Ryan Beatty's 'Sweet Fortune': Love, Clairo, and a
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- Ryan Beatty will release 'Sweet Fortune,' his fourth album and follow-up to 2023's 'Calico,' this Friday; the first track 'Phantom' was cut during the final leg of his 2024 Calico tour in Los Angeles with producer Ethan Gruska.
- The 10-track album centers on the joys and challenges of a long-distance relationship, with Beatty telling Variety that making music from a place of happiness 'brought me a lot of anxiety' and required him to make peace with that discomfort.
- Clairo co-wrote the title track and 'Delancey' and contributed vocals to 'White Lightning' and 'Too Many Ways,' pushing Beatty into more confessional territory; he called her and Gruska collaborators he trusts 'musically and personally.'
- Recording sessions began in early 2025 in New York City, with additional collaborators Amy Allen and Leon Michaels; Beatty cited Lucinda Williams and Little Feat as inspirations for the record's lush, brass-and wind-inflected Americana sound.
- Beatty won a Grammy for Album of the Year for his songwriting contributions to Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter,' and said the intimate style of those songs carried into 'Sweet Fortune.'
- On lead single 'Secret Language,' Beatty sings 'Fell asleep with our bodies undressed / It's so hard to let go, it's so hard to let in,' and he plans to bring the album on the road with the 'Arms Over Armor' tour across North America and Europe this fall.
Why it matters: Beatty is stepping into a more open, happiness-forward creative space after a Grammy-winning turn on Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter,' and the fall 'Arms Over Armor' tour will be his first chance to connect with a post-'Calico' audience that now expects more than a bedroom-pop sound. He built the record with collaborators — Clairo, Ethan Gruska — who pushed him past the guarded songwriting that defined his 2018 debut 'Boy in Jeans' and the 2020 follow-up 'Dreaming of David.'
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