Love Story (Yelawolf album)

Love Story
Studio album by Yelawolf
Released	April 21, 2015
Recorded	2012–14
Studio	Blackbird Studio (Nashville, Tennessee) Effigy Studios LLC (Ferndale, Michigan)
Genre	Hip hop country rap rap rock
Length	74:48
Label	Shady Interscope
Producer	Mark Batson Mike Elizondo Eminem (exec.) Malay Luis Resto Track Bangas WLPWR Yelawolf
Yelawolf chronology
Trunk Muzik Returns (2013) Love Story (2015)
Singles from Love Story
"Box Chevy V" Released: January 28, 2014 "Till It's Gone" Released: September 17, 2014 "Whiskey in a Bottle" Released: February 17, 2015 "American You" Released: March 23, 2015 "Best Friend" Released: April 14, 2015 "Devil in My Veins" Released: TBA

Love Story is the second studio album by American rapper Yelawolf. The album was released on April 21, 2015, by Shady Records, Interscope Records. The album was described by Yelawolf as a more passionate album than his debut album. The album's recording process took place primarily in Nashville, Tennessee from 2012 to January 2014. Record production was handled by Yelawolf himself, Eminem who also served as the executive producer, Malay and WLPWR, among others. It was supported by the singles "Box Chevy V", "Till It's Gone", "Whiskey in a Bottle", "American You", and "Best Friend" featuring Eminem.

Background

In April 2012, Yelawolf said, "The focus of the album is the experience since Radioactive (2011) and just putting all that into a project."^[1] In December 2012, Yelawolf addressed the status of all of his upcoming projects in an interview.^[2] He also spoke about Love Story, and how it would be different compared to his debut effort Radioactive. He said, "With Radioactive, I gave up a lot of creative space, and like I predicted would happen, there were some records that didn't translate to my audience."^[3] Yelawolf also said this album contains more straight up passion in the songs and there is no guidelines for the album.^[4] He also said, "I’m telling the truth about a lot of things. This album is in line with it having a concept and a theme. This is what makes my music special and makes me want to keep making music. I try to be as honest as I can with everything I do."^[5]

Recording and production

On March 20, 2012, Yelawolf announced the title for his second album to be Love Story. In June 2012, he also announced it will be released under Shady Records, while recording the album.^[6][7] Due to a stage diving incident which caused a ruptured spleen, and because of it, Yelawolf to delay the album's recording in the process,^[5][8][9] however, he said this turned into a good situation, as it gave him more time to record the album, since his previous album was rushed, to the entirety of it being recorded within two weeks.^[9][10]

In April 2012, in an interview with Inked, Yelawolf stated, both WillPower and Malay will provide production on the album. During the time period, he also remained quiet on who will be featured on this album.^[1] In December 2012, as he stated, while he has been recording the album in Nashville, Tennessee and going to Detroit, Michigan, so both he and Eminem could finished the album.^[3] When speaking of the album's recording process, Yelawolf said, he stayed away from "the media and buckled down in his studio in Nashville, to get it done. He promises something special for music lovers. For this album, he really wanted get back to his own work and not try and please anyone."^[11]

In March 2013, after his mixtape titled Trunk Muzik Returns was released, Yelawolf began working on Love Story which the recording sessions for the album took place during five months in Nashville, Tennessee, where Yelawolf brought both Eminem and the hip hop group Slaughterhouse there to work on this project.^[12] In April 2013, in an interview with The Source, a frequent producer WillPower has been working a lot with Yelawolf on the album. He said, "We’ve regrouped and we’ve certainly matured and grown in what we’re doing. For music lovers it’s going to be an interesting and fulfilling project."^[13][14][15] Following the release and promotion for his album The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013), Eminem began focusing on producing for both Yelawolf and Slaughterhouse once again.^[16] From March 2014 to April 2014, Yelawolf met with Eminem in Detroit to begin tuning out perfectly for the album.^[17]

Release and promotion

Following the release of his debut studio album, Radioactive (2011), Yelawolf toured with Lil Wayne and Travis Barker on the I Am Music tour. He began frequently collaborating with Barker, who he released a collaboration EP with, titled Psycho White on November 13, 2012.^[18] During 2012, Yelawolf has released on both of his projects; his collaboration album and his mixtape, The Slumdon Bridge with Ed Sheeran and Heart of Dixie.^[11][19] On March 14, 2013, his sixth official mixtape Trunk Muzik Returns was released and it contains ten tracks with guest appearances from Raekwon, Paul Wall, Killer Mike and ASAP Rocky. The mixtape was also entirely produced by his go-to producer WillPower for SupaHotBeats.^[20]

On October 31, 2013, Yelawolf released another mixtape titled Black Fall, this time produced entirely by Three 6 Mafia's DJ Paul.^[21] From November 14 to November 23, 2013, Yelawolf toured with Funk Volume artist Hopsin in promotion of Love Story, on the Fuck It tour. The tour consisted of primarily small, intimate venues in the West Coast of the United States.^[5][22] At first the album was set to be released during 2012, however that would be pushed to 2013 due to time constraints.^[9] In November 2013, Yelawolf confirmed to XXL that the album is now will be released during 2014.^[23] In January 28, 2014, in an interview with Sway Calloway, Yelawolf revealed the album to be scheduled for May 2014 release.^[15]

