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

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

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 US''. They were mentored by Simon Cowell. Their debut album '' ...

, released on October 7, 2014 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. 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 the likes of Panic! at the Disco, One Direction, Fitz and the Tantrums, Train, Weezer, Blink-182, Ringo Starr, Def Leppard, Katy Perry, Carole King, Jewel, Pentatonix, Daughtry, ...

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 pola ...

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'' (2001–2003 ...

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

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

. 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,

Sam Watters Samuel Joshua Watters (born July 23, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and record executive. Watters was a member of the multi-platinum selling 1990s R&B group Color Me Badd and co-authored many of their hits including "I ...

John Shanks John Matthew Shanks (born December 18, 1964) is an American songwriter, record producer and guitarist. Early life and education John Matthew Shanks was born in New York City. Shanks moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 years old. He was in a ban ...

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

Jason Mraz Jason Thomas Mraz (; born June 23, 1977) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. 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 ...

and

One Direction One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the gr ...

member

Harry Styles Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. His musical career began in 2010 as a solo contestant on the British music competition series ''The X Factor (UK TV series), The X Factor''. Following hi ...

, Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter

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

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: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'' and

Yahoo! Music Yahoo! Music was a brand under which Yahoo! provided a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Previously, users with Yahoo! accounts could gain access to hundreds of ...

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 p ...

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 music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

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 New Zealand Music Chart ( mi, Te Papa Tātai Waiata Matua o Aotearoa) 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 Music ...

the week ending October 13, 2014. The album debuted at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' 200 with 27,399 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 t ...

–

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 used ...

–

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,

Ali Tamposi Alexandra 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 (5 Seconds of S ...

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

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

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

–

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. In 2015, he was nominated ...

, Martin Johnson, Alex Kinsey, Jamie Scott, John Shanks *

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

– Sierra Deaton,

, Martin Johnson, Steve Mac, Jamie Scott, John Shanks, *

Cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

– Ira Glansbeek, John Krovoza *

Trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

– Sean Eric *

Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

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