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Kelsea Ballerini is embracing the “freedom and unbounded nature” of creating EPs in between studio albums to offer a current glimpse into her life.
Ballerini, 32, debuted Mount Pleasant on Friday (November 14). The 6-track collection includes “I Sit In Parks,” the vulnerable ballad that released from the project first, plus “People Pleaser,” “Emerald City,” “587,” “The Revisionist” and “Check On Your Friends.” Ballerini said creating EPs has become “a creative exercise and also palate cleanser for my own artistry.” The 2026 Grammy nominee said Mount Pleasant is “a collection of six songs that i’ve written throughout the summer, marking a chapter of heavy self examination, longing, and stepping further into who I am as a 32 year old woman.”
Following her latest studio record, Patterns, and her first-ever headlining arena tour earlier this year, Ballerini said she “had the biggest dopamine dump my adult life.” In her “off” months, the powerhouse singer-songwriter had time “to really sit in the feelings that were coming up in the stillness and quiet,” she said. “While I love to be sparkly and confident, I was feeling heavy waves of insecurity that I hadn’t really taken pen to paper about before.
“In feeling so seen by fans and music lovers in my more recent music that has felt more emotionally peeled back and sometimes uncomfortably honest, I felt encouraged to let it all out in the safest way I know how,” Ballerini continued. “From the body clock crash outs, to the ‘who the f*** am I outside of who people tell me I am?,’ to the admission and ick of comparison and jealousy, to making peace with the past, to the urgency of checking on your friends and yourself into the future. Mount Pleasant is a place, a feeling, an uphill journey, and an idea of what’s to come. Welcome to the park ❤️”
Mount Pleasant is the first new music to release from Ballerini since she extended Patterns with the 20-track deluxe edition in March. Since then, she also shared a collection of stripped version of several tracks from her Patterns era. Some fans noted that Mount Pleasant is also a town in South Carolina and an Outer Banks filming location. Ballerini is reportedly back together with Outer Banks actor Chase Stokes after a brief breakup. The couple started talking when Balleirni slid into his DMs in December 2022, and they began dating the following month. Reports emerged in September that the country artist and the actor parted ways; however, an unnamed “insider” recently told US Weekly amid reconciliation rumors that “Kelsea and Chase are giving their relationship another try. There’s still a lot of love there, so they fell back into it very naturally.”
“I feel like EPs seem like they come out of nowhere, but they’re, I think the most inspired, always, because it’s like this really condensed period of time that’s being documented, and then you get to put it out really close to while you’re feeling it,” the 59th CMA Awards performer and nominee shared, in part, ahead of Mount Pleasant’s debut. Ballerini said she had “all these feelings come up to the surface, and having all this time and space to not run from it. And so, I think for me, the safest place to capture those feelings and escort them on their way is to write. And so, I think I felt so satisfied with the story of Patterns, but that, again, it wasn’t up to date with what I was experiencing and what I am. And so, I just started writing and I started with ‘I Sit In Parks.’”