For his next album, is going international.
The Fort Worth-bred Grammy winner pulled the wraps off his fifth studio album Friday. It鈥檚 called Happiness Anytime, the follow-up to . In a break from past rollouts, Bridges is dropping the album in three phases, with the full 12-song collection available on Sept. 25.
The first batch of new songs 鈥� 鈥淟ight the Way,鈥� 鈥淭ears of Joy,鈥� 鈥淚llusion鈥� and 鈥淵our Love is Electric鈥� 鈥� are out now, and you can listen to all four below. The next drop will be Aug. 21, and the final four-song cache arrives Sept. 25, the day of the full album鈥檚 release.
"I always tell the staff, the last words of a dying radio station are 'You always have done it this way,' and I think Leon has kind of taken that into the music side of things," said Benji McPhail, KXT program director, on the July 17 episode of NTX Now. "He continues to evolve on every single record. You never know what you're going to get, and man, I was not expecting this, but it's really good." (You can hear KXT's McPhail and Lesley James discuss Happiness Anytime .)
The project is produced by Josh Lloyd-Watson and Lydia Kitto, two-thirds of , and features Pino Palladino on bass. (Kitto is a guest vocalist on the seventh track, 鈥淎ll Day, All Night.鈥�) Bridges focused on feeling and vocal performance, Lloyd-Watson shaped production and arrangements and Kitto weighed in on harmonic detail and melodic intuition.
鈥淔irst thought is the best thought,鈥� Lloyd-Watson said in a statement. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where the emotion is. Anything after that becomes intellectualized, and that鈥檚 not really where music excels.鈥�
Indeed, one of Bridges' greatest skills is his willingness and ability to freely collaborate with an eclectic array of musicians, and this latest effort plays directly into that strength. Happiness Anytime finds Bridges once again expanding his sonic palette, reaching back to the dance-oriented songs of 2018鈥檚 Good Thing but incorporating Afrobeat, South American rhythms, disco and soul to a degree he has not previously.
鈥淔or me, happiness is not a feeling that you chase,鈥� Bridges said in a statement. 鈥淚 want this album to be something that lingers with people and lingers in people鈥檚 bones. There鈥檚 this feeling that we have to fix the problems of the world; you feel inadequate or it can be debilitating. My role is to be light. I hope that comes across with this album.鈥�
Get ready to dance
There鈥檚 certainly an infectious buoyancy to the first quartet of songs on offer, finding Bridges, a long-time aficionado of dance, embracing rhythm as well as shaking up his live presentation: These new songs will be presented in concert with a vinyl-spinning DJ, horn section and three backing vocalists, a pivot away from the R&B revue-style band he鈥檚 toured with for much of his career to date.
Bridges connected with Lloyd-Watson and Kitto at various festivals around the world, and as a one-off writing session yielded six songs, the trio found themselves in a recording studio in April 2025.
鈥淟eon said he wants to have music that he can dance to,鈥� Kitto said in a statement. 鈥淗e wants to have moments where he can put the guitar down and just dance and perform at the front.鈥�
In addition to putting the finishing touches on Happiness Anytime, Bridges popped up on a few singles throughout 2025, including He also recently made a cameo during Shaboozey鈥檚 Tiny Desk Concert, alongside fellow Texan Sarah Jarosz. You can watch Bridges鈥� duet with Shaboozey on 鈥淏urn It Down鈥� below.