Singles

On January 3, 2014, Yelawolf announced that the album's first single would be the fifth installment in the Box Chevy series, "Box Chevy V".^[14] it would be released on January 27, 2014, and the following day it would be made available for digital download. It was produced by WillPower.^[24][25][26] The song has a mellow groove, the WillPower made production features twinkling keys and guitar licks.^[27][28] The music video, filmed in Granville, Tennessee, was released on April 4, 2014.^[29][30] On July 1, 2014, the track "Honey Brown", was released for digital download. It was produced by DJ Paul and Malay.^[31] On September 16, 2014, the album's second single "Till It's Gone" premiered on episode 2 of the seventh season of Sons of Anarchy, on the following day it was released on the web.^[32][33][34] On October 14, 2014, the music video was released for "Till It's Gone".^[35] On February 17, 2015, the album's third single "Whiskey In a Bottle" was released.^[36] On March 23, 2015, the album's fourth single "American You" was released.^[37] On April 14, 2015, the album's fifth single "Best Friend" featuring Eminem was released.^[38]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	64/100[39]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Complex	[40]
DJBooth	[41]
HipHopDX	[42]
Pitchfork Media	4.9/10[43]
Rolling Stone	[44]
Spin	6/10[45]
XXL	(XL)[46]

Upon its release, Love Story has received generally positive reviews from music critics. Critics praised the album's emotional feel as well as its ambition and production. However, critics have also noted and criticized the album's length. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64 based on 7 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".^[39]

Ken Capobianco of The Boston Globe gave the album a positive review while calling the album "a striking improvement over 2011's messy, compromised "Radioactive"....if you scratch his songs' surfaces, you hear a smart, sensitive outsider searching for some solace." He would go on to praise the album for it's "undeniable emotional pull".^[47] Renato Pagnani of Rolling Stone gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, calling the album a "stronger embrace of his southern roots", while also adding that "Yelawolf's populist ambitions haven't gone away."^[44] Chris Mench of Complex gave the album 3 out of 5 stars saying "The album layers the trailer park swagger of his early work over rootsy country music instrumentals, and it's largely successful". He would go on to criticize the albums length by saying "If Love Story ended at it's title song, it could have been a truly great project...it's solid momentum really fizzles out in the last few songs, making for a disappointing finale of an otherwise solid effort".^[40] Marcus Dowling of HipHopDX said, "On Love Story, the effort, creativity and ambition is more than there, and his tremendous talents as an emcee and clear artistic voice are very much present." He would go on to say the album is "disjointed but not jagged...the closer Yelawolf stays to his more organic-to-his-roots style of Southern rap, he excels."^[42] In a positive review, Lucas Garrison of DJ Booth called the production "phenomenal", and would go on to state that the album is a "rich, diverse, and deep experience". He would note that it "may have been a little too long for my liking but that's a small price to pay for listening to something this remarkably unique...I know enough about hip-hop to know nobody is making music like this."^[48] Miranda J. of XXL gave the album an XL rating (4 out of 5) stating that Yelawolf is "in tune with his southern roots on Love Story...there's a sense of self awareness and confidence that seems to have been missing before...He’s fully aware of who exactly he wants to be in hip-hop: a proud, raw, unapologetically Southern MC, something the game’s been missing".^[46]

In a mixed review, Drew Millard of Spin gave the album a 6 out of 10. He would state "Nobody else has tried to mash murder ballads, hardcore rap, bluegrass, backwoods country, and feather-light guitar-pop into one album, pretty much ever." He would also add, "your enjoyment of Love Story will directly correlate with the amount that you enjoy Yelawolf’s singing, because boy howdy is there a lot of it here", and would go on to criticize Yelawolf's lyrics by saying "he utters the word “faggot” multiple times on the record, which, come on, guy. It’s 2015...whenever he’s got space in a verse to fill, it seems the guy drops some sort of complaint about the music industry...or a straight-up lyrical clunker."^[45] In a mostly negative review, Jay Balfour of Pitchfork Media said "Love Story is far too long to accomplish so little...it's draining...Yelawolf sounds like he's just going through the motions instead of actually covering ground".^[43]

Commercial performance

In the United States, Love Story debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 58,000 equivalent album units; it sold 51,000 copies in its first week. It marked Yelawolf's first top ten entry on the Billboard 200, his first number one album on Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums, and the best sales week of his career so far.^[49][50]

Track listing

Notes

• "Change" features vocals by Jessy Wilson.
• "Devil in My Veins" features vocals by the McCrary Sisters.

Sample credits

• "Whiskey in a Bottle" contains elements of "Adormeceu", written by Antonio Cezar Albuquerque de Merces and Jorge Pereira da Neves.
• "Johnny Cash" contains excerpts from "Heaven", written by Dean Honer, Dean Manuel, Jarrod Gosling and Jim Reeves.
• "Outer Space" contains excerpts from "Walkin' After Midnight", written by Alan Block and Donn Hecht, performed by Patsy Cline.
• "Box Chevy V" contains elements of "Still D.R.E", written by Andre Young, Shawn Carter and Scott Storch, performed by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

Charts

Personnel

Musical

Technical

References