We Are Tonight

Content

Currington told Country Weekly that he wanted the album to be "completely happy". Unlike his previous four albums, Currington did not write any of the songs on We Are Tonight.

Among the tracks are a cover of Jack Johnson's "Banana Pancakes", from his album In Between Dreams, and a duet with Willie Nelson on "Hard to Be a Hippie". According to Currington, the song ended up as a duet with Nelson because Currington had told co-writer Scotty Emerick, a mutual friend of the two, that he wanted to record the song; when Emerick said that Nelson wanted to record it, Currington then suggested that they do it as a duet.

Critical reception

We Are Tonight garnered generally positive reception by music critics to critique the album. At Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine told that "none of his moves feel self-conscious", and that album was "guaranteed to create some nice mellow vibes." Jon Freeman of Country Weekly said that "Billy is a skilled interpreter of songs with a knack for finding the soul in every selection." He generally praised the song selection, but criticized the title track for "fall[ing] back on the small-town truck-riding clichés so prevalent at the moment." At Roughstock, Matt Bjorke felt that "We Are Tonight mixes traditional country elements with soul elements and contemporary elements and turns it into a sound that is uniquely and unquestionably Billy Currington." Tara Toro at Got Country Online wrote that the release "will hook ya." At Music Is My Oxygen, Rob Burkhardt affirmed that "We Are Tonight is a focused and well-produced record that plays to Billy Currington’s strengths and puts him in the running to be an A-list performer", and that "Time alone will tell whether enough fans will catch on to Currington’s unique style, but this is definitely a record worthy of the attention." At The Plain Dealer, Chuck Yarborough stated that the release was "so disappointing. It’s not that it’s all that up-tempo – although most of it is – it’s just that none of it FEELS like it’s coming from a country guy pretending to be a pop guy pretending to be a country guy."

Personnel

Chart performance

The album debuted on Billboard 200 at No. 10, and at No. 5 on Top Country Albums chart, selling 26,000 copies in its first week in the US. It sold 41,000 copies in three weeks.