Luke Combs’ ‘What You See Is What You Get’ Is ‘More of the Same — in a Good Way’

As Luke Combs prepares to share his highly anticipated sophomore album, What You See Is What You Get, on Friday (Nov. 8), the singer says it'll be a relief to have the new batch of tunes out into the world and into fans' hands.

"I'm glad people are starting to hear it, other than just me and three or four other folks," Combs told The Boot and other outlets at a recent preview of What You See Is What You Get. "That's what I get more anxious about -- seeing the reaction once it's finally out."

The stakes are high for Combs' new record. His breakthrough debut, This One's for You, will be difficult to top: That project produced five No. 1 singles, and recently tied Shania Twain's Come on Over as the longest-running No. 1 album on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.

Almost immediately after that record came out, fans began clamoring for new music, and Combs delivered with an EP, The Prequel, the title of which is a nod to bigger things to come. That smaller project once again made history: With it, Combs became the first artist to simultaneously place five songs in the Hot Country Song chart's Top 25 since Johnny Cash did so in 1959.

Given the reaction to his music thus far, it's no surprise that Combs has adopted an "ain't broke, don't fix" mentality when cutting songs for his second full-length album. "It's just, I would say, more of the same -- in a good way," he explains. "I feel like 'more of the same' sounds bad sometimes, but I just tried to go from -- if the last record was here to here, I tried to take it, from a production standpoint, little bit wider on either side.

"Nothing crazy," he clarifies. "No drum loops or anything like that. I added some horns, which should be interesting. But I guess we'll see. I'm excited to start playing these songs out."

Combs isn't the kind of artist who listens back to his music and immediately critiques himself, finding parts of the songs he wishes he'd done differently. "I mean, if it comes out and everyone's like, 'Ugh, talk about sophomore slump,' then maybe I would start doing that," he adds with laugh. Still, he doesn't like to second guess himself.

"I mean, at the end of the day, I'm proud of it and proud of the work we did on it. I think I'll always be able to fall back on that, knowing that I went in and did the best that I could do," he offers. "Obviously I want people to like it. I'd be crazy to tell you that I don't care if people like it. But I definitely don't have any regrets, as far as recording it or the way it sounds."

In February, Combs will launch a tour in support of What You See Is What You Get.

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