Chris Young‘s new album, NEON, is coming your way this Tuesday, July 12th! It’s Chris’ third album, and  he’ll celebrate the release date with his first-ever appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America, where he’ll perform his current smash single, “Tomorrow.” Actually, “Tomorrow” was one of the first songs that Chris recorded for his NEON album, and Chris tells us that it set the benchmark for all of the songs to come. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• In addition to co-writing seven of the 10 songs on NEON, Chris says that he worked to branch out on the new album, in both his writing and his singing. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• And if 10 songs isn’t enough for you, check out the NEON (Deluxe Version) on iTunes right , featuring two additional tracks — “I’m Gonna Change That” and “Don’t Leave Her (If You Can’t Let Her Go)” — as well as the music video for “Tomorrow”!
• With the success of “Tomorrow” as a Top-5-and-climbing radio smash — and the song’s music video having topped the charts at CMT and GAC — plus a new album that he’s incredibly excited about, Chris says that he feels like everything in his career is coming together in a great way. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Chris shares some of the thinking behind titling his album NEON. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Along with the excitement surrounding the release of NEON, you can also catch Chris on tour with Jason Aldean beginning tomorrow, July 8th! Check out chrisyoungcountry.com for dates!
• And amid other upcoming media appearances, look for Chris to perform on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on July 27th!

  Chris Young’s song “Tomorrow” was one of the first he recorded for his NEON album, and it set the benchmark for the rest of album. (:57)
“To me, the thing that really, I think kind of lit a fire under me, so to speak, and everybody else, is that one of the first songs that I got and that I turned in was ‘Tomorrow.’ And I knew in my head, I hoped in my head, that it was gonna be really big. I’m glad it ended up being a hit (laughs) ‘cause I’d have felt like an idiot if it wasn’t. But it was just so big and this country power ballad and so cool and somethin’ I’d never done before. And I was like, man, I have to live up to this on every other track on the record. I was like, this record has to be above and beyond really anything that I think we’ve done before. So, the goal was to go out and kind of attempt to beat that song on everything we did on this record. I think, it really, over the long haul and lookin’ for songs and writing stuff, it really improved the possibility of what this record could be and hopefully is going to be when it gets out there and everybody gets to hear it.”

  Chris Young talks about creating a balance in his song choices for his NEON album. (:49)
“There’s gonna be songs on this record that seem like there’s no way they would’ve fit on the last record, and there’s songs on this record that seem like they could’ve been side by side with stuff on the last record and been fine. Now I think you kind of need a balance of both. You don’t want to completely go left field after having your first successful album. (laughs) Maybe if you’ve had a couple, you can go just left field, but I wanted to do some other stuff. I wanted to try some things. Obviously, I wanted to expand my songwriting and my vocal range and a lot of stuff. But there needed to be some continuity between that first record with hits on it and then what we did here. I didn’t want people to just feel completely lost when they got to this album. So, there’s some stuff that’s gonna be similar but I also think everything’s a little bit different in the very least. No, no, no gangster rap yet on this record.”

  Chris Young says that he enjoyed challenging himself vocally on his new album, NEON. (:17)
“I definitely pushed myself on a lot of these tracks to do some falsetto stuff. Do some stuff that uses my entire range and startin’ with ‘Tomorrow’ and movin’ on to some other stuff on the record like ‘Lost’ and ‘You.’ And I just made it a very, very vocally challenging record, and it was a lot of fun.”

  Chris Young feels like he’s in a great place in his career. (:18)
“I think that everything’s kind of comin’ together all at once. The record bein’ something special, the first single bein’ something this special and the video for it bein’ this special. I just think that everything’s kind of comin’ together collectively and all gainin’ steam at the same time.”

  Chris Young has a song called “Neon” on his new album, and he thought it made for a great album title, too. (:19)
“One of the reasons that I liked titling the album NEON is because it almost has a country connotation when you hear that word anyway. But on top of that, it’s also…it’s kind of cool. And so I love that it kind of gave you both of those connotations without saying anything else. It just seemed like the perfect album title.”