Cassadee Pope Announces New ‘Stages’ Album
Cassadee Pope is wasting no time in 2019. The "One More Red Light" singer revealed Wednesday morning (Jan. 9) that her new Stages album is coming on Feb. 1.
Stages is an 11-song, personal project that Pope says was created without much thought as to how fans might relate to each song. It explores love ("How I Feel Right Now," "Take You Home"), heartbreak ("Don't Ask Me") and personal loss ("Gavi"), plus new obstacles she's facing as an independent female artist. "FYI," Pope concedes, was born out of the music she listened to when her frustrations over the women in country music conversation were mounting. Lyrically the song is something quite different. She all but spells out what happened to end her last relationship.
The album also features a few famous friends. Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay joins her for "If My Heart Had a Heart," while Lindsay Ell, RaeLynn and Lauren Alaina sing with her during "Distracted." A first listen to the project reveals a pop-friendly, hooky collection of songs that takes every play on words to the fullest. It's not a new sound for Pope, but it explores new topics lyrically.
It's an album over a year in the making. Last March she talked to Taste of Country about "Take You Home" and how it helped her "escape the sadness" after splitting from fiancee Rian Dawson and her record label Big Machine.
"People are going to understand what I went through better from hearing these songs, which is the goal," Pope said. The 29-year-old Season 3 winner of The Voice also admitted to separating herself from fans for a bit.
“I stepped away for social media for … about a month," she says. "I didn’t trust myself to post something and it not be obvious that I’m going through something. But I guess it’s hard because as an artist you want to be transparent … but you also don’t want to make people sad and make them depressed with you."
Corey Crowder produced Stages. It's Pope's first full-length album since Frame by Frame in 2013. Stages is currently available in various pre-order packages via Pope's website.
In April, she'll start headlining the 2019 CMT Next Women of Country Tour.
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