Music

Eric Church (Finally!) Releases ‘&’ Album to the Public

More than a year after its initial release, Eric Church is making his album available to the general public. The project is the middle installment of his triple album, Heart & Soul, which Church released in April of 2021.

While his Heart and Soul albums were original released to the public, Church’s album was an exclusive project reserved for his fan club, the Church Choir. That changed on Friday (Aug. 19), however, as the album is now available as a standard CD, vinyl and on all streaming platforms.

The & album features six songs, including Church’s latest single, “Doing Life With Me.” The project also features “Through My Ray-Bans,” written about the Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shootings, “Do Side,” “Kiss Her,” “Mad Man” and “Lone Wolf.” Church wrote every song on the project with co-writers including Luke Laird, Barry Dean, Casey Beathard, Jeffrey Steele, Jeff Hyde and Ryan Tyndell.

Church shared the news via his social media accounts:

Church’s Heart & Soul triple album features 24 songs in total, with previous singles “Stick That in Your Country Song” and “Heart on Fire” making an appearance on Heart, and “Hell of a View” on Soul. The collection was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic in the mountains of North Carolina. Upon releasing the collection, Church shared that he and his collaborators would write a song in the morning and record it the same day, which “allowed for the songwriters to get involved in the studio process.”

The album reached No. 3 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart upon release, and it has produced one No. 1 single so far with “Hell of a View.”

Top 10 Country Songs of 2022 So Far, Ranked

There are plenty of feel-good country jams on this list of the top country songs of 2022, but the No. 1 song is a gut punch. These 10 songs are ranked by critical acclaim, radio and sales success, and importance to the genre.
Five of the 10 artists made our Top Country Songs list from 2021 as well, but there are no repeats. If a song made a previous list or didn’t spend most of its time on the charts in 2022, it’s not eligible. So, before you ask where your favorite song is, be sure the miss isn’t just a technicality.