Alex Warren is back with his sophomore album, and he’s on a mission to make listeners feel something on his own road to healing. To him, each song is a lesson on love, grief and everything in between. “Every season of life you go through, there’s a record that can help you understand that feeling,” promises Warren in his interview with American Songwriter. “So this record is essentially … a tutorial on how to feel.” Each track tells a different story, describing the many facets of life.

“EMERALD EYES” is a punchy start to the album, a grand song beginning with a grand piano flourish. It’s a love song in its purest form—a loud declaration of one’s own feelings of being utterly taken in by another person. “That drug you’re dealing is a piece of my soul,” sings Warren, “Say you’ll never let me go.” The song then proceeds to almost cheekily end on the piano it started with, as if this confession never happened. The piano carries forward into “SAME STARS,” a ballad telling the story of a past loss that briefly builds to a raw intensity at the bridge. Warren wonders how things could remain the same despite the grief, how he could possibly remain the same. The stars will “never be the same, I’ll never be the same,” Warren realizes, for the loss he has begun to cope with has changed him.

What follows is two love songs with very different moods. After the weight that came with listening to “SAME STARS,” “PASSENGER,” the third single by release date, provides a light, fun melody. It follows the feeling of pursuit, begging for some confirmation. Warren remains stuck in “the passenger side,” allowing someone else to have full control over his feelings, but he “wonder[s] what it feels like” to actually mean something to his lover. “RESCUER,” the final single to be released a mere three weeks before the album, is calmer and much more vulnerable, showing how love can also heal. Warren talks about how he was “torn to pieces” before he was found, how this love “broke the curse.” It reflects on a healthy relationship, a welcome respite from the fears of this world.

“CRY WOLF” mimics the “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” fable with a gospel-style chorus. “So don’t come crying to me,” sings Warren, firm in his decision to separate from a toxic relationship, from a person who kept trying to play the victim to bring him back. With a similar level of maturity, some amount of gospel and a change in subject matter, we transition to the second single to release, “FINE PLACE TO DIE.” With a more final tone to the lyrics, the ballad hopes for a love that stays until the end, no matter how the end may be. Should the relationship come crumbling down, sings Warren, “All I ask is that I get to burn with you.” Even with the fire and ash, the relationship must stand.

To perfectly bisect the tracklist, Warren includes an interlude, titled “ARE YOU HAVING FUN, ALEX?” Should the raw emotional vulnerability of the first six tracks not be enough, now would be the perfect time to grab the tissues. Set to soft strings, Warren plays voice clippings of his father through childhood memories. Warren explains this feeling to American Songwriter: “you’re realizing that he’s telling you, 20 years from now … but he’s pointing it at the younger me, and he’s giving you life lessons and saying, ‘I love you.’” The one-sided message, this letter to the future, lasts a minute and a half. “What are you up to, Alex?” asks the man in the video to the man presumably watching, “Are you makin’ music?” The ending was a message in itself, and the silence that follows holds words that could not be said—the recipient was no longer there to hear them.

With the emotional context and setup, it’s Warren’s turn to reply in “I MISS YOU MORE,” as a sort of life update. The song largely focuses on the feeling of continuing to live, to experience milestones without that person to support you and see it all. “What I’d give to hear your voice on nights like this,” remarks Warren, telling the story of growing up, getting married and even having a child of his own—all without his father. But time can only move forward, something Warren slowly copes with at the bridge (once again, just as grand and vulnerable). The tone remains somewhat mellow in the transition to the much calmer “ONLY THING LEFT.” There’s the feeling of exhaustion, the question of whether it is that time to leave this relationship, to stop the constant battle that drains the couple, to walk away from something that may be past saving. “We’re not out of love, we’re just out of fight,” sings Warren, holding onto that little piece of hope that things may get better with distance.

It’s time for a mood change, and “FEVER DREAM” is ready to deliver. The best way to describe the instrumentals for this track is bouncy, enough for an energy boost (and perhaps a dance). The first of the singles on this track, released Feb. 26, this song has rightfully made its waves on the internet, radio—even on Warren’s tour. The track tells the story of love at first sight in a loud, declarative way, as if the singer is begging to be heard.

With a pressing beat and a raw intensity, “WON’T GO BACK AGAIN” describes the feeling of “setting [himself] on fire” just to “keep [another] warm,” the act of giving parts of yourself away to keep someone else happy. The reflection in the lyrics takes place after leaving the toxic relationship, and with liberation comes clarity. “LAST TIME,” epitomizes that feeling of not knowing when things will end. Warren wishes that he would “have known that it was the last time,” regretting the assumption that he would have gotten more time.

The final track is the titular “WILDCHILD.” The title is Warren’s childhood nickname, and the lyrics are appropriately from the perspective of Warren’s late father, the one who gave him that nickname. It’s a story of a parent who only wants the best for his son, but is just out of reach. “Don’t let a cruel world take your light away,” advises the lyrics, the paternal instinct to protect their child from the darkness of this world. The bittersweet feeling comes from the knowledge that this is the most that he can do as a father after passing away so soon, with no ability to be there for his child. The song ends with an electric guitar solo from John Mayer, Warren’s father’s favorite artist. It is with the hum of the electric guitar that this emotional rollercoaster comes to an end.

With Warren’s Finding Family on the Road tour wrapped up and several shows scheduled for December and January, there is plenty to look forward to after the “WILDCHILD” debut. For now, take a chance to just feel your feelings, inspired by the vulnerability of this tracklist.