“Sweeter,” Gavin DeGraw‘s fourth album, features the sunny pop-rock sound that fans have appreciated since his first album was released in 2003. The biggest difference this time around? DeGraw has grown as a songwriter since the 2009 release of “Free,” and the 34-year-old New York native isn’t afraid to flaunt his new insights.
“I think that there’s even more risk on this album, and that has to do with me as a person,” says DeGraw, “being more willing to just expose more of my own personal life and my own personal feelings.”
David Cook and Gavin DeGraw Co-Headlining Fall Tour
Before “Sweeter” hits stores on Tuesday (Sept. 20), DeGraw sat down with Billboard.com to discuss each of the 10 songs on the album. The singer-songwriter discussed how the track “Candy” relates to Internet gossip, how “Radiation” is “not a romantic song at all,” and how he wrote first single “Not Over You” as a way to capture the “vulnerability of not getting over somebody” — but being too proud to share those feelings.
Check out Gavin DeGraw’s video track-by-track above, and read about how the singer has recovered from his August assault to deliver his latest opus.
(reporting by Phil Gallo, L.A.)