Kelsea Ballerini promised vulnerability on her new album, Subject to Change, and she delivered so much so that, as she told Consequence, the project included a few songs that she was “a little nervous” for fans to hear.
She didn’t specify which those were, but it’s a pretty good bet that one is “Doin’ My Best,” a song whose lyrics hint at some low points in her life, including challenges she faced in her marriage to Morgan Evans.
“And therapy for one turned into therapy for two / When you get married that young you got a lotta s*** you gotta get through,” Kelsea sings in the first verse. Ultimately, those struggles proved insurmountable: The couple announced this year that they’re getting a divorce.
There is also a nod to a Twitter misstep from 2021 in the lyrics of the song: After Morgan Wallen’s racist slur scandal early that year, Kelsea tweeted, “The news out of Nashville tonight does not reflect country music,” prompting a wave of backlash, including a critical reply from fellow singer Maren Morris.
Kelsea — who wondered if her tweet was a “misstep” in her subsequent book of poetry, Feel Your Way Through — sings, “Sometimes I try to say the right thing and it comes out wrong / And Twitter kicked my a**, now it’s one less app on my iPhone” in “Doin’ My Best.”
There’s also another line that suggests that Kelsea and her pop singer pal Halsey might not be so close anymore.
“I was friends with a pop star / I put ‘em on track four / Wish I could take it back, I would’ve never asked / If I knew we wouldn’t talk anymore,” she sings. Halsey is featured on “The Other Girl,” the fourth track on Kelsea’s self-titled album.
Subject to Change came out on Friday.
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