Joshua Hedley’s new single is upbeat, foot-tapping fun. With a smile and his tongue in his cheek, Hedley launches into a catchy vocal melody that shows off his range and characterfully sonorous voice. The drums pound and the electric guitar twists and turns. The result is rhythmic, full of energy and infectious. Many will be able to relate to the song’s theme of working hard but always struggling to make ends meet. Hedley shares: “‘Broke Again’ is one of those songs where I had it floating around in my head for a little while, then when I sat down to write it, I just spat out a verse and a chorus in about 10 minutes. It’s 100% biographical. I can absolutely say from experience that late night parties and neon thrills really can do a number on them dollar bills.”
The amusing video, depicting Hedley doing a series of jobs, is a good match for the humour of the song. He explains: “I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be funny if we just filmed me being absolutely terrible at different jobs?’ We shot the whole thing in director Travis Nicholson’s house in front of a green screen and then edited me into a bunch of weird stock footage found on the internet. The video is also somewhat biographical as I have tried a few times to have a ‘normal job,’ and failed miserably each time.”
The single is taken from the upcoming album ‘Neon Blue’, which is due for release on 22nd April 2022. Hedley’s well-received debut ‘Mr. Jukebox’ found inspiration in country music from the 1950s and 1960s, with a fresh take on sounds made famous by the likes of Glen Campbell and George Jones. However, this time around, Hedley celebrates the 1990s. He explains: “The last bastion of country music was the early 1990s, roughly 1989 through 1996. You could turn on the radio and immediately know you’re hearing a country song. You could still hear steel guitar and fiddle. But there was a hard fork around 1996 or ‘97, when country veered off into pop territory. ‘Neon Blue’ asks, What if that fork never happened? What if country kept on sounding like country?” It’s a good question and Hedley does an excellent job of exploring the answer. Enjoy.
