Before This World
Before This World is the nineteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter James Taylor. Released on June 15, 2015, it was Taylor's first new studio album of original material since October Road (2002) and first studio album of any kind since Covers in 2008. 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, which then continued into 2016 and 2017.
| Before This World | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 15, 2015 | |||
| Recorded | January, March, May–July, November 2014 – February 2015 | |||
| Studio | The Barn – January 2014 (Basic), August, October, November 2014 – February 2015 (Overdubs). United Recording March. Avatar Studios | |||
| Genre |
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| Length | 41:45 | |||
| Label | Concord | |||
| Producer | Dave O'Donnell | |||
| James Taylor chronology | ||||
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| Aggregate scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 65/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| The Telegraph | |
| Newsday | A |
| Rolling Stone | |
Before This World became Taylor's first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart. The album arrived on top of the chart of July 4, 2015, more than 45 years after Taylor arrived on the list with Sweet Baby James (on the March 14, 1970, list). The album launched atop the Billboard 200 with 97,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 21, 2015. Of its start, pure album sales were 96,000 copies sold, Taylor's best debut week for an album since October Road.