Photo Credit: Acacia Evans
GAYLE has officially released her debut full-length album, Observing Chaos, a 13-track collection that looks back on the Nashville singer-songwriter’s transition from her late teens into adulthood.
The album arrives after a run of deeply personal singles throughout the summer, including “junebug!,” “loving you is” and “bite the bullet.” “junebug!” picked up editorial support from Spotify’s New Music Friday, Apple Music’s New Music Daily, and Amazon’s Breakthrough Pop, while Billboard described the song as one that “captures the carefree chaos that kicks off summer.”
GAYLE also dropped “clementine” alongside the album, and it might be one of the messier moments on the record. She sings about watching an ex fall for someone else, picking apart the new relationship and still finding herself drawn back to the memories of what they had.
Co-written and co-produced by GAYLE, Observing Chaos digs into the highs, lows, and general messiness of growing up. The album covers everything from falling in and out of love to heartbreak, partying, trust, questionable decisions, and the process of trying to understand yourself while you’re still becoming an adult. For GAYLE, the record is essentially a scrapbook of the years between 17 and 21, a particularly wild stretch that included the explosive success of her breakout single “abcdefu,” extensive touring, and the sudden shift that came with becoming a globally recognized artist.
“Observing Chaos is about my experiences from the ages of 17-21. There were so many unique experiences that I was so lucky to have. I put out ‘abcdefu’ and my life got completely turned upside down in the best ways. And while I was dealing with extremely unique circumstances, I was also going through things EVERY teenage/young adult has gone through. When I came home from tour, I had so much unraveling and piecing together to do. When I looked at my life and picked through all the songs I wrote on and off of tour, I was writing from such an honest place. I realized that in all the best ways, my life was chaos. The album is me honoring and observing it while slowly making sense of it all. And let’s be honest… being a teenager and being in your early twenties is complete CHAOS.” -GAYLE
GAYLE recently gave fans an early taste of the album with a performance of “loving you is” on “TODAY.” She has also been taking Observing Chaos directly to listeners through a series of album listening events connected to her new fan club, the g spot. The road trip has already stopped in Nashville, Chicago, Atlanta and New York City, with more exclusive fan experiences along the way.
The new album marks another step in GAYLE’s fast moving career. At 22, she has already toured with artists including Taylor Swift, P!NK, Cyndi Lauper, Tate McRae, AJR, and My Chemical Romance. Her track “abcdefu” became a double-platinum hit and earned GAYLE a GRAMMY nomination for Song of the Year. Beyond her own releases, she has written for artists including Kelly Clarkson and Roddy Ricch and co-wrote and performed “Butterflies,” her reimagining of Crazy Town’s “Butterfly,” for the Barbie soundtrack. Judging by the audience she’s built along the way, plenty of people are listening. GAYLE currently has more than 2.5 million social followers, 5 million monthly listeners across streaming platforms, 2.9 billion career streams, and 9.7 billion YouTube views.
There’s clearly a lot that has happened since “abcdefu” changed the trajectory of GAYLE’s career. Observing Chaos gives her a chance to look back on it all, not necessarily with everything figured out, but with a little more perspective.
Observing Chaos Tracklist
Disc 1
1. clementine
2. bite the bullet
3. burn
4. clara
5. arkansas
6. loving you is
7. mother trucker
Disc 2
1. open arms
2. just like that
3. junebug!
4. anybody like you
5. rot
6. this is what you asked for
Stream Observing Chaos
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