Before This World
| Before This World | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by James Taylor | ||||
| Released | June 15, 2015 | |||
| Recorded | January, March, May-July, November 2014-February 2015 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 41:45 | |||
| Label | Concord | |||
| Producer | Dave O'Donnell | |||
| James Taylor chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 65/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| The Telegraph | |
| Daily Mail | |
| Newsday | A |
| Rolling Stone | |
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. In April 2015, he announced a short U.S. tour running from July 2 to August 6 to promote the album.
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. He subsequently lived alone to write the album in a waterfront apartment in Newport, Rhode Island.
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. "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.
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. Also, he had scored 11 Top 10 albums before achieving his first #1, just behind Neil Diamond. The following week, the album came in at #5, selling 50,000 copies in its second week.
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