Koe Wetzel - The Night Champion (CD)

CD, Jewel Case

This is the retail compact disc of The Night Champion, issued by Columbia Records on September 18, 2026: eleven songs on a single disc in a jewel case. Columbia's notes for this edition list "Jaded," Wetzel's duet with Ella Langley, among its contents. An earlier CD of the album was sold through Wetzel's own store in the summer of 2026 under a different barcode.

Columbia announced the album on May 5, 2026 and released it digitally on June 12. "It's a continuation of 9 Lives, from that record to now," Wetzel said at the announcement. In the label's songwriting credits he appears under his given name, Ropyr Wetzel.

"Hurts Like You" arrived on May 8 as the first new song from the record and went to country radio on May 26. Wetzel wrote it with Ashley Gorley, Steph Jones, Carrie Karpinen and Gabe Simon, and Karpinen and Simon produced it at Gold Pacific Studios in Nashville. It reached No. 29 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs, No. 48 on Country Airplay and No. 2 on Bubbling Under Hot 100.

The Night Champion World Tour, a 45-city run across Australia, Canada and the United States, opened in Australia on May 5, 2026, with its North American leg starting July 8 and its last date set for Lubbock, Texas, on October 30. At the 2025 American Music Awards, Wetzel was nominated for Favorite Rock Album and Favorite Country Song.

Tracklist

1. Sinner
2. Circus
3. Jaded (feat. Ella Langley)
4. Hurts Like You
5. Time Goes On
6. Dollar and a Bottle
7. The Man
8. Nowhere Fast
9. I'll Lock Up
10. Magnet
11. When I Was