can’t start this work until we get you here.”
Now that the complete 52 project is out, Kristian hopes fans will explore all four albums and think of them as sort of a “choose your own adventure” collection of songs.
Kristian Bush – hope for the project :52
“This is my wish, what I was, hoping would happen both with the project, but also what would happen at the label, and with fans, is that you would start to see that no matter the four quadrants I put them in, you can cut these into albums yourself. Whatever version of Kristian you need to have happen, you can put the happy songs here and the heartbreak there. That’s the most beautiful thing about the way music exists now, is you get to make it into what you need it to be. I can tell a story on what it means to me, but I’m only one half of the equation. You’re listening, I’m singing. So, it’s as much your choice what order and what groupings and why these songs need to be together. I’d love to see someone else’s version of my albums, and give ‘em a title, just like I had to. It’s the closest thing you can figure out to what it’s like to be an artist. Dive in and find out.”
All four albums that are part of Kristian’s 52 project – ATL x BNA, In the Key of Summer, New Blue, and This Year – are all available to stream or download now on your favorite music service.