Corey Kent struck gold with his 2022 single “Wild as Her.” He’s been working more or less nonstop since, dropping his 2023 breakout Blacktop, Black Bandana in 2024, and hitting the road with Jason Aldean and Parker McCollum. To make Heartland Rock and Roll, though, Kent tells Apple Music he needed to pump the brakes. “We kind of slowed down,” he says. “We had a lot of moments where we went out to the ranch in Texas and wrote and just spent a week out there sitting around fires and talking about life, and then songs would flow out of that. It’s taken a bit longer to come out with this record, but I think it’s the best record I’ve ever created.” The resulting album feels like a level-up for Kent, who sounds confident, present, and at ease on these 16 new songs. Produced largely by Austin Goodloe (with an assist from Jon Randall and Chris Farren), the collection lives up to its title, showcasing a decidedly red-meat brand of country and infusing it with rock, soul, and pop. Opening track “Motorbike” makes that case from the jump, nodding to reigning kings of heartland rock Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty in its no-frills melodicism and in winking lyrics like, “Wasn’t born to run/Never learned to fly.” The reflective ballad “Cherokee Blvd” lets Kent indulge his softer side, while songs like “Jesus Comes Back” show he can command an arena anthem. He brings some heavy hitters on board as guests, too, as Jason Aldean joins on the Southern rocker “Rather Be Here” and Koe Wetzel lends his singular voice to the brooding single “Rocky Mountain Low.” The album’s most ambitious track is the nearly seven-minute “Bixby.” Named for his Oklahoma hometown, the song is nostalgic and connects Kent to an earlier version of himself that could only dream of how far he’s come. “The first two records felt like I was trying to prove myself to people, to plant my flag,” he says. “This is just different. I’m not trying to prove to you that I’m different; it just is. It’s almost like this freedom of creating from a place where you have nothing to prove, and that’s fun.”