Lift Your Spirit

This article is about the Aloe Blacc album. For the unrelated 2013 single, see Harrison Craig.
Lift Your Spirit
Studio album by Aloe Blacc
Released October 25, 2013
Recorded 2011-2013
Genre
Length 42:29
Label Interscope
Producer
Aloe Blacc chronology

Wake Me Up
(2013)		 Lift Your Spirit
(2013)
Singles from Lift Your Spirit
  1. "Wake Me Up"
    Released: September 30, 2013
  2. "The Man"
    Released: January 21, 2014
  3. "Here Today"
    Released: June 23, 2014[1]

Lift Your Spirit is the third studio album by American soul singer Aloe Blacc. The album was released on October 25, 2013, through Interscope Records, the album was released in the United States on March 11, 2014 and April 7, 2014 in the United Kingdom. The album has charted in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The album includes production and co-songwriting from DJ Khalil, Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Theron Feemster and Rock Mafia. Strings for the entire album were arranged and recorded by Daniel "Danny Keyz" Tannenbaum. The album received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 57th Grammy Awards in 2015.

Background

In an interview with Billboard in the US he talked about his new album saying, "It's called 'Lift Your Spirit, and on I've got production by Pharrell Williams, the Rock Mafia, DJ Khalil -- and we're working on making a fantastic album that blends together a lot of different styles of music -- in sort of the same way we blended dance music and country on 'Wake Me Up!"[2]

Singles

"Wake Me Up" was released as the lead single from the album on September 30, 2013. The song has charted in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. In an interview with Billboard's Keith Caulfield at Sunday's American Music Awards, he revealed that even though the song doesn't officially include him as a featured artist like many electronic music songs, he isn't craving the extra attention, instead hoping it becomes a pleasant surprise for some people down the road, he said, "It's one of those things where it's bittersweet for the fans' sake; I want my fans to know that I'm doing something new" He is credited as a co-writer on the song, having come up with the lyrics on an airplane, he said, "I was thinking to myself, 'My life is a dream. Wake me up when it's over, when I walked into the session with Mike Einziger on guitar and Avicii, Mike was playing his guitar chords and these words... the way I sang them just felt right. We ended up recording it that night and I drove home listening to this acoustic version that Avicii eventually made into a fantastic hit. It's a wonderful experience."[2]

"The Man" was released as the second single from the album on January 21, 2014 in the United States and March 30, 2014 in the United Kingdom. The song has peaked at number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100, the song has also charted in Australia, France and New Zealand.

"Can You Do This" was released as a single in late 2014. The video stars Kaley Cuoco and Kevin Hart.

Promotional singles

"Lift Your Spirit" was released as the free iTunes Single of the Week for the week of March 11, 2014 in the United States.[3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 64/100[4]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [5]
Digital Spy [6]
Exclaim! 7/10[7]
The Guardian [8]
The Independent [9]
HipHopDX [10]
New York Daily News [11]
The Observer [12]
Popmatters 6/10[13]
Rolling Stone [14]

Upon the album's North American release, at Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 13 reviews.[4]

Commercial performance

On November 8, 2013 the album entered the Austrian Albums Chart at number 43. On November 10, 2013 the album entered the Swiss Albums Chart at number 22, it dropped to number 46 in its second week, it dropped to number 71 in its third week, it dropped to number 90 in its fourth week, on December 15, 2013 the album re-entered the chart at number 86. The album has peaked at number 16 on the German Albums Chart. On December 13, the album re-entered the Austrian Albums Chart at number 60. On March 31, 2014, the album entered the New Zealand Albums Chart at number 10, dropping to number 27 in its second week.

Track listing

Standard edition
No. TitleWriter(s)Producer(s) Length
1. "Wake Me Up (Acoustic)"  
DJ Khalil 3:45
2. "The Man"  
DJ Khalil 4:15
3. "Soldier In the City"  
DJ Khalil 3:25
4. "Love Is the Answer"  
Pharrell Williams 3:44
5. "Here Today"  Dawkins IIIDJ Khalil 3:54
6. "Wanna Be With You"  
Theron Feemster 3:44
7. "Lift Your Spirit"  Dawkins IIIDJ Khalil 3:26
8. "Red Velvet Seat"  
  • Dawkins III
  • Lilly
  • E. Walls
  • Farmer
DJ Khalil 3:23
9. "Can You Do This"  
DJ Khalil 2:56
10. "Ticking Bomb"  
Rock Mafia 3:36
11. "Eyes of a Child"  
  • Dawkins III
  • Lilly
  • Walls
  • Farmer
DJ Khalil 6:13

