Keith Urban's new single "Coming Home" is progressive even compared to expectations he — one of country music's most genre-expanding artists — has set. The new single from Graffiti U recalls moments from Ripcord, but he blows the top off more mainstream songs like "Wasted Time."

And still Urban keeps it country by mixing the opening guitar riff of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" into the song's open. It's a savvy move that earned the legend a posthumous songwriting credit and received his family's blessing. From there "Coming Home" explodes into the kind of song old men shake their fist at when neighbors slow-roll down the street with window-rattling bass pulsing from the speakers. The song is a cardiac event waiting to happen, which of course means it's perfect for his live show.

The Urban co-written lyrics recall a universal need for the security home and family provide. He knows this longing for his roots because he's lived it — even surrounded by full skyscrapers, there's a loneliness the 50-year-old can't shake on "Coming Home." Pop singer Julia Michaels comes in late, adding the two lines she wrote for this second single from the country singer's upcoming 10th studio album.

"I know it’s only one call away, but it’s not the same," she sings.

The family of country music "home" songs just welcomed a most unusual cousin. Urban is not John Denver, and this song is not "Take Me Home Country Roads." But it's a song aimed at the next generation of country music fans — something the master songwriter has gotten better at with every passing year.

Did You Know?: J.R. Rotem and Nicolle Galyon helped Urban and Michaels write the "Coming Home" lyrics.

Get the Story Behind Keith Urban's New Single, "Coming Home"

Keith Urban (feat. Julia Michaels)'s "Coming Home" Lyrics:

I wake up feeling / In my soul I’m / Living someone else’s life / I’m turning into concrete / Harder than these city streets / Where no one even cares if I’m alive / I gotta get it right / Get it right.

Chorus:
There’s a place that I know where they all know me / I gotta get back now to the ones who love me / Wrap myself around you never let you go / There’s nothing in the world that feels like / The place that I know where they all know me / I gotta get back now to the ones that love me / Wrap myself around you never let you go / There’s nothing in the world that feels like coming home.

My mind is heavy and I can’t sleep / Not even a memory is good enough to get me through the night / I’m longing for the real thing / People who know the real me and all the ways to love me back to life / I gotta get it right / Get it right.

(Julia Michaels)
I know it’s only one call away but it’s not the same / I know it’s only one call away but it’s not the same / I know it’s only one call away but it’s not the same / I know it’s only one call away but it’s not the same.

I'm feeling lost in all the madness / I need somewhere to ease my mind / These sidewalks filled with different faces / So many places but there's none like mine / I'm coming home.

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