Kelsea Ballerini Finds Herself Between ‘Two Things’ on New Song

Kelsea Ballerini released “Two Things” on Friday, the most recent track from her upcoming album, Patterns, out Oct. 25.

On the heartache ballad’s chorus, Ballerini sings: “Two things can be true/I’ll love and hate you/I’ll be your best and your worst day/I’ll be your blessing and curse, babe.” The artist hinted at the track and its upcoming video the day before with a clip showing her looking through a window at the countryside before it cuts to a view of a city skyline. The snippet also hinted at the song’s line, “I love New York City, but I can’t stay at the Carlyle anymore,” and flashed a shot of Ballerini on the steps outside the historic hotel.

In August, Ballerini dropped the upcoming LP’s second single, “Sorry Mom,” which she said in a statement was about “chasing dreams, walking away from school, losing my virginity, walking away from college.” The track followed her collaboration with Noah Kahan, “Cowboys Cry Too” — the song released back in June and is also set to appear in Patterns.

Her forthcoming project will be Ballerini’s first full-length album since 2022’s Subject to Change and follows her 2023 EP, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, which earned a Best Country Album nomination at the 2024 Grammy Awards despite its 16-minute run-time. 

The singer will celebrate her new LP a few days after its release with a special performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Oct. 29. ”The whole time I was making this album, I was visualizing and dreamscaping ways to bring it to life for our live show,” she said in a statement. “It was something I couldn’t wait more than five days after its release to do.”

When discussing Patterns with The Associated Press, Ballerini said that “people probably expect this really happy-go-lucky, love, mushy, gushy record from me. That’s not the case.” She added, “And I’m really proud of that. It would have been easy to, I think, just collect the really beautiful parts of my life that I’ve dusted off and found the last couple of years. But that’s not the fullness of my experience.”