MULTI-PLATINUM, 10x #1 hitmaker Dustin Lynch releases his seventh studio album, Clean Slate, available everywhere via BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville. Across 12 tracks, Lynch navigates love, heartbreak, second chances and the hard-earned perspective that comes with time, delivering a collection that balances the energy of his signature country sound with some of his most vulnerable storytelling to date. Listen BELOW.
At the heart of the album is its aching title track, “Clean Slate,” a deeply personal reflection on losing your way and wondering whether it's too late to find your way back. Building slowly around a hurt he can't quite explain, Lynch inhabits the mind of a wide-eyed desperado who has spent too long giving his angels the cold shoulder. As the arrangement swells, so does the weight of everything he's been carrying, searching for somewhere safe to land and the possibility that his past doesn't have to determine his future.
Written by Johnny Simpson, Jeremy Dussolliet, Tim Sommers, James Abrahart and Jackson Foote, and produced by Ross Copperman, “Clean Slate” gives the album its name and its emotional center. More than a promise of a fresh start, the song confronts the difficult space between who you've become and who you still hope to be.
“There's something compelling about the idea of a clean slate that signifies and promises a new chapter. I think we've all had moments where we look at our lives and wonder how we got to where we are,” shares Lynch. “What I love about this song is that it is a hard look in the mirror.That felt like the right message to build this album around.”
While the title track carries the album's emotional weight, Clean Slate moves through the full spectrum of relationships and experiences that have shaped Lynch's life and music. The road-tested, high-energy “Made In A Bottle” finds him chasing relief from a lost love one bar at a time, while “How You Been,” his up-tempo collaboration with Ashley Cooke, revisits a summer romance through a phone call that brings every memory rushing back. Lynch has described the duet as a second chapter to his 4X PLATINUM smash “Thinking ’Bout You.”
Elsewhere, “One Tennessee” brings a fiery vocal performance, while “Built Us A Life” and “Old Man Knows” add to the album's reflections on love, experience and the passage of time. The collection closes with “Home To You,” a collaboration with electronic duo MC4D that brings a dance-driven finish to an album rooted in Lynch's country foundation.
Lynch worked with an extensive roster of Nashville songwriters and musicians on the project, contributing to eight of its 12 tracks alongside collaborators including Zach Crowell, Justin Ebach, Josh Thompson, Jameson Rodgers, Brent Anderson, Hunter Phelps, Ben Johnson and John Byron. Production duties are shared by Ross Copperman, Zach Crowell and Austin Shawn, with MC4D producing the album's closing track. Together, they bring a mix of live-band energy, modern country production and electronic influences to a collection that reflects the different sides of Lynch's musical identity.
Clean Slate arrives as Lynch continues to build on a career spanning 10 No. 1 hits, four Top 5 albums, 12 RIAA-certified singles and more than 5 BILLION cumulative global streams. Earlier this year, he celebrated those milestones with Setlist Staples - 10 #1's, a collection of his decade-plus run of Country radio chart-toppers, alongside new RIAA certifications for “Small Town Boy” (5X PLATINUM), “Thinking ’Bout You” (4X PLATINUM), “Ridin’ Roads” (2X PLATINUM) and “Chevrolet (feat. Jelly Roll)” (PLATINUM).
With Clean Slate, Lynch adds another chapter to a catalog built on lasting hits, bringing the stories, sounds and experiences of where he's been into sharper focus as he looks toward what's next.
