''It's About Us'' is the only

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American duo

Alex & Sierra Alex & Sierra were an American duo consisting of Alex Kinsey (born September 8, 1991) and Sierra Deaton (born February 11, 1991), who won the third and final season of ''The X Factor (U.S. season 3), The X Factor US''. They were mentored by Simo ...

, released on October 7, 2014 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. Their debut single and the album's lead single "Scarecrow" was written by the duo along with Martin Johnson and

Sam Hollander Sam Hollander is an American songwriter. He has collaborated with Panic! at the Disco, One Direction, Fitz and the Tantrums, Weezer, blink-182, Train, Ringo Starr, Carole King, Katy Perry, Boys Like Girls, Metro Station, Billy Idol, Def Leppar ...

and was released on June 23, 2014, while "Little Do You Know" was released as the second single from the album. The album debuted at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' 200 selling 27,000 copies within its first week of release.

Background and development

In 2013, Alex & Sierra won

Season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

of ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

''. Their prize included a $1 million recording contract from

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

. Following their win on ''The X Factor'', Alex & Sierra announced they would be making their debut album 'quick' and 'right'. They've worked with

Julian Bunetta Julian Collin Bunetta (born 1982 or 1983) is an American songwriter, record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is known for his work with various artists including One Direction, Niall Horan, Thomas Rhett, ...

, Sam Watters,

John Shanks John Matthew Shanks (born December 18, 1964) is an American songwriter, record producer and guitarist. He has been a longtime session and touring member of the rock band Bon Jovi. Early life and education Shanks was born in New York City and m ...

Toby Gad Tobias "Toby" Gad (born 28 March 1968) is a German music producer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. He is known for co-writing songs including John Legend's biggest hit, " All of Me", the fifth-highest certified single in RIAA history, and for ...

Jason Mraz Jason Thomas Mraz ( ; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, ''Waiting for My Rocket to Come'' (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Wo ...

and

One Direction One Direction, often shortened to 1D, were an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group consisted of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik (until his departure in 2015), Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. The group sold o ...

member

Harry Styles Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. His showmanship, artistry, and flamboyant fashion have had a Cultural impact of Harry Styles, significant impact on popular culture. Styles's musical ca ...

, Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter

John Legend John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He began his musical career working behind the scenes for other artists, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Every ...

also made a contribution to the early stages of the album, however the track was not selected to be on the album. On May 3, 2014, Alex & Sierra revealed their debut single, "Scarecrow". Alex & Sierra have commonly described the album as one that is not just filled with slow or upbeat songs. They hope it becomes one of those albums that you can listen to without the songs ever sounding the same. Also, in an interview with Glamour.com the two shared that they had never written a song before. The duo described it as a really laid-back and magical experience and added that they wrote a total of twenty songs in five days. The first single "Scarecrow" was released on June 23, 2014 and was written by the duo, Martin Johnson and Sam Hollander. They described the single as "a song about hope, It's about believing in a relationship so strongly that a lack of communication isn't enough for you to give up on the other person. Everyone has trouble communicating sometimes... Or all the time, and everyone deserves to be believed in."

Promotion

Alex & Sierra began promoting the album by performing on ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' and

Yahoo! Music Yahoo Music was a brand under which Yahoo provided music services including Internet radio, a digital music store, music streaming service, media player software, and original programming. Yahoo Music was sold to Rhapsody in early 2008. Pro ...

on June 23, 2014 as part of the promotion for their single "Scarecrow". They also promoted the single on popular blogging sites such as

perezhilton.com Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. (born March 23, 1978), known professionally as Perez Hilton, is an American blogger, columnist, and media personality. His blog is known for posts covering gossip items about celebrities, and for posting tabloid ph ...

and rickey.org A lyric video featuring puppets instead of the singers themselves was released on May 27, 2014. While they released the official music video for the song on July 11, 2014.

Reception

Critical

Matt Collar of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave a positive review of the album stating "Alex & Sierra have delivered an album that showcases their crowd-pleasing musical chemistry."

