Thomas Rhett on Creating 'Bangers' for His Kids on New Album and Embracing a 'Fun' Season of Marriage (Exclusive)

• Thomas Rhett's new album About a Woman is out now
• The country star's goal was to create an album his listeners want to get up and dance to
• He opens up about keeping the spark alive with wife Lauren Akins

Thomas Rhett is in his fun era — and he's got some "bangers" lined up on his new album to get fans onboard.

On Friday, Aug. 23, the country star released his highly anticipated studio album About a Woman. Thomas Rhett started working on the album early 2023 and he quickly realized he wanted to make a record his family — and fanbase — couldn't resist dancing to.

"It was just like, man, my last couple albums, there'd be so many songs that my kids wanted to skip or that my wife wanted to skip," the "Craving You" singer, 34, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "I don't really know the reason why except that it didn't make them want to dance. I really wanted to make sure that my wife and kids felt like this was one that put a smile on their face and has really made 'em want to move."

Thomas Rhett wrote roughly 100 songs for the record before whittling it down to the 14 tracks he "just couldn't live without." Leading up to the album's release, he released singles "Beautiful as You," "Gone Country," "Overdrive" and "After All the Bars Are Closed."

Thomas Rhett — who shares daughters Willa Gray, 8½, Ada James, 7, Lennon Love, 4½, and Lillie Carolina, 2½, with wife Lauren Akins — says that after he had written several songs, he realized they were all about his wife.

"Every single one of these tracks is about my relationship with my wife from all over the spectrum," he says. "There's a couple from being 16 and a couple from being 19 and a couple from being 25 and a couple from being where we are now. And there's also a couple that are very future-leaning kind of love songs."

The "Die a Happy Man" singer had time to sit with his song choices after creating them — and he made sure to get a stamp of approval from the people he loves most.

"I got to play these songs in so many different environments to get the banger approved check mark," he recalls. "I feel like for me, having the time to be able to play them for people gave me a really good sense of a confidence, like, 'Maybe my gut is right.' I'm not a great truster of my gut."

His wife's favorite is "Church," which he wrote while recalling their teenage years listening to "Eric Church nonstop."

"We're immediately transported to being teenagers again and having this reckless freedom of parking up on a hilltop and listening to the newest Eric Church record," he says.

The Akins' have been married for 11 years now and they've faced seasons of change: "There's really joyful seasons and there's really sad seasons, there's really tough seasons and there's fun seasons."

"This season that we're in right now is a really fun season. Our kids are just getting older and it's a lot easier to go on dates. It's a lot easier to have some alone time in the mornings. It's a lot easier to travel with our kids and know that we're not going to have massive meltdowns in an airport," he says. "It's like we are flirting again, and I think it's because we have the energy to flirt rather than just like, 'Oh my gosh, get me to my pillow as fast as humanly possible' kind of mindset of having young children."

"As a almost 35-year-old man being married almost 12 years, I fully understand what it means to still date your wife. I think it is always being a little bit unpredictable when you're dating. You don't want to show all your cards at first. You want to be mysterious and you want to be unpredictable. I think today that's what it means for us to still flirt. It means to make fun of each other and plan crazy dates and go on vacations."

Looking back on the creative process, Thomas Rhett says what he loves most is the feeling when a song finally comes together.

"I wish you could bottle up and sell it," he says.

"If I didn't still love creating, I don't know that I would be doing it anymore. I feel like when that feeling goes away is probably the moment that I'll hang up the hat," he says. "Feeling that full circle moment of creating something out of thin air... it is my favorite thing in the world to get to write a song and watch it come to life and then watch people have the same experience with it that I did."

About a Women is out now.