''Illinois'' is the second studio album by American country music artist Brett Eldredge. It was released on September 11, 2015 via

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

Nashville. Its lead single, " Lose My Mind", was released to country radio on May 4, 2015. The album's second single, " Drunk on Your Love" was released to country radio on November 9, 2015. The album's third single, " Wanna Be That Song" released to country radio on May 23, 2016. Eldredge co-wrote every song, and produced the album with

Ross Copperman Ross Copperman (born October 1, 1982) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter and producer with 29 number one radio hits. After his experience as an artist in the UK, Copperman discovered his talent for writing and producing country mus ...

and Brad Crisler.

Critical reception

Giving it 4 out of 5 stars,

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

praised the album's R&B influences, saying that "Such soulfulness and sly stylistic diversity were largely absent on ''Bring You Back'', a quite pleasing set of by-the-books radio country, and it certainly enlivens ''Illinois'', but not at the expense of strong songs."

Commercial performance

''Illinois'' entered the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart at number 3, selling 51,000 equivalent units in the week ending September 17 (including 44,000 traditional album sales). This marks the largest-selling week for an album in Eldredge's career, passing ''

Bring You Back ''Bring You Back'' is the debut album by American country music artist Brett Eldredge. It was released on August 6, 2013 by Atlantic Records. The album was originally titled ''One Way Ticket'', and was to include Eldredge's second single " It Ain ...

'' (2013), which sold 21,000 units in the first week on chart. In the second week it sold an additional 9,500 copies. As of January 2017, the album has sold 175,800 copies domestically.

Track listing

Personnel

*Stephanie Chapman - background vocals (track 4) *

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, electric guitar,

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

(track 9), programming, background vocals *Brad Crisler - bass guitar (track 10), acoustic guitar (track 10), electric guitar (track 10), keyboards (track 10), percussion (track 10), piano (tracks 7, 10), programming (tracks 7, 10), background vocals (tracks 7, 10) * Dan Dugmore -

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

* Brett Eldredge - lead vocals, background vocals, mouth percussion (track 11) * Fred Eltringham -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, percussion *Josh Haselton - drums (track 10) *Mike Johnson - pedal steel guitar (track 7) *Troy Lancaster - electric guitar (track 7) *James LeBlanc - electric guitar (track 10) *Jason Lehning - keyboards *Tony Lucido - bass guitar *Heather Morgan - background vocals (track 8) *Jon Nite - background vocals (track 6) * Danny Rader - acoustic guitar (track 7) *Seth Rausch - drums (track 7) * Thomas Rhett - duet vocals (track 2) * Jimmie Lee Sloas - bass guitar (track 7) * Aaron Sterling - drums (track 9), percussion (track 9) *Jason Webb -

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(track 7) * Derek Wells - acoustic guitar, electric guitar,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

(tracks 3, 6) *Micah Willshire - background vocals (tracks 2, 9)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Atlantic Records albums Brett Eldredge albums Albums produced by Ross Copperman