Medium Build Hit Rock Bottom. Then He Got Sober and Made His Best Album Yet
Categoria: Musica
The artist born Nick Carpenter rebounds with his King of Having Fun, out Sept. 4.
Por Billboard | 04/09/2026
Nick Carpenter released his last Medium Build album, Country , in April 2024 and spent the rest of that year rigorously touring across the globe. During those nonstop months, his partying reached a fever pitch, as did his self-doubt, and in February 2025, while on tour with Role Model in Australia, he hit rock bottom. “It’s a lot of shame, anger, resentment, I’m not good enough,” Carpenter says of his feelings at that time. “And then you just resign to like, well, I’ll just drink myself to death in Adelaide. That’ll be a good way to go out.” Instead, he reached out for help and slowly started to regain control of his life. He got sober, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and took time for journaling and reading. He spent the better part of the year rebuilding his relationship with Annika Bennett, a fellow musician and collaborator whom he began dating at the end of 2024, and though he slowed down, he continued to play shows, including Coachella and tours with Petey USA, Rainbow Kitten Surprise and Tyler Childers. And amid it all, in June 2025, he recorded his sixth album, King of Having Fun , due out Sept. 4 on slowplay/Island Records, where he signed in 2023. The album, recorded live over two weeks in East Nashville, combines the Georgia native’s drawling, hearty baritone with plenty of acoustic and electric guitar, buoyant rhythms, unforgettable melodies and self-reflective, observational lyrics. The three King of Having Fun singles — “Armor,” “Home Depot” and “In My Gut” — are some of the record’s strongest, but there’s far more to discover. “Do Something Productive” sets words about Carpenter’s self-destructive tendencies to a playful, wholesome melody. “It’s Not Easy Falling in Love” is a radio-ready cautionary tale about losing love, and “Bird Woman,” written while watching a multigenerational family do tai chi in a park, absolutely rips. With his trademark impassioned delivery intact and the music muscular enough to sustain it, Carpenter has assembled 14 of his best songs to date. Speaking over Zoom a little over a week before the release date, Carpenter is under the weather. “I did tour for a couple weeks and did press, and I think today was the day my body was like, ‘Hey, by the way, fuck you. Here’s sickness and exhaustion,’” he says, reclining on his couch and wearing a blue baseball cap that reads “Oh My God!” and a navy blue thrift store sweatshirt with the words “Whaling City, New Bedford, MA” in white letters. He splits time between Nashville and Los Angeles, and today, he’s at his West Coast home. His dog Stanley, a Yorkie, is asleep under the table and refuses to go outside because it’s too hot. Despite not feeling well, Carpenter, 35, is in good spirits and in a better place than he was during Country ’s release. “ Country kind of felt like this cage match between myself, where I was like, ‘I have to prove that I’m commercial because all these suits are betting on me,’ but I also have t