LIBERTY? is the fifth studio album by rock artist James Urie set to be released to stores and digital retailers in July of 2017 with distribution from Urie's current label Safe Haven Records. The record comes after James Urie's hiatus from music to tend to his personal life, personal demons and even finding love all the while. During this time, Urie was slowly recording new music for an eventual comeback. The singles so far from the album have been promotional record "Better Than Hell" and the official single "Corpses" released in June of 2016. The record features production from James Urie, Julian Emery, Jolyon Thomas, Tom Dalgety, and Bill Owens.
Liberty is also a follow for James after releasing his album "The Recovery" in 2013. The record drifted through the uprising and new found confidence and self appreciation of James Urie, letting go of anger that he had shown in the mainly depressed third album effort, "Tales From The Struggle". Each of Urie's albums and projects reflects on where the star is in his life, as he shares his inner deepest thoughts with his dedicated fan base that can relate to him as well. After marrying is then wife Gemma Kane, the album clearly showed a confident Urie and things were going excellent for his personal life, and it showed in the final product of the album. Although sounding strong on the record, the lyrics showed that James was still holding on to personal demons. The album not only garnered a strong commercial response pushing out three number one singles as well and following the album James embarked on a world tour. After his tour finished, it seemed all was going well and James took a break to spend time with his wife Gemma and pursue an acting career.
This led to Urie landing the lead role for an Starz tv series entitled "Everything's Fine" where Urie played a nerdy film major student, Ronan Rabenstein. All seemed to be going well and James even confirmed that he had been working on a new project. And all of a sudden, Gemma and James Urie split and had a divorce that settle out of court with rumors spreading that Urie had to legally pay Gemma a huge lump sum of money. Their fairy-tale of a relationship seemed to only be dark and not all of what it seemed behind closed doors due to the sudden and nasty break up these two had. After the breakup, it seemed that James's journey to break his depression took two steps back and he never really opened up about it. Everything's Fine got a greenlight and James was known to be a hot prospect on set, but what people really wanted was some new music.
In 2014, James released pictures of him recording new music and then took to his website to post previews of three different songs. His fans immediately went into a frenzy, as anticipation built up for this new music. The lyrics were each heartfelt and deep which had us viewers recognize this time in James's life as being quite tough as we can assume. And with a few weeks of waiting, James Urie is here to finally let us in in the continuation of his story. What does he have to offer? We are about to find out. "Better Than Hell" was the promotional single taken from an the then, unknown project by James Urie. The record was produced by James Urie and Bill Owens and drifted into a more heavy rock sound that James Urie hadn't exactly gone into this yet in his career. The record was looked at as an alternative rock based record that slowly broke into a heavy rock influenced smasher by the time the chorus rails on to the track that is perfect for all rock fans alike as it gave fans classic Urie, but a breath of fresh new Urie attitude and sound that makes it a compelling listen throughout the track.
Urie sings in his signature hallow, possessed and deep like tone with hard hitting lyrics and hard hitting guitars and a drums that go perfectly with the James's vocals. Despite being a confident record, it's obvious James still had personal demons. "Better Than Hell" was met with critical acclaim. However, since then James has been rather quiet. In fact James completely fell back from music for quite a while. The only major thing James had done since late 2014 was embark on his Night of "1000 Riffs" tour with opening acts Kai Rollins, Lou Basset and Mariko. James Urie barely made any appearances leading up to this year and it made his fans worried that James Urie was retiring from music all together. In 2016, it was confirmed that James Urie was not only in a serious relationship with fellow urban artist Lotus, but also working on new music. Sadly, there was no new music releases from James Urie in 2016 either.
In 2017, James Urie made his first public appearance in two whole years when he appeared at the Fan Choice Awards, surprising many with his attire and his fans for making a public appearance. This created speculation that new music could indeed be on the way. Luckily for them, they didn't have to wait any longer. Corpses was released on June 1st 2017 and reached the #2 position on the charts. Now, James Urie is back with his first official album in years.
"LIBERTY?", is an rock album that goes through many different subjects that James Urie has found personal to him since the release of his album, "The Recovery". James has been recording the album since that 2015, and the now 26 year old has experienced some major events in his life and has seen changes that have happened in society itself that made him question the so called "Liberty". James Urie recorded most of the album in the United States, but recorded some tracks in Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom as the artist has also spent time traveling during his "hiatus" in music. The initial subjects present in "Liberty?" are politics, like the socially unremitting album opener
"Shattered Glass", the confusingly compelling
"Question Existing" and or depressive but optimistic
"Numb", which really portray the album's questioning title. There are also subjects of love, heartbreak and anger, among other subjects that make the song of mix of subjects, and lyrical content that really brings James Urie back to centerfold. Soundwise, James Urie stays true to his roots, but brings in harder sounds that he's never experimented with before in records such as
"Better Than Hell", "Black Angel", "From Within" and
"Annihilated"; electronically infused alternative rock in the songs like
"Questions Existing" and
"Shattered Glass" and even offers catchy rock tunes such as heard in
"Corpses", "Kill You With Kindness", "Companion" and "
Mysterious". All in all, "Liberty?" has so much to offer in it's sounds, lyrical content and James Urie's general performance. The the tracks serve a purpose, and that's what makes "Liberty?" worth the listen. In what is James Urie's fifth studio album, it may very well be his strongest.
SINGLES
"
Corpses" was the first official single from James Urie's 5th studio album "Liberty?".
The single will be released on June 1st, 2017 as the first official release by James
since his last single "Better Than Hell". This is also James's first single in three
years after Urie took a much needed break from the industry following a break-up and
general exhaustion. The record speaks cleverly about your "dead" or forgotten memories
(corpses) coming back to haunt you. James Urie uses his vocals and lyrics to tell a
story about your own dark past taking it's own toll on you and for you to find a way
to bury that memories for good before they cause you to go off the deep end. The record
has since reached the #2 position on the charts and is James's highest solo chart entry
since 2012
It's finally here. I still look back and cannot believe how quickly four years
have passed. It's like I just blinked, and we're here. But it's time, the time is here to drop
this new record. I've spent all of three years recording this album. And for good reason. I gener-
ally needed time to find that inspiration again. I released all four of my albums back to back and
by the time I released my fourth one, I generally felt like I didn't have much more to sing and
write about, and I feel like that was one of the reason's in which it took so long for this album
to come. It's been a slow, much needed process. I've experienced so much within the last four years,
understood myself more as a man, as a musician and most of all, found inspiration for this album all
the while. This album has gone through so many make-overs, scraps, and re-do's over the past few years
but it has been very much worth it and this record will tell a story for all who listen. It's much more
than just a rock record, but it's a testament in many ways. My personal accounts, my personal beliefs,
my understanding of the world and how fucked up things might just be today. "Liberty?", where the fuck
is the liberty? It's something I questioned while recording this album and that's ultimately why I
decided to go with that as the title. I'm 26 now, the last time I released an album I was 22. My
understanding of the world, and myself has changed. I still fight my personal demons, and It'll be
demonstrated and shown on this album, but I have become a better me, I've recovered who I truly am
and even though there's still so many questions existing, I'm glad to be able to share my accounts
through the lens of rock music, and really bring that back to the forefront. Some may so I'm not the
voice of rock music, but I'll be the voice of myself, the voice of the ones fucked up in the head
but too afraid to admit it, the voice of a man who nearly ended his own life yet survived, the voice
of a man who fell in love with someone so toxic it almost killed him, the voice of a man who lost his
own footing trying to find love, the voice of a man who finally found his soul mate. The voice, the
voice of LIBERTY.
