Country artist Alex Williams is returning to the outlaw country sound that launched his career with a new five-song EP titled Discount Country, due out on Friday. The release marks a shift back to his roots after last year's Space Brain, an album of country-styled covers of hair-metal acts such as Ratt, Poison and Skid Row. Rolling Stone premiered the EP's "rambling anthem" track "Time on His Hands" a day ahead of the wider release.

The Indiana native first made his name with his 2017 outlaw country debut, Better Than Myself, and has spent the years since touring heavily. He recorded Discount Country with producer Ben Fowler, revisiting songs he had written shortly after the 2024 Space Brain sessions; Williams says he had no set plan and simply pulled together five older country tracks that fitted well, calling the "bargain bin" title tongue-in-cheek. He returns to the road later this month with headlining shows focused on his native Midwest, where he first discovered both outlaw country and the Eighties rock he grew up hearing from his father's CD collection.