Chart-topping Country artist, Chris Young, celebrated for his multi-platinum success, remarkable achievements, and revered status as a member of the prestigious Grand Ole Opry, continues to solidify his place as a country music powerhouse. With over 5 billion on-demand streams, an impressive tally of 13 career No. 1 singles, and 24 R.I.A.A. certified projects, Young’s illustrious career has garnered him numerous nominations and wins at esteemed award shows such as the ACM, AMA, CMA, and Grammy Awards.
Chris Young’s 9th studio album, ‘Young Love & Saturday Nights,’ is released today (March 22nd) under RCA Records Nashville. This intriguing project features an impressive lineup of 18 songs, with Young showcasing his songwriting prowess on 15 tracks. Demonstrating his versatility, Young serves as the sole producer on three songs, while collaborating with longtime creative partners Chris DeStefano and Corey Crowder as co-producers on others.
As the title suggests, Young is focusing squarely on nostalgia and familiar Country music tropes this time around. New love, lost love, small towns, wild nights out and sexy times all feature as themes throughout this album, which will be no surprise or disappointment to long time Chris Young fans. At times, it feels like, sonically and lyrically, that the last ten years of Country music haven’t happened at all. No Stapleton, No Combs, No Wallen, HARDY or Zimmerman will impede on Chris Young sounding like peak Chris Young circa 2014. He’s sticking to what he does best and not worrying about what other artists or industry trends have changed, tweaked or evolved the genre.
Any Chris Young worth its salt will contain some heartfelt, smooth ballads and ‘……Saturday Nights’ is no exception. ‘What She Sees in Me’ is a classic ballad where Young’s rich, deep vocals weave a magic spell over some tasteful acoustic guitars. The song tells a story of two friends who become more than that. ‘I can see how far she is out of my league but I still can’t see what she sees in me’ he sings, tugging at the heartstrings whilst ‘All Dogs go to Heaven’ plays with our emotions in a different way, ‘If you spell god backwards, you’ll get man’s best friend,’ Young emotes on this tender and heartfelt tribute.
Perhaps the best of the ballads is ‘Fall Out’ which is a clever, catchy song about meeting a girl, falling in love but then needing to know how to fall out of love once she leaves. The song builds to a lovely, anthemic chorus that is peak Chris Young: steady, rhythmic and seriously easy to sing along too. It also contains a soaring electric guitar solo which is a feature of this album throughout many of the songs on offer.
Elsewhere, we get some seriously sexy, Barry White vibes. ‘Call It a Day’ finds Chris Young trying to convince his girl to open the red wine and go to bed at 3.30pm in the afternoon! ‘The sun’s still up but baby, what do you say, let’s call it a day,’ he sings on his very own version of ‘Afternoon Delight’ whilst ‘Don’t Stop Now,’ a moody, atmospheric number, finds Young encouraging the girl to take her foot off the brakes, to turn the lights off and basically get on with the loving! Both songs showcase Young’s rich, ‘weak at the knees’, baritone vocals to peak effect, if that’s your kind of thing.
‘Young Love & Saturday Nights’ is not a balladeers album, though, it’s more a nostalgic romp through familiar Country tropes like small towns, Friday nights, beer, bars and the excitement and mystery that comes at the start of new relationships. David Bowie gets a co-write on the title track as the writers re-purpose the guitar riff from ‘Rebel, Rebel’. There’s nothing groundbreaking here but solid, slick, well done Country music that makes you want to sing & dance whilst songs like ‘Everybody Grew Up,’ ‘Knee Deep in Neon’ and ‘Drink to Remember’ find Young employing raucous guitars, long, elongated, singalong choruses and a yearning for simpler times and an ice cold beer.
Where ‘Young Love & Saturday Nights’ raises its head above the parapet, though, and really stands out is when Chris Young takes what he does effortlessly and adds a little twist or something new to his sound and style. Take ‘Fire,’ for example, which is possibly the most original, fresh sounding song on the album. This comes as no surprise when you see that Nashville’s hottest new songwriter HARDY had a hand in writing it. ‘Fire’ has a real campfire singalong feel to it: arms around the shoulders & drinks in the air as Young sings about the power of fire, inclusivity and Friday nights in a slightly different way. On ‘Gettin Older’ we get a more mature, nuanced look at ageing from a singer who is going to be 40 years old next year. ‘If I get half a chance to be like my old man, I ain’t afraid of getting older,’ Young sings, acknowledging the fact that he can’t be a Peter Pan, bar-crawler for ever. This maturity looks and sounds good on Young and it should be a lyrical avenue he explores further in the coming years.
Perhaps the biggest and most entertaining song on the album is final track, ‘Down.’ This is an absolute ear worm of a song song that has an irresistible chorus and must be a radio single. Quieter, drum driven verses build towards a big explosive chorus about a stormy relationship that Young just can’t get over. It’s going to be a live classic with its fist pumping chorus, rock guitars and arena-sized drums but it’s an odd placing as last on an 18 track album because I would be leading the promo charge with it and shouting about how good it is from all the Broadway rooftops.
As he approaches his 40th birthday, Chris Young has come out of the traps with a strong set of songs about the excitement of youth, nostalgia for simpler times and the feel of an ice cold beer in your hand on a Friday night. ‘Young Love & Saturday Nights’ is a worthy addition to Young’s portfolio: it contains classic sounding songs executed with style and a fair degree of class. There isn’t anything revolutionary or groundbreaking here as Young sticks to what he does the best. When he steps out of his comfort zone or writes with the newer style of writers that have come to town in the years since he became famous, the album goes up a notch in terms of originality with songs like ‘Fire.’ A whole generation of artists that came up in Nashville alongside Chris Young now face a similar issue with what to do with the next phase of their careers – you can either be Jason Aldean and stick to ploughing your field and serving the fan base you worked hard to create or you can be Keith Urban and constantly experiment with and attempt to evolve your sound. Chris Young finds himself at that creative career crossroads – it’ll be interesting to see which path he decides to take next.
Tracklist: 1. Looking For Love 2. All Dogs go to Heaven 3. Young Love & Saturday Nights 4. Don’t Call Me 5. What She Sees in Me 6. Country Boy’s Prayer 7. Double Down 8. Call it a Day 9. Drink to Remember 10. Dont Stop Now 11. Fall Out 12. Fire 13. Gettin Older 14. Right Now 15. Million Miles 16. Everybody Grew Up 17. Knee Deep in Neon 18. Down Release Date: March 22nd 2024 Record Label: Sony Music Nashville Buy ‘Young Love & Saturday Nights’ right here
This article contains an affiliate link. Purchases through this link may result in us earning a commission.
