Through its emotional ups and downs, its sweeping, hooky and earnest piano-pop, Indiana finds the 24-year-old, Indiana based singer working through romantic tests, and even finds him candidly discussing the status of his young career. "There are songs about relationships, girls, faith, friends, family, and there are even some songs about the music industry," he says. "It's a debut album. Nobody knows how the album's gonna go, I don't know how my career is gonna go, so some songs are about that--me trying to venture out into the big world, and make it work." It's also an album about taking stock of all that's good and bad in your life. McLaughlin dubbed the album Indiana during a point when he was in California and away from his Midwestern hometown for the first time in his life for an extended period of time -- at a time when he was better able to recognize what's beautiful and easily taken for granted in small town America. In the song's sly stanzas, the title track pays homage to his home state, via a string-laden piano ballad. But the songs on Indiana deal in emotions as prevalent in Timbuktu as they are in the heartland: "After all, we're only human," McLaughlin sings in the chorus of the ultra-catchy jewel "Human."