Luke Bryan talks 'Kill the Lights'

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — "We wanted to build a barn like this and have good ol' throwdowns in it," Luke Bryan said as he previewed his new album, Kill the Lights, at his farm Tuesday.

Bryan, pictured here at a recent concert in Wisconsin, played Kill the Lights, out Aug. 7, for several dozen members of the media Tuesday afternoon, then followed with a second listening session for the songwriters and music publishers who contributed material to the album.

Bryan co-wrote six of the 13 songs on the album's standard edition, compared to just one on his previous studio album, 2013's Crash My Party.

"On Crash My Party, I wrote a lot of songs, and I didn't really record many of my songs," Bryan said. "On this album, I didn't write a lot of songs, but I wound up recording a lot of them. It was nice for me to accidentally get on my own album."

Bryan considers Strip It Down, one of his co-writes that made the album, a rare sexy song in his repertoire.

The song "Crash My Party was kind of sexy; Do I was sexy, but the couple was in turmoil," Bryan says. "This is my first, like, straight-up sexy, we're-in-love deal."

Another song, Home Alone Tonight, is a duet with Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild.

"When you record a song with another woman and it's your wife's favorite song, you know you done good," Bryan said.

Kick the Dust Up, the first single from Kill the Lights, is currently No. 6 on USA TODAY's Country airplay chart.