Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	69/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Country Weekly	A
Got Country Online
Nashville Country Club
Rolling Stone
Roughstock
USA Today

Riser (stylized RISER) is the seventh studio album by American country music singer Dierks Bentley. It was released on February 25, 2014, by Capitol Nashville, and debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200, becoming his seventh top ten album. The album was nominated for Best Country Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

The album includes the singles "Bourbon in Kentucky", "I Hold On", "Drunk on a Plane", "Say You Do". and "Riser". The album was originally scheduled to be released in late 2013, but the first single peaked at number 45 on the Country Airplay chart, becoming Bentley's lowest-charting single. The label decided to postpone the album's release date, and quickly began promoting the album's second single "I Hold On", which reached number 1 on Country Airplay. "Drunk on a Plane", the album's third single, became one of the biggest hits of his career, peaking at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Say You Do" served as the album's fourth single. The fifth single, "Riser", was released to radio on June 15, 2015.

Bentley told Roughstock that “You have one ear monitor in, one ear out, and the crowd’s there and your voice feels really great. There’s a certain amount of gravel to it because you’re tired, but you’re all jacked up on whatever you're drinking and adrenaline, and the crowds and the fans are there and there’s this feeling, fists in the air—it’s that thing that’s hard to transfer into a studio environment. There’s a rawness.”

Riser garnered positive reception from eight music critics ratings and reviews. At Metacritic, they assign a "weighted average" score to selected independent ratings and reviews, and based upon six reviews the album has a Metascore of 70, which means the album received "generally favorable" reviews.Brian Mansfield of USA Today rated the album a perfect four stars, writing that "Grief over his dad's death infuses Riser so deeply that the emotions his loss triggered seep even into songs about girls", and observes this in how "Bentley bares his soul in meditations on love and loss, death and rebirth." At AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that because of the big issues dealt with on the album "it's no wonder that Riser doesn't quite feel brimming with lighthearted singles, but it's a sturdy, often absorbing record from a singer who is determined to be in it for the long haul." Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe gave a positive review, noting how Bentley has a career that he's built on the "bedrock concepts that feel more quaint all the time: musicianship, emotional integrity, and hard work", which just happens that "Those elements again make themselves known on his stirring seventh album".

...
Wikipedia