Boy in Jeans Tracklist
Boy In Jeans is the debut studio album from American singer and songwriter Ryan Beatty. The album was self-released on July 20th 2018. This is the first official project he has released since Ryan Beatty – EP in 2013, although he did released two stand-alone singles, “Passion” and “Stay Gold”, which would’ve featured on what would’ve been his self-titled debut album, however the album was ultimately scrapped for unconfirmed reasons.
It is possible that Ryan had a change of heart with his 2016 self-titled album, as he had only just come out as gay in June of that same year in a (now removed) Instagram post, describing himself as “Proud to be a raging homosexual”. He went on to say:
It’s taken 20 years of suffocating in the closet for me to become comfortable enough to say it, but now I can finally breathe. I did it!
Ryan followed up his Instagram post by tweeting:
It is probable that Ryan decided that he wanted to share the side of himself, that he had been hiding until he came out, within his music. Explaining why the original debut album was scrapped, so that a more ‘truthful-to-himself’ debut (Boy In Jeans) could be released instead.
The first single from Boy In Jeans, “Bruise”, was surprise released on May 18th along with a music video directed by close friend and ‘frontman’ of BROCKHAMPTON – Kevin Abstract. On this song Ryan sings about going to a high school dance with his girlfriend and leaving her dancing alone in favour of making out with a boy in the boys bathroom.
“Camo” was announced a day before it’s release on Ryan’s Instagram, dropping with a music video on the June 22nd and serving as the second single from the album. This song is about the depression Ryan was experiencing during his high school years, due to things like heteronormative expectations and also becoming a product of himself, to the point where his own mother saw him on TV and ’said she didn’t recognise me’.
The cover art for the album was posted to Instagram the same day “Camo” came out, with additional text in the middle of the cover stating the release date.
Ryan teased some lyrics from the album before finally releasing the tracklist on his Instagram on June 19th – the day before the album release.
“Boy in Jeans” Q&A
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How did the album title come to be?
Boy in Jeans was a lyric I had written for this song “Bruise.” At the time, I had previously titled the song “Bruise” “Boy in Jeans.” I changed the title because I wanted to hold onto it for the album title. When I hear that title, it feels like a painting almost. It creates an image for me that I think speaks for the album. There’s something so simple about it. The album cover as well has a simple thing to it.
– Ryan Beatty, The FADER
