Summer is officially here, and the heat is turning up. If we are being honest, the entire media industry is overdue to unclench. That’s probably what you think it is — more on that later.
Last week, Keith Urban handed us the ultimate captain’s hat. He dropped his 13th studio album, flow state, and it is a full-throttle, sun-soaked dive into pure, unadulterated Yacht Rock. Let’s set sail with slick, breezy covers of classics. Highlights include “Baby Come Back,” “Magnet and Steel” with Little Big Town, and “Guitar Man” featuring John Mayer. The set is rounded out by a new original track, “We Go Back,” featuring the absolute vocal skipper, Michael McDonald.
I was actually sitting in the pews at the Ryman during CRS earlier this year. That’s when Keith first played a few of these tracks live. When he looked at a room of suits and programmers, he announced he was making a Yacht Rock covers album. Half the room chuckled because they thought it was a bit.
He wasn’t kidding.
The Power of the “Unclench”
There is a specific science to why Yacht Rock works, and it boils down to one word: unclench.
Our industry is built on a high-anxiety grind. But Yacht Rock is the ultimate antidote to that stress. It is music explicitly engineered for smooth sailing, ease of presence, and total escapism. It tells your brain to stop redlining, drop the anchor, and just coast for a minute.
In my opinion, one of the greatest unclenching songs in the history of the genre is Seals & Crofts’ “Summer Breeze.” But Keith didn’t just copy and paste the track; he took it into uncharted territory. Kenny Jay recently produced a radio special with Keith around the launch of flow state. Together, they broke down exactly how cut number 9 flips the script. Right at the 2:57 mark, the track shifts completely — it’s as if “summer suddenly turns to autumn” (Great line, Kenny).
When Kenny asked him how that haunting, atmospheric ending came about, Keith’s response was a masterclass in pure, raw artistic intuition:
Keith Urban: “Had an idea late one night at the studio, I was with my engineer. There was nobody else at the studio. We were fading the song, but I felt like it could go into this other emotional place, sort of atmospheric. So, there was a Wurlitzer keyboard out in the studio and I went out and played these reoccurring chords, and did an acoustic guitar part, and then grabbed my electric, and we—I kind of just built this haunting outro, not for any reason other than it, it just kind of felt interesting.”
Kenny noted that it feels like the room suddenly gets cold, and Keith nailed the philosophy perfectly:
Keith Urban: “Yeah, there’s something mystical about the whole thing, and then it fades out on that, um, unresolved kind of emotion, which I really liked.”
Navigating Uncharted Waters
Think about that for a second. Keith Urban has four Grammy Awards, 13 CMAs, 15 ACMs, and over 11 billion streams. He has absolutely nothing left to prove to anyone. He could have easily spent his summer playing it safe. Rather, he could have delivered a comfortable, country record packed with radio hooks, then cruised down a predictable path.
Instead, he chose to sail right into uncharted waters. Late at night, with nobody else in the building, he sat at a Wurlitzer keyboard. He followed a gut feeling into an “unresolved emotion” simply because it felt interesting. No corporate mandate. Just creative instinct.
One of the most successful, decorated icons in the history of our format has the guts to try something unexpected. So, what is our excuse for keeping our local stations trapped in the exact same programming comfort zone?
Your Summer Playbook for Creative Risks
Too many stations treat the summer months like a maintenance cycle. We put the logs on cruise control, run the same legacy promotions, and play defense. This summer, take a page out of Keith’s playbook and challenge your team to try something that breaks the mold:
- Let the Audience unclench too: Surprise your audience. Create a specialized, sun-soaked feature. Make it something that stops a listener in their driveway because you’ve created a mood and a moment.
- Build an Experience, Not a Broadcast: Stop acting like a safe utility line. Give your talent the green light to do things that feel spontaneous, loose, and alive. Let them “unclench.”
- Take a “Flow State” Risk: Maybe there’s a creative promotion, a wild street bit, or a piece of local content you’ve been sitting on. If it doesn’t perfectly align with traditional corporate guardrails, play it anyway. The summer belongs to the operators who are willing to navigate a little chaos.
Our platform is at its best when it refuses to be boring. Let the unclenchining begin. New word, I took a small chance and made it up. Nobody got hurt.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
