Graffiti U is the tenth studio album by New Zealand-born Australian country music singer Keith Urban. It was released on 27 April 2018 via Hit Red and Capitol Records Nashville. The album was heavily influenced by experiences from Urban's youth, and includes the singles "Female", "Coming Home", and "Never Comin' Down", as well as the track "Parallel Line". The album has received mixed reviews from critics but received a nomination for CMA Award for Album of the Year.
Background
Keith Urban said that his first influences were records made by such artists as Johnny Cash, Charley Pride, and Merle Haggard that his father collected. After quitting school at age 15, he performed in cover bands that played a variety of musical styles. Urban also explained that Graffiti U was a combination of those styles he performed during his youth and listened to in his father's record collection. Graffiti U is neither a song title nor a lyric on the record, but rather a phrase that Urban had come up with. The word "graffiti" came to him while he was working the album, because the process was like graffiti for him. "I have always loved that word, loved the sound of the word, and have loved that it's art-driven," he said. Urban added that "graffiti is free and pure, and very personal" and said, "I thought that this record feels like that to me." He also mentioned that the "U" part was " the audience the listener".
Promotion
The song "Female" was performed live during the 2017 CMA Awards. Urban also performed. On 23 April, he performed the song at a Spotify "Fans First" event in Nashville, Tennessee along with "Parallel Line", which he sang with wife Nicole Kidman, and "Wasted Time", from his previous album Ripcord. At the event, he took questions from fans and displayed murals created by five local artists inspired by songs from the album.
Singles
"Female" was released as the album's lead single on 8 November 2017. It was inspired by the Me Too movement. It reached number 12 on the US BillboardCountry Airplay chart, his first single to miss the top 10 since his 1999 hit "It's a Love Thing". The album’s second single, "Coming Home" featuring American singer-songwriter Julia Michaels was released on 21 March 2018. This song peaked at number 3 on Country Airplay. Finishing off the single releases was "Never Comin' Down”. This song peaked at number 18, making it his first American album since 2006’s “Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing” to not produce a single number one hit, and his first album since 2010’s “Get Closer” not to have a single to reach the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Critical reception
Graffiti U has received mixed to negative reviews from music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album three out of five stars, criticizing Urban's attempt to address complicated sexual politics. He pointed to the song "Gemini", questioning the narrator's solidarity due to the provocative lyrics. Jonathan Bernstein of Rolling Stone gave a two-and-a-half-star review of the album, saying "Urban deserves credit for refusing to rest on his laurels during the height of his arena-headlining mid-career, but on Graffiti U he ends up shining brightest in his well-worn comfort zones while struggling, perhaps for the first time, when he tries to break new sonic and lyrical ground".
Commercial performance
In the United States, Graffiti U debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 145,000 album-equivalent units of which 137,000 were in pure album sales. The album benefited from a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with Urban's latest tour, which began on 15 June 2018. It became Urban's seventh top 10 album in the country. It also debuted atop the Top Country Albums chart, becoming Urban's sixth number-one album on that chart. In its second week, the album fell to number 18 on the Billboard 200 and number three on the Top Country Albums chart, with 17,100 copies sold that week. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on July 24, 2019. As of July 2019, the album has sold 282,400 copies in the United States.
