Photo: John Shearer
Chris Young has officially kickstarted his most ambitious chapter in music yet.
The Tennessee-born singer-songwriter delivered his largest album to date on Friday morning (March 22), after three years in the making. Young had a hand in writing 15 of the 18 songs on the record, in addition to producing Young Love & Saturday Nights alongside Corey Crowder and Chris DeStefano. The three he didn’t write — “Young Love & Saturday Nights,” “Double Down” and Gettin’ Older” — he wishes he wrote, he said. Young’s ninth full-length studio album offers listeners a wide range of amped-up party anthems, romantic ballads, heartfelt tributes to Young’s father and his dog, and more.
“I wanted this album to be special,” Young, 38, said during a recent discussion with news outlets about his then-unreleased album, titled after his David Bowie-inspired single. “I sort of decided, ‘hey, let's change things up a little bit.’ …I think I just was trying to pour out a little more of myself on this record that I haven't really delved into before.
“(Listeners are) always gonna compare what you put out to earlier albums, and I just hope they like this album as much as they've liked Neon or, you know, The Man I Want to Be, like anything that I've put it out,” he said of his nearly two-decade career since signing his first record deal at age 20. “It means a lot, and I don't feel the weight of it but I do have a healthy respect for the fact that I've been around this long and I've been lucky enough to still keep doing it and putting out music that people like.”
“My ninth album — 18 tracks, (the) largest one I’ve done to date — it’s a new chapter. I feel like I’m sort of in a new season of life. Every album’s a snapshot of where you are in that particular moment. I think this one’s gonna be really, really important for me. Country music, to me, is life. Not just mine, but anybody that listens to it. There’s nothing off-limits with country music. There’s a song for just about every moment that you’ve had in your life. It’s been so amazing to write for this album and then to produce on it. I’ve been producing my records since I’m Comin’ Over [Young’s studio album that released in 2015]. A lot of people don’t realize that. I have a love for being in the studio and a love for letting my creativity show. The thing I’m most proud of about this album is it’s authentically me. there’s songs that are really personal, songs that I have cranked up in the car on the way to go hang out with friends, songs I think people are gonna play possibly at their wedding, at the bar on a Friday night. I can’t wait for you guys, hopefully, to fall in love with this one like I have.”
Young Love & Saturday Nights’ track list includes a few previously-released songs ahead of the full project’s debut, including “Looking for You,” “What She Sees in Me,” “Double Down,” the title track and lead single (penned by Jesse Frasure, Ashley Gorley and Josh Thompson with a posthumous writing credit to Bowie, who died in 2016), among others:
1. Looking for You
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. Don't 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
“It's the biggest album I've ever made,” Young said. “It's pretty wild seeing that [the LPs] and knowing that I've got enough stuff to make three more albums right now in my phone. It's just wild. I hope everybody enjoys the fact that I've put out that much music. I know it's a lot. It's a lot for people to listen to, but I hope that's positive.”
Young, set to take the stage on Good Morning America on April 2, is gearing up to hit the road on his headlining “Young Love & Saturday Nights Tour” next month, with special guest Bryan Martin. Young hailed Martin “an incredibly talented guy, super nice guy.” The country star is also set to join “Famous Friends” duet partner Kane Brown during a stop on Brown’s headlining “In The Air Tour,” noting that “no one could be more happy for his success than me.” See the list of “Young Love & Saturday Nights Tour” stops here.
Young Love & Saturday Nights is Young’s latest full-length album to release since Famous Friends in 2021, with a deluxe edition that followed in 2022. Since then, Young introduced s few of the tracks from his then-unreleased album as he prepared to dive into his next chapter. Those tracks add to other career-spanning hits, including “I’m Comin’ Over,” “Aw Naw,” “Think of You” featuring Cassadee Pope, “Raised on Country,” “At the End of a Bar” with Mitchell Tenpenny and many others.
“I just think this is just a new season,” Young said of his 18-track record. “And I'm the kind of person that works really well when they're happy. (I'm) really happy.”
Find the full Young Love & Saturday Nights album on iHeartRadio here, and listen to some of the tracks below.