CODY JOHNSON - How Do You Sleep At Night? - CoJo Music/Warner Music Nashville

Following his current single collaboration with Carrie Underwood, “I’m Gonna Love You,” Cody Johnson now turns away from being the steady rock for the one he loves to instead explore the aftermath pains of a harsh breakup.

“How Do You Sleep At Night?” the second glimpse of his upcoming Leather Deluxe Editon (November 1, 2024), is available today on all streaming and digital platforms.

Written by HARDY, Nick Donley, Ryan Hurd and Zach Abend, starting on a softer glide melodically that overlays the pull of prominent steel guitar, Johnson immediately questions how she could live with herself after destroying what they had while pondering on how she’s getting by with seemingly no outward signs of any hurt or pain.

“Do you toss, do you turn, are your sheets in a mess?
Do you pass out on wine while you're still in your dress?
Do you light up some smoke, do you take you a pill
Just to shake off the edge of regret that you feel?”

Providing an ultra-personal snapshot into who they were as a couple, lines such as “Are you watchin' The Office likе we used to do?” inject an extreme layer of depth to the welled-up emotions that are broken hearted burning his unbalanced, looking back perspective.

But as with the roller-coaster bends that arrive in these types of situations, the music and steadily building frustration in his vocal tone become a natural marriage that matches how we all tend to work our anxious riddled thoughts into a frenzy as we create a myriad of emotions that constantly nag at our frayed heartstrings.

“How do you sleep at night knowin' you hurt me?
Knowin' you burned me like a cigarette?
And when you close your eyes, what do you see?
Is it me, do you wish I was still in your bed?
When you're alone in the dark, am I still in your dreams?
Since you broke my heart, girl, how do you sleep at night?”

The interesting avenue that’s never really explored, only through the underlying edges that grip his voice, is why he himself is looking for answers to these questions? Are these musings merely the late-night tortures that are keeping him awake? Is he even really seeking an answer or is he just looking to find a temporary vice to ease his troubled mind and heart?

By never pinpointing exactly why she broke things off, “How Do You Sleep At Night?” leaves these reasons fully open to interpretation, cleverly allowing the broken listener to place his/her own story into the fractured heart to heart connection of the you’re not alone comfort that’s radiating their speakers.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)