That it does. It has been nine years since he released his self-titled debut, but Aldean says he continues to seek a new path with his sound. If the success of current single "Burnin' It Down" is any indication, he knows what he's doing.

"For me, the thing that got my attention was that it sounded so different than anything else we had for my record at that point," Aldean recalls of the first time he heard the demo of the track, written by Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, along with Rodney Clawson and Chris Tompkins. "It was something that we really needed and we didn't have."

Aldean says "Burnin' It Down," a steamy departure for the country star that almost verges on R&B, was a song that allowed him to take the album in whatever direction he wanted. "Those songs are really hard to find," he says. "Those are the kind of songs that help the album to take shape and to become what it will be eventually. When you do find them, those are important ones."

"Burnin' It Down" broke new ground for Aldean in more than terms of its sound. Last month, the song was certified Platinum by the RIAA nine weeks after its release - the fastest single to do so in 2014. It also jumped from No. 42 to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in its second week on the chart.

"Over the course of my career we had a formula for launching an album, which is put out a big, fun up-tempo to launch it and then come out with a mid-tempo after it," he explains. "This was the first time we all of a sudden came out with a mid-ballad, R&B [song] which was unlike anything that we had done before. Even though it was different, I thought it was something that we needed to do to make me feel like we're not doing the same thing when we're coming out with a new album."