Commercial

''It's About Us'' debuted at number 9 on the

New Zealand Albums Chart The Official Aotearoa Music Charts, formerly the Official New Zealand Music Chart (), is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The Mu ...

the week ending October 13, 2014. The album debuted at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' 200 with 27,000 copies sold within its first week of release. The album has sold 86,000 copies in the United States as of August 2016.

Track listing

Notes * significes a co-producer

Personnel

Lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

–

Background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

–

John August John August (born August 4, 1970) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is known for writing the films '' Go'' (1999), '' Charlie's Angels'' (2000), '' Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'' (2003), '' Big Fish'' (2003), '' ...

, Johan Carlsson,

, Martin Johnson, Kyle Moorman,

Brandon Paddock Brandon Paddock is an American pop and rock musician and producer and member of electronic pop/dance duo Fancy Cars. Commercial success Paddock is an American pop and rock musician and producer. Paddock has received two RIAA Platinum Records (a ...

Ali Tamposi Alexandra Leah Tamposi (born November 17, 1989) is an American songwriter from West Palm Beach, Florida. She is best known for co-writing Kelly Clarkson's song "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," 5 Seconds of Summer's song " Youngblood", DJ Snak ...

Violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

– Paul Cartright, Stephan Hovsepian, Carrie Kennedy, Emily Moore, Joel Pargman, Jen Simone, Audrey Solomon, Ina Velli *

Guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

–

Josh Cumbee Joshua Kissiah Cumbee is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his artist collaborations with Armin van Buuren and as a songwriter for other artists. Early life After high ...

, Martin Johnson, Alex Kinsey,

Jamie Scott James Christopher Needle (born 12 February 1984), known professionally as Jamie Scott, is an English singer, songwriter and producer. Career Songwriting As a writer and producer Scott has sold over 100 million albums, 50 million singles, has ...

Piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

– Sierra Deaton, Toby Gad, Martin Johnson,

Steve Mac Steve McCutcheon (born 15 January 1972), known professionally as Steve Mac, is a British record producer, songwriter and musician. A multi-award-winning producer, he is one of the most prolific songwriters and record producers in modern Briti ...

, Jamie Scott, John Shanks, *

Cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

– Ira Glansbeek, John Krovoza *

Trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

– Sean Eric *

Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

– Martin Johnson *Rhythm/string arrangements – Nick Squires, Steve Mac *Producers:

, Johan Carlsson, Ian Franzino, Toby Gad, Steve Mac, John Ryan, John Shanks *Vocal producers: Steve Shebby, Peter Carlsson, Steve Mac, David "DQ" Quinones *Engineers: Nico Grossfield, John Hanes, Sam Holland, Martin Johnson, Paul Lamalfa, Chris Laws, Edwin Menjivar, Brandon Paddock,

Dann Pursey Globus is a Santa Monica, California-based movie trailer music-inspired band consisting of a mix of producers, musicians, and vocalists. The band is led by composer and producer Yoav Goren. History Foundation Globus was founded as a result ...

, John Ryan, John Shanks *Assistant engineers: Ian Franzino, Keith Munson *Programming: Toby Gad, Martin Johnson, Kyle Moorman, Brandon Paddock, John Ryan, John Shanks, John August, Julian Bunetta, Johan Carlsson, Josh Cumbee *Mixing: Michael H. Brauer,

Serban Ghenea Serban Ghenea () is a Canadian audio engineer and mixer. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award a total of 45 times and has won 21 times. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Romania, and in 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. H ...

, Ash Howes, Joe Zook *Mixing assistant: Ryan Lipman, Brandon Paddock *Photography: Sierra Deaton, Sami Drasin, Alex Kinsey, Chris Whittle *Artwork: Pamela Littky, Sierra Deaton, Alex Kinsey

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2014 debut albums Alex & Sierra albums Columbia Records albums Sony Music albums Albums produced by Johan Carlsson