Country singer-songwriter Adam Brand regards Speed of Life as a coming-of-age record. “Yeah, it only took me 50 years to grow up,” he tells Apple Music of his 15th studio album. “It’s a combination of being in a place where you’ve finally found some solace and some purpose in life, and for me it just happened late. I’m a bit of a slow learner.” That perspective informs Speed of Life, whether Brand’s delivering a message to his new daughter in the soulful ballad “Don’t Wanna Let You Down,” ruminating on being too busy to appreciate what’s important (“Baby I Miss You”), or singing about enjoying each moment (the bittersweet title track). The hellraiser of old raises his head on the feel-good anthem “Freakin’ Weekend,” but he doesn’t hang around long. Instead, Speed of Life’s melange of laidback pop-rock and commercial country has a contented, relaxed feel; it’s the work of a man taking time to look around and take stock. “I feel like this album is me speaking from the heart. It’s not me trying to be a star or a party boy, it’s me just saying, ‘This is what I believe in. This is what I feel strongly about.’ And that’s what I want from my music now.” Read Brand’s track-by-track guide to Speed of Life below.
Speed of Life
“We’re impatient. We’re always looking forward—‘I can’t wait until next year when I go on holiday.’ And there’s nothing you can do that speeds [time] up or slows it down, it’s going to go at the speed of life. The overriding [message] of this song and the album is ‘Enjoy the ride. We only get so many trips around the sun.’”
Life’s Been Good to Me
“We get busy and we forget to slow down and smell the roses. And it’s not until you do that that you realize you’ve got good stuff around you, you’ve just been ignoring it ’cause you’ve been wishing for other things. It’s that realization: Life’s actually been pretty good to me.”
Fly
“When [my partner was pregnant], I’d sit on the floor and sing this song with my hand on her belly, ’cause the words are such an optimistic prayer of love and hope that you want for someone you love. Especially that first verse: ‘May you give more in this life than you get/May you leave with more memories than regrets/May your friends be many and your enemies few/May the world measure love by you.’”
Messin’ Up a Good Thing
“It’s such an honest song about relationships. The fact of looking at yourself honestly and going, ‘If it can be broken, you can break it. You can mess things up. But now you’ve got this amazing person in your life, don’t mess it up!’”
Freakin’ Weekend
“The album is full of [heartfelt songs], but there’s still a party boy inside me. There’s still a rev head, there’s still a fella who likes to have fun. This song just sums it up.”
Just a Love Song
“Yeah, that’s what we need, another love song. But this song kind of got to me, because if it’s real love, can three and a half minutes really do it justice? Can two verses, a chorus, and a bridge really tell the story of a deep and eternal love? I don’t think so. And telling it that way felt like it was a twist on a love song.”
Baby I Miss You
“It’s about two people who actually live together but still miss each other. Again, life gets busy, we’re working, there’s kids–there’s so many things to take you away that you can be living in the same house, in the same bed, and still get to a point where you go, ‘Wow, I actually really miss you. We haven’t slowed down and spent time together properly.’”
You Are Not Alone
“This song can really speak to people. When you’re going through a really tough time, you feel like you’re all alone. You just want to crawl under a rock and disappear and think no one understands, no one can really get what you’re going through. But this song is saying you’re not alone, just reach out.”
Don’t Wanna Let You Down
“When I first met [co-writer] Travis Meadows [10 years ago], he played me this song. And I fell in love with it and I said, ‘One day, when I have a baby, I’m going to record this song.’ So my time finally came: It’s me talking to my daughter and saying, ‘You’re gonna go through stuff in life, there’s gonna be times when you lose ground and you fight and fight, and I’m going to walk through hell to be there for you. But sometimes I might show up late, and if I do, I’m sorry. I’m going to learn, I’m going to do better, and I don’t want to let you down.’”
Time of Our Lives
“This song is like a finale at the end of a concert. It’s that whole thing of, this is the time of our life tonight, these are the good old days tonight, stop looking back and saying the good old days were five years ago. We’re making them now. Be in the moment.”