By Annie Reuter
Chris Young returns with his seventh studio album on Friday (Oct. 20). The singer penned each of the 10 tracks on Losing Sleep, he also served as co-producer alongside longtime collaborator Corey Crowder. Following 2015’s I’m Comin’ Over, Young admits that he didn’t feel much pressure to follow up the success of his previous No. 1 release.
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“We were even more comfortable than we were last time, and instead of it being like ‘We have to nail this,’ now it was like ‘OK, we did something really cool last time. Let’s try and build on that,'” Young says.
Young’s Losing Sleep continues the musical experimentation heard on I’m Comin’ Over. Listeners can hear this on the title track which features slick beats and a steamy storyline.
“I think the experimentation I did on the last record was the most I had really done,” he admits. “So with this one it was about continuing that. There’s stuff like ‘Losing Sleep’ – which is really different sonically from a lot of things in my catalog – and there are going to be things that feel more familiar, too. Each song has a unique vibe and life to it.”
He adds, “‘Losing Sleep’ is a sexy song, and that’s a hallmark of mine if you look back. Once every so often, there’s gonna be a sexy song in there, and this one is unabashedly passionate.”
Young also shows off his fun side on tracks like the feel-good “Holiday.”
“We were in Florida so we were like ‘Let’s write something that’s got a vacation vibe to it,'” Young explains. “I think from the jump, having that line at the top of the chorus takes you there immediately –’You make me wanna make a margarita’–you could call it ‘The Margarita Song.'”
Young’s musical progression isn’t forced and instead expands naturally where I’m Comin’ Over left off. The singer says he and his co-producer had a plan when it was time to go into the studio and didn’t try to force anything. He knows some of the songs are a little different, but admits he saw the change as needed musical growth.
“Every album you make as an artist, you want to continue to grow,” he concludes. “And you also want people to be in love with it. That’s such a difficult thing, but I think there’s a little bit of something for everybody on this record and that’s what I wanted to do. I think we accomplished it.”
