The singer enters an assured new era: “I really know my voice as a songwriter.” Ryan Beatty emerges from the heartbreak of 2023’s Calico into the glow of his fourth studio album, Sweet Fortune, co-written and produced alongside longtime collaborator Ethan Gruska (Phoebe Bridgers). “It was interesting to make music from a place of joy, from a place of love, and not heartbreak or a place of trauma or anything like that,” he tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I’ve written so many records about longing, about unrequited love, what could have been. I think, for me, the most important thing is to really capture the chapter that I’m in with these records. I want to look back 20 years from now and be like, ‘I remember that. I really remember that.’” Sweet Fortune, then, is a document of new love for Beatty, a relationship that navigates long distance on both a geographical and emotional level. “I said, ‘Now, let’s not make this hard/It’s my religious shame that keeps me en garde,’” he confesses over tender, R&B-tinted groove “White Lightning,” daring to make himself vulnerable to someone new. Later, the risk pays off: “I’ve got a life in California/And a family and a band/But I’ve got a man in Massachusetts/Who comes to see me when he can,” he sings, with unabashed pride on “Too Many Ways,” an intricately layered slice of Americana that romanticizes each goodbye. Opening up to a romantic partner is one challenge, but opening up to the world artistically, as Beatty has done on this album, is quite another. “It was hard for me to face because I love this person so much,” he says. “How do I distill it down to a song? How do I bring meaning in a poetic way that feels like it really honors it, but also protects it? That was tough.” Yet, as songs like the album’s hazy title track—co-written by Beatty’s friend Clairo, who also provides backing vocals throughout—and sweeping, country ballad “Secret Language” attest, that delicate balance is one Beatty is more than capable of striking. It speaks to the strides in confidence the Californian singer-songwriter has made in the years between Calico and Sweet Fortune, during which he landed his first Grammy Award for his work on Beyoncé’s genre-blending album COWBOY CARTER. “I’m realizing that songwriting is the easiest way for me to communicate my feelings,” says Beatty. “I’m really proud of what I’ve carved out for myself, because I feel like I really know my voice as a songwriter.”