Ten years after the release of his first album, music listeners likely think they have a good idea about who Lee Brice is, based on his eight #1 singles and his seven CMA Award nominations.

He is, one might argue, a sensitive country roughneck, the guy who embraces the power of long-lasting relationships in “Love Like Crazy,” “A Woman Like You” and “I Don’t Dance.” He’s the guy who makes his audiences cry every time he memorializes people who sacrificed their lives on our behalf in “I Drive Your Truck.”

But with his 2020 album Hey World, people are likely hearing Brice differently. Singing next to smoky vocalist Carly Pearce on the #1 single “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” the power and range in his voice comes in loud and clear. In the follow-up #1, “One Of Them Girls,” he attacks the subject matter with bite and swagger. It’s still sensitive, but it’s imbued with an undeniable playfulness and a commanding drive.

Throughout Hey World, listeners experience a fully-formed version of Lee Brice, through the twangy power-pop of “Good Ol’ Boys,” the old-school R&B behind “Don’t Need No Reason,” the bluesy sexual tone of “Do Not Disturb,” the new wave tech flavor of “Soul,” the dark and dangerous “Sons And Daughters” and the honky-tonk middle finger in “If You.”

Those textures have always been there in one form or another – his celebratory #1 “Drinking Class” and the alt-rock undercurrent in the chart-topping “Hard To Love” bear that out – but Hey World is the deepest, widest and most complete exploration to date of Brice’s unbound creative spirit.