Chris Young has one of the sexiest voices in country music, reminding me of melted chocolate and smooth cappuccino with added Bailey’s, sitting by a fire on a cold winter’s night. As long as he didn’t start ‘going bro’ then this album would be fine, I wasn’t worried about that, but just how ‘fine’ it would be wasn’t clear. Upon release of his lead single ‘I’m Comin’ Over’, no more questions were answered, since it was a very ‘Chris Young’ track, a romantic ballad designed to suit his crooning deep country voice, not indicative of all this ‘risk’ that he seems to be bigging up in the press prior to the launch of the album.
First of all, I can’t find any evidence of a big risk in the making of this album. It is very ‘Chris’, being composed of more than a few romantic ballads, which are bread-and-butter for Chris’ voice and his fan base. Maybe on tracks like ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Sunshine Overtime’ there are more obvious movings into R&B, but this is still much more subtle than much on country radio at the moment, and actually works well for him, so I lift my hat to Chris in his first foray into co-producing his own music.
His new single ‘Think Of You’ featuring the vocals of Cassadee Pope is really good. I love Cassadee’s ‘girl next door’ vocals and combined with Chris’ aforementioned chocolate vocals the result is really special. The song itself is upbeat-yet-introspective and balanced perfectly for pop-country. The drums and guitars don’t dominate, yet still create a heavy sound, and there is still a hint of subtler strings in the backing, enough to prevent the song from being too ‘loud’ to be reliant on the great vocals.
‘I Know A Guy’ is one of the softer ballads on the album, with the intro being acoustic and leaning heavily on Chris’ vocals, something that is appreciated. The song builds up into the chorus, but the tempo remains fairly slow, helping tell the story of regret over how Chris’ character underappreciated a woman who has now gone. This is the kind of song Chris probably sings in his sleep and is not too different from anything given on his previous albums, but this is what makes Chris Chris, and long may it continue.
‘Sober Saturday Night’ is my favourite track on the record, featuring the fabulous Vince Gill in the backing. A story about losing a love, and not wanting to drink the pain away because the pain reminds the character of the love he’s lost, this is so country it actually hurts. The melody is fabulous, the backing is more traditional during the verses, with the wailing steel guitar, building up to a modern chorus with electric guitar and drums for the big punch during the chorus. It’s just a shame that Vince doesn’t really appear in the forefront vocally, because he could sing the crap out of this song, and it would be a wonder to hear two such fantastic voices blend together.
For me, ‘You Do The Talkin’’ and ‘Alone Tonight’ are filler ballads, being nice to listen to, but nothing particularly special, and I can’t see them getting much recognition, either live or as singles. It is in ‘Underdogs’ that Chris changes things up a bit, making a rock song with added vocoder. I like the effect of the song, but the lyrics are a bit take-or-leave, and the song seems to just try a bit hard to be inspirational; ‘Riser’ it is not. I think it would be good live, and I like Chris Young ‘doing rock’, but I think it needs a better song.
Finishing on ‘What If I Stayed’, I call this the ‘netflix and chill song’, having lyrics including; “Did you see the movie is over/I guess we missed the last half/Laying here in this bed together/Me kissin’ you, you kissin’ me back” and “But you’re giving me that look baby/That says you’re up to no good maybe”. This is a baby-making song, and Chris is very good vocally. It’s an interesting song to finish the record on, given that it is almost acoustic and has a slow-swing rhythm and an understated-but-sweet melody.
Although I don’t see the big ‘risk’ in the production of this album, I must congratulate Chris on a successful debut co-producing job. One day I will become bored of Chris filling his albums with similar sounding romantic ballads, but the trouble is that his voice is so damn good, that they just work so well and don’t seem forced. Next album I will be looking for more variation on his staple musical diet which will be where the real risk comes in, but for now enjoy an authentic country crooner near the top of his game.
Originally posted here.
