American Idol’s season 13 alum Jessica Meuse will have her first full-length album released on August 3rd via Warrior Records/eOne. Penned by Jessica, the 15-song Halfhearted album is a retrospect of her life, loves, and breakups, which is aptly being released to coincide with National Girlfriend Day.
Jessica’s song, “Love Her Better” music video has over 100k views of the music video on YouTube. The track will become available June 1st, along with the album preorder, on all retail outlets. Subsequent songs from “Halfhearted” will also become on June 15th (“High”), June 29th (“California Dream”), and July 13th (“Thank God It Didn’t Work”), with the full album releasing on August 3rd.
Check out the lyric video for her latest song “High.”
The album also features a guest appearance duet by friend and fellow American Idol alumni, Bo Bice, on Jessica’s composition, “Without You.” As a songwriter, she has honed her craft, since being a teenager. Commercially, Jessica became the first person in the history of American Idol to perform her own original song, “Blue-Eyed Lie,” during the show’s finals. When Jessica set out to assemble this project, it was important to her to ensure that her story was fully represented in the writing on Halfhearted.
“I am thrilled to release my debut album, Halfhearted! It’s my first major release since my time on American Idol, and it truly embodies who I am as a singer, writer, and musician,” commented Jessica. “My dedicated fans have been waiting for a while, and I’m happy to say the wait is going to be completely worth it! This is my best work yet, and I hope everyone loves it as much as I loved creating it. This is only the beginning!”
Thematically, Meuse’s collection of songs delves into the heartfelt dedication that has always driven her to succeed. “The album is titled, Halfhearted, which can be interpreted in several ways – which was also my intent,” said Jessica. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I want people to take Halfhearted and the songs on it on a soul-to-soul level. I want my fans to connect with each tune personally and, hopefully, it’ll help them in some way and ultimately bring joy. For me, Halfhearted is about the duality of everything, from the macrocosmic concept of good versus evil to the darkness and light within each and every one of us. It’s about taking the two extremes, finding a balance, and living your best life, even when we’re dealt a bad hand and embracing trials and hardships, because they are a part of something much, much bigger.”
“I wrote most of these songs after Idol, and they are a direct reflection of everything I have gone through emotionally and mentally in the time that’s followed,” relates Jessica. “It means the world to me to be a songwriter and be able to take a thought – a simple line or even just a word – and turn it into something real. A lot of the songs on Halfhearted came to me like a slap in the face. They just happened. Music has always been a therapeutic and healing power for me, so writing this album was what has held me together. It’s my heart and soul opened up for the world to see.”
