Released June 15, 2015 Producer Dave O'Donnell Release date 15 June 2015 Genres Folk music, Soft rock | Length 41:45 Artist James Taylor Label Concord Records | |
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Recorded January, March, May-July, November 2014-February 2015 The Essential James Taylor
(2013) Before This World
(2015) Nominations Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Similar James Taylor albums, Folk music albums | ||
You and i again james taylor before this world
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.
Contents
Teaser james taylor s before this world
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. He subsequently lived alone to write the album in a waterfront apartment in Newport, Rhode Island.
Live performance
Before the album's releasing, James Taylor started to perform several new tracks from the upcoming album on his 2014 All Star Band 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.
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. 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.
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.
Track listings
All tracks written by James Taylor, except as noted.
Personnel
Production
Songs
1Today Today Today3:09
2You And I Again3:53
3Angels Of Fenway3:18