All About Tonight (EP)

All About Tonight is the second extended play, and eighth studio release by American country music artist Blake Shelton. It was released on August 10, 2010, via Warner Music Group Nashville, under its Reprise label. The first single, "All About Tonight," was released to radio in April 2010 and has become his seventh Number One hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The album's second single, "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" (previously recorded by Joe Nichols on his 2007 album Real Things), was released to radio in August 2010.

Background
All About Tonight is Shelton's second "Six Pak", a concept that he and his record label decided to experiment with in 2010 starting with Hillbilly Bone. Shelton said, "We're looking for ways to remind people that we still make albums, and there's still cool music that you may or may not hear on the radio. So we decided to do a six-song album, and it's really cheap! It's like five dollars and change".

Content
In an interview with "The Boot", Rhett Akins talked about the title track, a song he co-wrote along with Ben Hayslip and Dallas Davidson, saying "We decided that we wanted to write a song about how we just don't care about tomorrow because tomorrow can wait until tomorrow ... it's all about tonight!  It's a good, fun party song about where the night is going to go. After we wrote it, we thought it sounds just like a Blake Shelton song".

Critical reception

Upon its release, All About Tonight received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, based on 5 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Jon Caramanica with The New York Times said that the release is "a variety-pack of country styles" and said he sounded "flirty and convincing" on the release. Thom Jurek with Allmusic gave it a three star rating, saying "Shelton does two things, and he does them extremely well: rowdy, rocking contemporary tunes about raising hell and making romantic mischief, and singing (mostly) believable ballads". Gary Graff with Billboard gave it a favorable review, saying "the singer's latest set, All About Tonight, is a satisfying sprint without fat or filler but packs plenty of fun." Bill Friskics-Warren with The Washington Post gave it a favorable review, saying "Shelton's latest "six pak" harks back to a time when Nashville rebels could be rowdy and real at the same time".

Matt Popkin with American Songwriter gave it a 2½ star rating, comparing it to a comedy series saying "Blake Shelton’s All About Tonight is what I imagine being in the studio audience for an average sitcom would be like [...] And yes, you’re aware that somebody worked very hard on these jokes, but still, every time you laugh, you feel like a little part of you just died, and it’s located in the left hemisphere of your brain.

Commercial performance
The album debuted at number six on the U.S. Billboard 200, and at number one on the U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums, selling 33,000 copies in its first week of release. The number one debut on the Top Country Albums chart gave Shelton his first number one album of his career. As of the chart dated January 8, 2011, the album has sold 149,385 copies in the US.

Track listing

Personnel

 Rob Beckham – booking
 Steve Blackmon – assistant
 Brandon Blackstock – management
 Narvel Blackstock – management
 Brooke Boling – design
 Drew Bollman – assistant
 Holly Chapman – grooming
 Steve Crowder – assistant
 Steph Dufresne – assistant
 Russ Harrington – photography
 Scott Hendricks – digital editing, engineer, producer
 Steve Marcantonio – tracking
 Cheryl H. McTyre – a&r admin.
 Jacob Murray – assistant
 Tre Nagella – assistant
 Justin Niebank – mixing
 Allen Parker – assistant
 Katherine Petillo – art direction
 Nick Spezia – assistant
 Todd Tidwell – assistant
 Trish Townsend – stylist
 Hank Williams – mastering
 Brian David Willis – digital editing
 Tim Akers – hammond b-3 Organ, Piano
 Mike Brignardello – bass guitar
 Tom Bukovac – electric guitar
 Perry Coleman – background vocals
 Eric Darken – percussion 
 Paul Franklin – pedal steel guitar 
 Aubrey Haynie – fiddle
 Miranda Lambert – duet vocals on "draggin' the river"
 Troy Lancaster – electric guitar
 Brent Mason – electric guitar
 Greg Morrow – drums, percussion
 Gordon Mote – hammond b-3 Organ, Piano
 Tony Mullins – background vocals
 Hillary Scott – background vocals
 Blake Shelton – lead vocals 
 Jimmie Lee Sloas – bass guitar
 Bryan Sutton – banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin
 Craig Wiseman – jew's harp, background vocals
 Jennifer Zuffinetti – background vocals

Chart positions

Album

End of year charts

Singles

References

Category:2010 EPs
Category:Blake Shelton EPs
Category:Albums produced by Scott Hendricks
Category:Reprise Records EPs
Category:Warner Records EPs