It Must Be Christmas is the sixth studio album and first Christmas album by American country music artist Chris Young. It was released on October 14, 2016, by RCA Records Nashville. Young co-wrote two of the album's ten tracks. The album features collaborations with Boyz II Men, Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson.
Critical reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic rated the album three stars out of five. "[It] does everything a modern mainstream holiday album should do," writes Erlewine, "it plays upon memories of Christmas while appealing to the moment at hand." He added that the original songs "feel like radio tunes" rather than seasonal material. Chuck Dauphin of country music blog Sounds Like Nashville wrote a positive review in which he praised Young's "classic approach" to the holiday fare. "Whether it be a "New" classic or an evergreen one," he writes, "Young hits all the right notes on the album."
Commercial Upon release, It Must Be Christmas debuted in the top five of the Billboard Top Country Albums chart at number four and also topped the Holiday Albums chart. The album has sold 74,100 copies in the US as of November 2017.
Track listing
Personnel Credits adapted from AllMusic.
Vocals Boyz II Men – featured vocals (9) Corey Crowder – background vocals Alan Jackson – featured vocals (4) Brad Paisley – featured vocals (7) Kristen Rogers – background vocals Chris Young – lead vocals, background vocals
Musicians
Joshua Carter – string arrangements, strings Dave Cohen – Hammond B-3 organ, piano, synthesizer Josh Hoge – arranger Tony Lucido – bass guitar
Miles McPherson – drum, percussion Carl Miner – acoustic guitar Brad Paisley – electric guitar Derek Wells – electric guitar
Production
Zach Abend – digital editing Nick Autry – engineer Corey Crowder – producer, programming Billy Decker – mixing Jim DeMain – mastering Casey Henderson – mixing assistant Travis Hubert – assistant Naoki Kakuta – vocal engineer
John Kelton – engineer Kam Lutcherhand – assistant engineer Kendall Marcy – guitar engineer, vocal engineer Amy Marie – mastering assistant Alyson McAnally – production assistant Keith Stegall – vocal engineer Chris Young – producer Brian David Willis – digital editing
Charts
Weekly charts Chart (2016) Peak position
Year-end charts Chart (2017) Position US Country Albums (Billboard) 79
References