Hearing “Beautiful Soul” on the stereo brings us back to the early 2000s when Jesse McCartney was a teenage heartthrob whose music we played on repeat. However, we don’t have to listen through a radio to jam to his romantic melodies anymore. McCartney’s first official tour in several years, the “Better With You” U.S. Tour, has an all-ages Salt Lake City date on Wednesday, July 18 at The Complex.
McCartney is an American pop singer-songwriter and actor from New York. McCartney’s passion for music was clear from a young age, but his music career didn’t begin until the late 1990s as a member of the boy band Dream Street. Dream Street was only a stepping stone on the path towards his ultimate success.
McCartney left Dream Street in 2002 and began producing music as a solo artist. He released his debut album “Beautiful Soul” on Sept. 24, 2004 in the United States. Less than a year later, the title track reached number sixteen on Billboard’s “The Hot 100.” The momentum didn’t stop there. Over the next ten years he released “Right Where You Want Me”, “Departure”, “In Technicolor,” two additional live albums and several EPs.
After regularly releasing albums for a decade, McCartney’s pause from music was entirely unexpected. According to McCartney himself, he just needed a break after releasing “In Technicolor.”
“I was beat – that record just took so much out of me,” he told Billboard in April. “You do anything long enough, it can drive you mad. And I’m a perfectionist and very particular about things, so I just needed some perspective, a little balance. I knew I wanted to take some time off. I didn’t know how much, and it wasn’t until a few weeks in that I was like, ‘Oh wow. I still haven’t decompressed, I need a lot of time off.’ So I did.”
McCartney’s well-deserved rest eventually led to the release of a new single, “Better With You,” in early 2018. The track left fans nostalgic for “Beautiful Soul” and eager for future releases. It’s safe to assume McCartney fanatics can look forward to an album sometime in the near future, although nothing has been announced yet.
For now, we must rely on McCartney’s performance Wednesday night to hold us over. Expect to hear all of your favorite songs. You can bet “Beautiful Soul” and “Better With You” are two of the many songs on his setlist. We can’t know what the rest of the show entails, but rest assured it will be a night to remember.
Unfortunately, tickets to the 8 PM show with Just Seconds Apart and PUBLIC are completely sold out. If you were lucky enough to snag a couple, head to The Complex with your peeps on Wednesday and enjoy this blast from the past.