US version

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2013-14) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[17] 43
French Albums (SNEP)[18] 12
German Albums (Media Control)[19] 16
Italian Albums (FIMI)[20] 80
New Zealand Albums (Recorded Music NZ)[21] 10
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[22] 17
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[23] 22
UK Albums (OCC)[24] 5
US Billboard 200 4

Year-end charts

Chart (2014) Position
US Billboard 200[25] 147
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums[26] 29
US Top R&B Albums[27] 16

Release history

Region Date Format Label
Austria[28] October 25, 2013 Digital download, CD Interscope Records
Germany[29]
Switzerland[30]
United States March 11, 2014[31]
United Kingdom April 7, 2014[32]

References

  1. ↑ "Aloe Blacc 'Here Today'". Interscope Records. Archived from the original on June 14, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Aloe Blacc on Having an Anonymous Hit With 'Wake Me Up!': 'I Like the Discovery' Billboard.
  3. ↑ "Connecting to the iTunes Store.".
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Reviews for Lift Your Spirit by Aloe Blacc - Metacritic".
  5. ↑ Andy Kellman. "Lift Your Spirit - Aloe Blacc - Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards - AllMusic". AllMusic.
  6. ↑ "Aloe Blacc: Lift Your Spirit album review: 'Too safe and beige'". Digital Spy.
  7. ↑ B. Patrick, Ryan (March 7, 2014). "Aloe Blacc Lift Your Spirit". Exclaim!. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  8. ↑ Mokoena, Tshepo (April 3, 2014). "Aloe Blacc: Lift Your Spirit review – a valiant effort, but uninspiring". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Album reviews: Aloe Blacc, School Of Language, Todd Terje, Judith Owen, Metá Metá". The Independent. April 6, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  10. ↑ Lee, Christina. "Aloe Blacc Lift Your Spirit Review". HipHopDX. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  11. ↑ Farber, Jim (March 11, 2014). "Aloe Blacc, 'Lift Your Spirit'; Drive-By Truckers, 'English Oceans': Album reviews". New York Daily News. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  12. ↑ Khomami, Nadia (April 5, 2014). "Lift Your Spirit review – Aloe Blacc revisits 70s soul". The Observer. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  13. ↑ Smithson, Logan (May 8, 2014). "Aloe Blacc: Lift Your Spirit". Popmatters. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Aloe Blacc Lift Your Spirit Album Review". Rolling Stone.
  15. ↑ "Amazon.com: Lift Your Spirit: Music". Amazon.com.
  16. ↑ "Aloe Blacc - Lift Your Spirit - Only at Target". Target.com.
  17. ↑ "Aloe Blacc – Lift Your Spirit" (in German). Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien.
  18. ↑ "Aloe Blacc – Lift Your Spirit". Lescharts.com. Hung Medien.
  19. ↑ Album - Aloe Blacc, Lift Your Spirit. Charts.de. Media Control.
  20. ↑ "Artisti - Classifica settimanale WK 13 (dal 24-03-2014 al 30-03-2014)" (in Italian). FIMI. 3 April 2014.
  21. ↑ "Aloe Blacc – Lift Your Spirit". Charts.org.nz. Hung Medien.
  22. ↑ "Aloe Blacc – Lift Your Spirit". Swedishcharts.com. Hung Medien.
  23. ↑ "Aloe Blacc – Lift Your Spirit". Swisscharts.com. Hung Medien.
  24. ↑ "Aloe Blacc | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart
  25. ↑ "2014 Year-End Charts - Billboard 200 Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  26. ↑ "2014 Year-End Charts - Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  27. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2014/r-and-b-albums
  28. ↑ iTunes - Music - Lift Your Spirit by Aloe Blacc. AT
  29. ↑ iTunes - Music - Lift Your Spirit by Aloe Blacc. DE
  30. ↑ iTunes - Music - Lift Your Spirit by Aloe Blacc. CH
  31. ↑ iTunes - Music - Lift Your Spirit by Aloe Blacc. US
  32. ↑ iTunes - Music - Lift Your Spirit by Aloe Blacc. GB