Keith Urban‘s Flow State yacht rock album is out now, but he admits he isn’t sure what’s next. Flow State comes after HIGH, a record Urban released in 2024.
By his own admission, Flow State became a happy accident. Urban created Flow State while working in his new studio. Now, the 58-year-old acknowledges that he still isn’t sure what his next musical chapter will be.
“I have no idea,” Urban concedes to Taste of Country.
“I didn’t expect this” he remarks. “I don’t know… I really don’t have a plan with what I’m doing next. I think being spontaneous and having fun in the studio is how this record got born. And I’m up for doing more of that, whatever that looks like and sounds like.”
What Keith Urban Says About ‘Flow State’
View this post on Instagram
Flow State is a feel-good album of mostly covers, with one original song, “We Go Back,” which Urban sings with Michael McDonald. The record came amid a tumultuous time in Urban’s personal life, splitting from his wife, Nicole Kidman, in 2025.
“[It’s] an unexpected group of songs,” he tells the Associated Press. “And a very unexpected record to find me when it found me, because it was very much a 180 of what was going on at the time.”
“The record’s called ‘Flow State’ for a really good reason,” he remarks. “It really was about just constant movement. And yeah, it was a challenging record to make at the same time, for something that kind of sounds so effortless. It was quite a juxtaposition at the time. But I’m really grateful for the way that the record turned out. And obviously I’m very, very protective of my family, and I’ve remained that way the whole time.”
Neither Urban nor Kidman have spoken publicly about their divorce. But Urban does say that creating Flow State became a necessary distraction from his personal pain.
“The music was almost an antidote to the stresses of the times,” the Grand Ole Opry member says. “And I think the reason it hits now is for the exact same reason it did back then, which is, there’s just so much divisiveness.”
The Beginning of Keith Urban’s ‘Flow State’
Perhaps no one is more surprised than Urban that he has an entire record of yacht rock music.
“It really started from me buying a studio in town. It used to be called The Tracking Room. It’s been around a long time, and I acquired that studio in ‘24,” Urban reveals on SiriusXM‘s The Highway. Urban spent about nine months getting the studio in working order, and wanted to make use of it before he went back on tour.
“By the time it was ready to record in, I was hitting the road,” he continues. “It was one of those frustrating things where I wasn’t going to get to record there very much. And so, I was trying to find something that would just be simple and fun to do, to just record. I called Dann Huff, and I go, ‘How about we just do one or two yacht rock songs, just to break the studio in for a bit of fun?’ And that was it.”
View this post on Instagram
All Of the Songs on Keith Urban’s ‘Flow State‘
In addition to McDonald, Urban is also joined by Little Big Town and John Mayer on Flow State. See a list of songs below.
1. Steal Away
2. Baby Come Back
3. Magnet and Steel (ft. Little Big Town)
4. Just the Two of Us
5. On and On
6. We Go Back (ft. Michael McDonald)
7. Help Is On It’s Way
8. How Much I Feel
9. Summer Breeze
10. I Just Wanna Stop
11. Guitar Man (ft. John Mayer)
Photo Credit: CMA / Zach Whitmore