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 as 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 preorder now.
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.
—
Photo Credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com