The Kingdom

THE KINGDOM features some of the most potent songwriting of Rossdale's career, highlighted by the pummeling "Flowers on a Grave," as well as the noise hurricane "Quicksand" which finds him showcasing a vulnerability like rarely before. "It encompasses my present inability to find a lasting significant other," the singer openly admits of the track's inspiration. "I like the idea of until you find that perfect love that people are in quicksand in the attempt to find love. How love is implosive because people are so weird these days. That's a very poignant song for me." And then there's "Undone," a heart-wrenching ballad written in a burst of inspiration that he describes as "very pure" and untainted. "I'm really proud of that song," Rossdale says. "It has none of the pressure of outside forces and white noise. I stayed true to it." In many ways, with Bush's new album, Rossdale is creating the type of music-and the world-he hopes to see. As he explains, The Kingdom is a utopic ideal-a reaction to a world full of "judgement and self-righteousness and mob mentality and where everyone knows better than everyone else." "The Kingdom was this place that I imagined where likeminded people could go and be free and artists and musicians and painters and people could think for themselves and don't hold any judgement over anyone else," Rossdale offers.