Brandon Heath Releases His 9th Studio Record, "The Ache," Sept. 6

By Timothy Yap Aug 09, 2024 07:46 AM EDT

Five-time GRAMMY®-nominated, eight-time GMA Dove Award recipient and Platinum®-selling singer /songwriter Brandon Heath releases his ninth studio record and second LP with Centricity Music, The Ache, Sept. 6. The album holds the tension of loss and longing, sharing the intrinsic ache experienced this side of heaven while pointing listeners to the things that matter most to Heath - family, faith, community and his ultimate belief that there is life after death.

While The Ache was inspired by hard moments, the album's 11 originals, all co-written by Heath, were also influenced by the life growing all around him, even in the midst of sadness.

"Every record I release is a snapshot of the season I'm in, and I thought this was going to be a record about mourning," Heath admits after watching his mom live out her final days. "But I've learned that two things can exist at the same time. You can talk about heavy things with a joyful spirit, and I have totally embraced paradox in this season. I knew there was going to be sadness, but I also knew there was going to be joy because I knew where my mom was going."

The Ache features the steady acoustic-pop of album standout "Gospel Truth," which sums up how Heath reconciles the heartbreaking realities of this life with what he knows to be true of God.

"It's one of my favorite songs I've written in a long time," he confesses of the track that reads like a personal mantra and is featured by The Recording Academy. "It just fits me so well, and it tells the story of who I am and what's important to me."

The album's radio hit, "He Does (Oh By the Way)," is a cleverly penned, choir-assisted, celebratory reminder about God's role as a consistent provider and faithful friend. Heath co-wrote the song with Kyle Williams (We Are Messengers, TobyMac), who produced the majority of The Ache along with songs produced by Micah Kuiper (Jeremy Camp, Anne Wilson), Cason Cooley (NEEDTOBREATHE, Ellie Holcomb) and Andrew Bergthold (We The Kingdom).

"I was just thinking about all the things that we forget the Lord covers," Heath says of the celebratory reminder. "He fills our needs in wild abundance and lavishes His love on us in crazy ways. We often just miss it. So this song was my fun, upbeat way of saying, 'Oh, by the way, God does all that - He does.'"

While careful to avoid an overarching tone of melancholy that reflected his inner turmoil, The Ache doesn't shy away from the heartache he was experiencing in real time either. After The Covenant School shooting, where Brandon's oldest daughter was already enrolled for the following year, Brandon wrote "Scars" to honor his longtime friend, the school's chaplain Matthew Sullivan. Penning the raw, in-the-moment song with Paul Duncan and Kuiper just a few days after the shooting, he sent the demo to a text thread of Covenant School teachers and parents.

"I feel like in my grief, God showed up and gave me medicine to disseminate immediately to my friends," shares Heath. "That song reminded me of our responsibility as artists: to say the things we don't know how to say, put it to music, and then get it out to the masses as soon as possible and let it do its healing work."

The Ache also features the bittersweet "The Other Side of the End" and the poignant, heaven-forward "Can We Go Home Now?" while the simplicity of his daughters' innocent nighttime prayers shaped "Thank You. Need You. Love You."

Perhaps the intrinsic ache we all experience this side of heaven points us to the things that matter most. "It feels like a thing that God put in us. It's this ability to feel connected to people," remarks Heath, adding, "This has been my season of sorrow, but it helps me to engage with it just by writing about it. That's what music has always done for me."

The Ache track listing follows:

01) The Ache

02) He Does (Oh By the Way)

03) Thank You. Need You. Love You.

04) Gospel Truth

05) Scars

06) Highly Favored (feat. Ryan Ellis)

07) Can We Go Home Now

08) How To Apologize

09) Lucky

10) Neverland

11) The Other Side of the End