Leon Bridges Teases ‘Leon’ Album With Serene, Soulful ‘Peaceful Place’
It’s time to let Leon Bridges reintroduce himself. The soul artist is naming his upcoming fourth studio album simply Leon, and he’s previewing it with the serene-sounding “Peaceful Place.” He shot the video for the song around Mexico City, near where he recorded the record due out Oct. 4. He sings, “I’m in a peaceful place” on the song, with bongos and handclaps supporting him, and, of course, some soulful guitar. In a statement, Bridges said it’s the album he’s been waiting his whole life to record.
“Leon has been a long time coming,” he said. “I started writing pieces of it as far back as [2021’s] Gold-Diggers Sound. They didn’t fit what I was trying to do with that album, and I tried moving on. But I couldn’t shake them because they’re part of me. And, if I’m honest, also because I think this is some of my most excellent work yet.”
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“In many ways, Leon has been in the works since my childhood,” he continued. “This record is about simpler days. It’s about time spent in my beloved Fort Worth and the experiences that made me the man I am today. It’s soulful music in the truest sense; it’s imbued with my soul.”
Bridges recorded the album at El Desierto in Mexico with producer-engineer Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves, Maggie Rogers) and co-producer Daniel Tashian (also Musgraves). The artist said he is promising stories about his home and upbringing.
In 2015, Bridges told Rolling Stone that his mother influenced him to perform initially using the name Lost Child. “My mom, she used to always tell me whenever I had a haircut or something, ‘Boy, you look like a lost child,” the artist, who was born Todd Bridges, said. “Later, I wanted a more professional-sounding name. A lot of people in college would call me Leon, after the actor. He acted in Cool Runnings, The Five Heartbeats, and The Temptations. People were saying I looked like him. I felt that ‘Leon’ and ‘Bridges’ went together very well.”
Leon track list:
1. “When a Man Cries”
2. “That’s What I Love”
3. “Laredo”
4. “Panther City”
5. “Ain’t Got Nothing on You”
6. “Simplify”
7. “Teddy’s Tune”
8. “Never Satisfied”
9. “Peaceful Place”
10. “Can’t Have It All”
11. “Ivy”
12. “Ghetto Honeybee”
13. “God Loves Everyone”
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