Before This World

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Before This World
Before This World.jpg
Studio album by James Taylor
Released June 15, 2015
Recorded January 6-22 2014 (Principal Recording) The Barn MA

March 7-14 2014 (Background Vocals) Oceanway Los Angeles

May 25-28 2014 (Tracks 4 & 5) Avatar Studios NYC

June 3-8 2014 (Hotel Room Recording in LA and San Francisco)
Genre
Length 41:45
Label Concord
Producer Dave O'Donnell
James Taylor chronology
The Essential James Taylor
(2013)The Essential James Taylor2013		 Before This World
(2015)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 65/100[1]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 3.5/5 stars[2]
The Telegraph 3/5 stars[3]
Daily Mail 3/5 stars[4]
Newsday A[5]
Rolling Stone 3.5/5 stars[6]

Before This World is the seventeenth studio album by American singer-songwriter James Taylor. It was released on June 15, 2015. It is Taylor's first new studio album of original material since October Road (2002). He recorded the album in a barn on his property in western Massachusetts with Steve Gadd on drums and Jimmy Johnson on bass.[7] In April 2015, he announced a short U.S. tour running from July 2 to August 6 to promote the album.[8][9]

Background

James Taylor released his most recent original album, October Road, in 2002. Following this, Taylor did not prioritize writing new material for many years. He grew concerned he might never create another original album, and convinced his close family, friends, and manager it would be best to cut off communication from everything.[7] He subsequently lived alone to write the album in a waterfront apartment in Newport, Rhode Island.[7]

Live performance

Before the album's releasing, James Taylor started to perform several new tracks from the upcoming album on his 2014 world tour. "Today Today Today", "You And I Again" and "Stretch of the Highway" were debuted at the May 30, 2014 show and played throughout the duration of the tour; the traditional song "Wild Mountain Thyme" also earned a regular place in the shows (it had been previously performed by James Taylor occasionally in concert). At Toronto's show on July 24,2014, James Taylor performed "SnowTime" specially and explained that the song was written about Toronto; it has not been played since. "Angels of Fenway", "Montana" and "Before This World / Jolly Springtime" were all performed during his shows in his spring and summer tour of 2015, to coincide with the album's release.

Commercial performance

Before This World debuted at number one with 97,000 units moved on the week ending June 21, becoming Taylor's first number-one album on the US Billboard 200 chart. This made Taylor surpass Black Sabbath to become the second-longest waiting artist for a number-one album — 45 years since Sweet Baby James (1970), behind a 54-year wait by Tony Bennett.[10] Also, he had scored 11 Top 10 albums before achieving his first #1, just behind Neil Diamond.[10] The following week, the album came in at #5, selling 50,000 copies in its second week.[11]

On the UK Albums Chart, the album started at number 4 with 13,801 copies on sales, became Taylor's fourth top 10 albums. It also tied with The Best of James Taylor (2003) for his highest-ranking album on chart, while both are peaked at number four.[12]

Track listings

All tracks written by James Taylor, except as noted.

Before This World — Standard edition[13][14]
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Today Today Today"     3:09
2. "You and I Again"     3:52
3. "Angels of Fenway"     3:18
4. "Stretch of the Highway"     5:32
5. "Montana"     3:25
6. "Watchin' Over Me"     4:07
7. "SnowTime"     5:48
8. "Before This World / Jolly Springtime" (featuring Sting)   5:34
9. "Far Afghanistan"     4:04
10. "Wild Mountain Thyme"   Francis McPeake 2:56
Total length:
 41:45

Personnel

  • James Taylor — guitar, vocals, harmonica, guitar synthesizer
  • Bass — Jimmy Johnson
  • Cello — Emily Brause, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Sachon
  • Drums — Steve Gadd
  • Electric Guitar, Nylon-String Guitar — Michael Landau
  • Euphonium — Michael Davis
  • Fiddle — Andrea Zorn
  • Flugelhorn — Tony Kadlek
  • French Horn — Larry Di Bello, David Peel
  • Handclaps — Walt Fowler
  • Percussion — Luis Conte
  • Piano, Organ [Wurlitzer], Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes], Organ, Accordion, Harmonium — Larry Goldings
  • Saxaphone — David Mann, Lou Marini, Roger Rosenberg
  • Trombone — Randy Andos, Michael Davis
  • Viola — Katharine Kresek, Philip Payton
  • Violin — Jonathan Dinklage, Rachel Golub, Hiroko Taguchi, Entcho Todorov, Orlando Wells
  • Vocals — David Lasley, Kate Markowitz, Arnold McCuller, Sting, Caroline Taylor, Henry Taylor, Andrea Zonn[18]

Production

Charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[19] 12
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[20] 32
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[21] 88
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[22] 10
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[23] 13
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[24] 32
Irish Albums (IRMA)[25] 11
Italian Albums (FIMI)[26] 22
Japanese Albums (Japanese Albums Chart)[27] 51
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[28] 12
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[29] 16
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[30] 31
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[31] 41
UK Albums (OCC)[32] 4
US Billboard 200[33] 1

Release history

List of regions, release dates, editions, formats, labels and references
Region Date Edition(s) Format(s) Label References
United States 15 June 2015 Standard edition Digital download Concord Records [14]
16 June 2015 Deluxe edition
Limited edition deluxe book		 CD
DVD
LP
vinyl		 [34]
United Kingdom 15 June 2015 Standard edition CD Decca (UMO) [35]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/James-Taylor-Before-This-World/release/7857278
  19. ↑ "Australiancharts.com – James Taylor – Before This World". Hung Medien.
  20. ↑ "Ultratop.be – James Taylor – Before This World" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  21. ↑ "Ultratop.be – James Taylor – Before This World" (in French). Hung Medien.
  22. ↑ "Template:BillboardEncode/J/chart?f=309 James Taylor – Chart history" Billboard Canadian Albums Chart for James Taylor. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – James Taylor – Before This World" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  24. ↑ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH.
  25. ↑ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 25, 2015". Chart-Track. IRMA.
  26. ↑ "Italiancharts.com – James Taylor – Before This World". Hung Medien.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – James Taylor – Before This World". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
  29. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – James Taylor – Before This World". Hung Medien.
  30. ↑ "Spanishcharts.com – James Taylor – Before This World". Hung Medien.
  31. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – {{{artist}}} – {{{album}}}". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 24. 2015.
  32. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  33. ↑ Template:BillboardEncode/J/chart?f=305 "James Taylor – Chart history" Billboard 200 for James Taylor. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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