Chris Young has released a new era of his music with the release of Young Love & Saturday Nights – available everywhere today.
Chris Young is back with his new record – Young Love & Saturday Nights – out today on Sony Music Nashville. The album is his ninth studio album following the release of 2021’s Famous Friends, encompassing 18 tracks – a behemoth of a project that encompasses some of Nashville’s strongest songwriters, including a posthumous songwriting credit to David Bowie.
The album is a straight up, no nonsense country album of solid proportions, filled with all the elements for which Young has been known for, turned up to eleven. The album feels more vibrant than his previous offerings, the ballads are more introspective, but the anthems are more raucous, rowdier and rougher tracks. More than anything, it feels like a return to Young’s roots, everything he is known for as an artist is packed across the eighteen song long record.
The backbone of the record falls on the songs that celebrate the Southern and country way of life. So, the title track is a celebration of everything that it means to live in small town America. ‘Here’s to good girls that can’t keep from fallin’ / For bad boys that their daddies don’t like / Small towns that keep stayin’ small / Here’s to old trucks, young love and Saturday nights.’ It’s a bombastic, stadium ready anthem that offers the driving force for the record going forward. So too, ‘Country Boy’s Prayer’ is a straight up celebration of the Southern way of life. ‘I pray there’s gas in my truck / And dust in my mirror / And everyday my fridge is full of ice cold beer / Give me friends that I would fight for and a girl that I’d die for… That’s a country boy’s prayer.’ It’s a driving, guitar solo ridden delight of a track that puts Southern roots at its core, as does later track ‘Everybody Grew Up.’ No doubt the theme is brought to its euphoric conclusion on ‘Fire’ that is a stripped-back, gospel-fuelled track, celebrating the simple things of life in the country ‘under that ball of fire.‘ It is sublime. These songs seem to act as a foundation stone for the record.
Elsewhere, Young explores other sides of his classic country sensibilities. There’s the classic country drinking songs, like the boot-stomping and hell-raising ‘Double Down’ and ‘Knee Deep in Neon,’ but there’s also the more pensive drinking songs like ‘Drink to Remember’ where he brings the tempo up a notch again, as he sings of the nostalgia that alcohol brings. ‘I don’t drink to forget / I drink to remember.’ It’s an intoxicating, whirlwind of a melody that sweeps you in with its raucous instrumentation.
No country album is complete without the classic country love songs. So, the album opener ‘Looking for You’ sings about a surprise love. ‘Lookin’ for a sunrise leadin’ to a sunset / Lookin’ for a someone I could spend it with / Then it came around right out of the blue / And it turns out / Oh, I was lookin’ for you.’ It’s a classic Chris Young track about the long path leading to love. This is not to be outdone by the pluckier love story track ‘What She Sees In Me.’ ‘I still see her in every dream / I can see her faith when it gets tough / I can see her grace when I mess up / I can see how far she is out of my league / I still can’t see what she sees in me.’ It’s a lovely, simple love song that shows Young at his best, digging into the very origins of his music.There’s sultrier tracks on the record though, too that showcase the groovier side of his sound, including ‘Call It A Day’ and ‘Don’t Stop Now.’
Young explores the complexities of heartbreak too on the record. ‘Don’t Call Me’ is a quieter, pensive track, pleading to an ex-lover not to call him when she’s buzzed. ‘When you’re sittin at a bar at 2am / If you’re lonely and you think you want a friend / A little drunk dial, crash my party / No baby, don’t call me.’ It’s a track that builds, with an emotional pleading thread throughout that enlivens the whole and offers a bolder version of ‘Million Miles’ that explores a similar theme – musing around the idea of being unable to move on from a great love. ‘Ain’t a place where I can outrun you baby / A million miles ain’t far enough.’ Young’s vocal is at its rich best here. Later, he also imagines a couple trying to define where a relationship is headed on ‘Right Now’ a pulsing and confident track that is a standout on the record. ‘We can’t bring ourselves to burn a bridge / We might havе to walk back across / When it’s late and we’rе lonely, don’t wanna move on / And our pride is the only cost / ‘Cause that fire’s still burnin’ / And I don’t think you wanna let it go out / So if you won’t say it, girl, I’ll say it / “What are you doin’ right now?”‘ It’s a searing track, filled with the rich baritone of Young’s vocal. This offers the flip side of ‘Fall Out,’ which is a yearning heartbreak track in which he questions what happens when love ends. ‘How do you rewind back to the good times, back when she didn’t mean so much? / How do you fall in? How do you fall out of love?’
On Young Love & Saturday Nights, Young celebrates the sides of the genre that brought him the success he has garnered. It’s a rounded, balanced project that is bolder and braver than his previous, offering a rounded portrait of him as an artist with more maturity, one who is now able to see the beauty of his age – as he does in ‘Gettin’ Older.’ It is not an album that will change the game for Young but is one that will delight the legion of fans that he has built over the years. It feels like a gift to those who made him, a celebration of his musicality.
