Kelsea Ballerini shares the latest dispatch from her colorful life on this EP, which she wrote in mid-2025 during a period of intense introspection and co-produced with frequent collaborator Alysa Vanderheym. Spanning heartache, insecurity, friendship, and the inevitable passage of time, the EP is an appropriately personal follow-up to Ballerini’s ambitious fifth studio album PATTERNS. “I have always made records—whether songs, EPs, or albums—to capture a moment in time,” she tells Apple Music. “Mount Pleasant is a collection of six songs I’ve written throughout the summer, marking a chapter of heavy self-examination, longing, and stepping further into who I am as a 32-year-old woman.” “I Sit in Parks” opens the EP on a vulnerable note, as Ballerini recounts watching families picnic together while wishing she had children and a family of her own. Musically, the song sounds almost chipper, structured as an uptempo waltz that wouldn’t sound out of place in a nursery rhyme or on a carousel. Ballerini’s voice is clearly downcast, though, especially when she sings lines like “Is it my fault for chasing things a body clock doesn’t wait for?” Such cutting insights abound on Mount Pleasant, like on standout “Emerald City,” where Ballerini grapples with romantic insecurity, and closing track “Check on Your Friends,” a clear-eyed reminder that we can’t always see the struggles faced by those closest to us.