Texas Forever

"House Again" is a song by American country music singer Hudson Westbrook, released on October 18, 2024 as the lead single from his debut studio album, ''Texas Forever'' (2025). It was written by Westbrook, Dan Alley and Neil Medley and produced by Lukas Scott and Ryan Youmans.

Background

Hudson Westbrook wrote music with Dan Alley and Neil Medley for the first time on June 4, 2024, at the River House office in Nashville, Tennessee, where all three were signed. Alley and Medley had never heard of Westbrook prior to working together. Westbrook had several ideas for a song which he discussed with Alley and Medley in a phone call the night before. They chose one about "a girl turning a house into a home". Medley and Alley had both written songs based on the concept and looked for a different angle they could explore, but the songwriters eventually built a story around the opposite idea (i.e. "a home that turned into a house again"), as Westbrook proposed. As Westbrook does routinely, they wrote it in chronological order. Westbrook took inspiration from his experience of seeing his parents divorce when he was seven years old. Throughout the process, acoustic guitars were strummed in the background. Medley and Alley let Westbrook sing in whatever melody was in his head at the moment. They recorded a very basic demo.

Westbrook experimented with the recording periodically in the following weeks. He slowed it down by about 10 beats per minute and stretched the word "now" in his singing, creating a melodic effect that mirrors the protagonist's lingering memories of his former lover. In September, Westbrook recorded the song at the Amber Sound, a studio co-owned by producer Ryan Youmans in the Hermitage neighborhood of Nashville. They developed it in a sound similar to "Blue Ain't Your Color" by Keith Urban, using bluesy triplets in tandem with a Hammond B-3 organ and gritty electric guitar. Youmans revised a chord near the end of the chorus from major to minor, heightening the self-pity expressed in the lyrics. The next day, Westbrook returned to River House, where he recorded the final version with co-producer Lukas Scott. They had singer Kaylin Roberson sing the harmonies to allude to the woman whom the song's character is thinking of.

Westbrook initially thought the song was too personal to appeal to people, but River House Vice President and General Manager Zebb Luster suggested he might be overthinking it. The song was released to streaming services on October 18 and amassed over 45 million streams on Spotify, leading to a record deal with Warner Music Nashville, which in a partnership with River House sent it to country radio via PlayMPE on February 24, 2025.

Composition

The instrumental is built around electric guitar and organ, with a layer of scattered harmonies sung by a female voice. Lyrically, it finds the narrator in an empty house, as he thinks back to fond memories associated with the house when he lived in it with the woman that he has now broken up with. It starts with the recollection that the kitchen "used to be a dancehall", before proceeding through other parts of the house such as the bedroom, window, front door, porch swing and doorbell, all of which trigger memories of his ex. The narrator hears her voice echo in his mind and is haunted by his mistakes in the relationship. He pictures that she would be surprised if she ever came back to the house, as the atmosphere has completely changed.

Charts

Certifications

References

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2024 singles
2024 songs
Hudson Westbrook songs