Lauren Watkins On Stepping Out of Her Comfort Zone With The Dreamy Soundscape Of Her New Album, ‘In A Perfect World’

Lauren Watkins’ second full-length album, In a Perfect World, marks a clear evolution from the heartbreak of her debut, The Heartbroken Record. While her first project explored the pain of love, Watkins has moved on personally and is now happily married to her husband and CMA/ACM Award winner, Will Bundy. With this new album, she reflects that shift while getting out of her comfort zone to explore new themes.

Produced by Bundy with additional co-production from hit maker Joey Moi on select tracks, Watkins’s new 10-track collection is built on stories “inclusive of the good, the bad, and the ugly of life.”

“I’ve always sort of stayed in my comfort zone writing the sad songs, and I’m going to keep doing that. But I also just wanted to sort of spotlight reality a little bit and healthy relationships and beautiful things about just the simple things about life, and I just want to really highlight that in this album. So I hope I did, and I hope that people can appreciate that,” Watkins told Country Now.

She sets the tone with the dreamy Kacey Musgraves-inspired title track. This tune was placed at the very top of the album with the intention of making sure fans understand her overall purpose right away.

“‘In A Perfect World,’ I wanted that to be the title because when you say that, it’s a hypothetical. It’s like you’re about to set up an imaginary scenario,” she said, explaining her vision. “‘In a perfect world, we would have all of this, and we’d have all the money in the world, or we’d have a perfect steady job, or we’d never fight.’ And in reality, the world is not perfect and thank God, because it’d be pretty boring if it was…that’s the point of this record is all of that.”

While the same Nashville native fans know and love shines through on this project, she also has presented a collection of songs that stand apart from her previous releases. This evolution reflects her growing confidence in both herself and her music. As a result, this time around, the Big Loud Records / Songs & Daughters songstress made an effort to ensure everything surrounding the music aligned with her real life.

“Sometimes I feel like you feel like you need to write what you think people want to hear or what you think is cool. And lately I’ve just kind of been throwing all that out the window and just writing what I want to write and what I think is good and what I think represents me well. So it’s been really refreshing,” Watkins noted.

In A Perfect World Tracklist:

1. “In A Perfect World” (Lauren Watkins, Mia Mantia, Caroline Watkins)

2. “Love Is Tough” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Mark Trussell, Lydia Vaughan)

3. “I’ll Get Through It” (Lauren Watkins, Trannie Anderson, Will Bundy)

4. “Marlboro Man” (Lauren Watkins, Natalie Hemby, Jeremy Spillman)

5. “Slippery Slope (feat. John Morgan)” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Mark Trussell, Lydia Vaughan)

6. “Average Joe and Plain Jane” (Lauren Watkins, Lauren Hungate, Luke Laird, Caroline Watkins)

7. “Britches” (Lauren Watkins, Trannie Anderson, Will Bundy, Mia Mantia)

8. “Lose My Cool” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon)

9. “I Was Fine Before I Met You” (Lauren Watkins, Rodney Clawson, Luke Laird)

10. “Pretty Please” (Lauren Watkins, Lauren Hungate, Luke Laird)

Fans got an early look into the project through tracks like “Lose My Cool,” “Average Joe & Plain Jane,” “I’ll Get Through It,” “Marlboro Man” and the only collaboration on the collection, “Slippery Slope” with John Morgan. Across these tracks and those remaining, Watkins taps into a variety of musical influences with sounds reminiscent of Willie Nelson, Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, Lee Ann Womack, Sheryl Crow and more.

Through these influences, combined with Watkins’ real-life storytelling, listeners are transported into a dreamy space filled with honesty, resilience, and vivid imagery.

Much like every other element of her new album, Lauren Watkins was very intentional when choosing the perfect closing track. The result was “Pretty Please,” a song that captures the bittersweet sting of jealousy and lingering attachment after a breakup. Watkins explained that she wanted the album to end on an “unsettling” note as a way to make listeners pause, question what they’re hearing, and feel compelled to revisit the songs. And that’s exactly what this song does.

“Most of the time, I would choose a song that is sort of all encompassing, or it wraps up the album or just closes it out. Well, and I actually wanted to end it on a really unsettling note because I kind of wanted people to go like, ‘wait, what was that? ‘And I might have some more tricks up my sleeve there, but I also wanted it to make people to go back and listen to the album again and be like, ‘wait, that did not satisfy me. What was this? I need to figure this out and to go listen to it again.’ So that’s why I did that. I genuinely just wanted it to be unsettling.”

Lauren Watkins will celebrate the release of In A Perfect World by opening for Lainey Wilson’s The Whirlwind Tour at Madison Square Garden tonight.

Reflecting on her upcoming performance with Wilson, Watkins gushed, “I couldn’t be more excited. I also couldn’t be more nervous, honestly, because I feel like she’s a lot to live up to. She entertains the heck out of her crowds, and so I just hope that I can live up to that and warm up the show if that’s even possible. And so I’m really excited to go and watch that and learn from her and to get to release my album on the night I’m playing Madison Square Garden is crazy.”

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Things all fell into place with this performance and release date, as she has now dropped 10 new songs on day 10 of the tenth month of the year. Later on, she will also join Kameron Marlowe on select dates of his fall tour.