For my sister and me, Tim McGraw’s songs have always been “our” songs. Fortunately, the same familial sweetness that makes me turn on “Meanwhile Back at Momma’s” whenever I’m homesick also runs through his new album, Damn Country Music. Though McGraw has repeatedly said he created Damn Country Music without a theme, his music is still, more than ever, about family. Whenever he gets nostalgic about close, small-town ties—which is often—we become part of his community and at the same time long for our own homes.

“Here Tonight,” McGraw’s duet with his daughter, Gracie, sets that tone early on. Her involvement makes it clear from the beginning that, however much McGraw might love his fans, this project is for his family. As he croons, “I ain’t packing up and leaving this time / I’d rather be right here tonight,” we know he wants to stay surrounded by family and in his hometown, a place inextricably tied to family in all country music. But the title track, three songs later, gives the opposite perspective on this dual pull of dreams and family.

“Damn Country Music,” a song about McGraw’s experience of leaving home as a young man to pursue a career as a singer, captures the pain of choosing one over the other. “I quit my job, let my momma down / Broke an angel’s heart on the way out of town,” he sings, the words adding nuance to our conception of the singer. Its harsh language signals that this is the turning point where McGraw realizes the importance of being there for and with his family, paving the way for the older Tim McGraw’s refusal to leave his family again in “Here Tonight,” and the mature perspective of the rest of the album. “Humble and Kind,” a list of fatherly advice set to music, ends the album with its most overt expression of love for family. McGraw has said he couldn’t get through a single take without crying, and the overwhelming affection he feels for his daughters is imbued in every tender chord and voice wobble.

Overall, the album has the signature Tim McGraw flavor, expertly interweaving the more contemporary, party-all-night-in-an-empty-field country sound that comes through in “Top of the World.” Its old-school melancholy disenchantment is given free rein in a cover of Wesley Dennis’ “Don’t Make Me Feel at Home.” Rather than change his sound in order to create something new, Tim McGraw chooses to show off his vulnerabilities. If last year’s Sundown Heaven Town made you want to go out cruising with your friends, Damn Country Music calls you home.