The country music scene is getting younger and younger it seems. Take for example, the American Country Music Award’s New Male Artist of the Year, Zach Top. Top, is 28 years old. Zach Bryan, 29, and my favorite, Dylan Gossett, only 26 years old. But, there are plenty more young stars out there that are much younger than those listed above and one of them is Hudson Westbrook.
Westbrook, only 21 years old, released an EP on January 23rd, titled Exclusive. Westbrook, who busted on the scene in October of 2024 with his single, House Again, struck gold again with Exclusive as he continues to sky rocket up the country music charts within just a few years of getting started.
I am still new to Westbrook’s work, but from the select songs I have listened to like, 5 to 9, Painted You Pretty and Sober, it’s easy to groove out to him and his songs are very heartfelt and catchy.
Digging into Exclusive now, the first song is the title track, Exclusive. The song is about Westbrook reminiscing about his time with an old love interest and seeing that same girl get wronged in a new relationship.
“That girl was one in a million, you didn’t know what you had, she’s gonna make someone happy someday and keep making you sad.”
At the end of the song, Westbrook gives his advice to the man who lost the girl with the line, “I’ve been there too, yeah. And I bet right now you feel stupid.”
If you have read some of my other articles, you will know that I am a big fan of guitar solos and this song has a great one. It’s definitely a slower tempo song, but I was a big fan.
The next song, titled LMWYL, stands for “Love Me When Your Lonely,” and is a quicker tempo song in comparison to Exclusive. The western sounding song talks about how Westbrook does not mind being loved by someone even if they are just lonely.
Westbrook, in a Spotify short, stated, “It’s more tailored to an idea.” I feel as if that is the perfect way to describe the first two songs of the EP. The songs are about relationships and regret.
The theme trickled into the next song, which is my favorite out of the five songs, titled “Lovin’ On Me.” This groovy song is about Westbrook spotting someone and thinking they would look better loving on him. The song contains some female background vocals plus a funky guitar riff to start.
In the second to last song, If He Wanted To, which was released as a single in November of 2025, is the same theme of Westbrook peering into relationships and saying that he can do better. More sick electric guitar solos would make an appearance in this track. The single alone, before it was a part of the EP, accumulated over 4 million streams on Spotify.
Finally, the last song, named Pretty Privilege, which was released as a single before, brings the whole EP together. Throughout the four previous tracks, Westbrook sings of heartbreaks and regrets he has, as I mentioned before, but in the final song, he finally gets the girl.
“Cause I’m fallin’ a victim to beautiful abuse. What’s a man to do when you wear that dress so confident.” Also, “Your come kiss me blues I’m addicted to.”
The rhymes were rhyming in Westbrook’s EP for sure. Overall, Westbrook continues to impress and continues to release hit after hit at the ripe age of 21. Cannot wait to see what this young stud puts out next.