Another Country (Rod Stewart album)
| Another Country | ||||
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| Studio album by Rod Stewart | ||||
| Released | 23 October 2015 | |||
| Length | 50:10 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Rod Stewart chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Another Country | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 57/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| American Songwriter |   |
| The Arts Desk | |
| Financial Times | |
| The Independent | |
| The National | |
| The Scotsman | |
| OK! Magazine | |
| Q Magazine | |
| The Times | |
| London Evening Standard | |
| The Yorkshire Times | |
Another Country is the twenty-ninth studio album by British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart. It was released on 23 October 2015 through Capitol Records. It was produced by Stewart and Kevin Savigar.
Stewart released his twenty-eighth studio album, Time, in 2013. The album contained eleven songs written or co-written by Stewart. Commenting on Time, Stewart stated, "I've found that the only way to write songs is to be as personal and honest as possible, And when my last album was so well-received it gave me the confidence to keep on writing, and to examine and write about different things. It also gave me the freedom to experiment with different sounds like reggae, ska and Celtic melodies."
Stewart stated that "Batman Superman Spiderman" was written about bedtime stories that he would tell his youngest son, Aiden Patrick Stewart, about the three fictional superheroes. The album's title track, "Another Country" was inspired by Stewart's respect for the armed forces - a respect influenced by his birth occurring shortly before the end of the Second World War - and consequent musing on life in the armed forces, particularly regarding the emotions generated by being apart from loved ones.
Recording sessions for the album took place at Stewart's home, and were produced with Pro Tools.
"Love Is" was released as the lead single from Another Country on 23 June 2015. In the United States, the single peaked at no. 37 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Please" and "Way Back Home" were released as subsequent singles on 1 September and 16 October 2015 respectively.
Another Country received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 57, which indicates "mixed or average reviews", based on 10 reviews. Andy Gill from The Independent gave the album a mixed review, describing it as "warmly engaging at its best", but that the quality of music dips halfway through the track list, highlighting "Way Back Home" and "Batman Superman Spiderman" as the weakest songs. Jasper Rees from The Arts Desk also gave the album a mixed review, stating that "there is the odd misstep", criticizing the choice to include an excerpt from Winston Churchill's 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech in the outro of "Way Back Home". Hal Horowitz from American Songwriter was highly critical of the album, describing the music as "[ranging from] pedestrian to forced", "excessively sentimental" in parts, and "bland". Ludovic Hunter-Tilney from Financial Times said that "dreary acoustic blandishments and plodding Celtic rock, cut from similar cloth to his 2013 album Time, leave one mourning the roaring roustabout of old." Dawn Renton of The Falkirk Herald gave the album a positive review, noting that "there’s a cosy Celtic charm to Another Country that’s warmly engaging" and concluding that "the latest offering confirms that Rod can still deliver a top notch album ... he continues to show his range and talent and [it] is a rather pleasant surprise to anyone who was never much of a fan in the past."
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