Nearly a decade and a half after he first came to America from Australia, Keith Urban has arrived in a major way as a global musical force. This accomplished singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has slowly but surely established himself as one of the most consistent and exciting talents not simply in country music, but in our music world as a whole.

A sense of steady artistic growth has been apparent since Urban’s American debut as part of the country rock trio The Ranch back in 1997. There’s been a series of increasingly acclaimed solo albums from 1999’s Keith Urban, to 2002’s Golden Road to 2004’s Be Here, which topped Billboard’s Top Country Album charts as well as hit #3 on the Billboard 200. Keith Urban and Golden Road, combined, produced 7 Top 5 Singles, including 4 #1s with sales of more than 4 million. Ultimately, Be Here, which went platinum in every country in which it was released, and four times platinum in the United States, would yield five smash singles (“Days Go By,” “You’re My Better Half,” “Better Life” “Making Memories of Us” and “Tonight I Want To Cry”). Urban earned his first Grammy Award for Best Male Country Performance and the very prestigious Entertainer of the Year Award from the Country Music Association.

Anyone who imagined that the massive success of Be Here and the flurry of honors that followed it would lead Urban to rest on his laurels is in for a big, bold and rather beautiful surprise. Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing, a multi-textured work, which Urban co-produced with longtime collaborator Dann Huff, is already being lauded as the most ambitious, accomplished and intimate album in Urban’s already impressive career.