Paper Airplane (album)
| Paper Airplane | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Alison Krauss & Union Station | ||||
| Released | April 12, 2011 | |||
| Genre | Bluegrass | |||
| Length | 43:15 | |||
| Label | Rounder | |||
| Producer | Alison Krauss & Union Station | |||
| Alison Krauss chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Paper Airplane | ||||
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Paper Airplane is an album by Alison Krauss and Union Station. It was released on April 12, 2011 and marks Krauss's fourteenth album and her first release with Union Station since Lonely Runs Both Ways in 2004. It includes cover versions of "My Opening Farewell" and "Dimming of the Day", which were originally recorded by Jackson Browne and Richard Thompson, respectively.
The album's lead single, the title track, was released to country music radio and Adult album alternative radio on March 28, 2011; however, the single failed to enter a Billboard music chart.
Reception
Critical
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Rolling Stone |  [2] |
Thom Jurek of AllMusic gave Paper Airplane a four-star rating, describing it as melancholy, with songs revolving around themes of trial and perseverance. He also praised the cover versions of "Dimming of the Day" and "My Opening Farewell". He considered the album polished yet authentic.[3]
Andrew Greer of Christianity Today also honored Paper Airplane with four stars, finding it "an exquisite eleven-song canon," and added, "though their haunts are heavy-hearted, a tangible hope pervades Airplane, attesting to the band's spiritual sensitivity even without the band's usual faith song standout."[4] The album won Grammys for Best Bluegrass Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.[5]
Commercial
Paper Airplane sold approximately 83,000 copies during its first week of release, making it Krauss's first number one album on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.[6] It is also the highest entry for Krauss on the Billboard 200, where it debuted at number three. Raising Sand, Krauss's collaboration with Robert Plant, reached number two on the Billboard 200 upon its release in 2007. In addition to these charts, it also debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums and number one on Billboard Folk Albums.[7] The album has sold 384,000 copies in the United States as of November 2016.[8]
Paper Airplane was a minor hit in Europe, debuting in the top forty of several European countries, such as the Norwegian Albums Chart. It became Krauss' most successful album in the UK, reaching number 11 on the UK Albums Chart (overtaking 2009's compilation Essential Alison Krauss, which reached number 13) and earning a silver certification from the BPI.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Paper Airplane" | Robert Lee Castleman | 3:36 |
| 2. | "Dust Bowl Children" | Peter Rowan | 3:06 |
| 3. | "Lie Awake" | Viktor Krauss, Angel Snow | 3:55 |
| 4. | "Lay My Burden Down" | Aoife O'Donovan | 3:52 |
| 5. | "My Love Follows You Where You Go" | Barry Dean, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose | 4:03 |
| 6. | "Dimming of the Day" | Richard Thompson | 5:20 |
| 7. | "On the Outside Looking In" | Tim O'Brien | 3:35 |
| 8. | "Miles to Go" | Barry Bales, Chris Stapleton | 2:54 |
| 9. | "Sinking Stone" | Jeremy Lister | 4:42 |
| 10. | "Bonita and Bill Butler" | Sidney Cox | 4:03 |
| 11. | "My Opening Farewell" | Jackson Browne | 4:08 |
| Total length: | 43:15 | ||
| Target bonus tracks | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 12. | "These Days" (also an iTunes pre-order bonus track) | |
| 13. | "A Place Outside" | |
| 14. | "Frozen Fields" | |
| 15. | "We Hide & Seek" (live) | |
| 16. | "Faraway Land" (live) | |
| 17. | "Every Time You Say Goodbye" (live) | |
Personnel
- Alison Krauss – lead vocals, background vocals, fiddle
- Dan Tyminski – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin
- Ron Block – acoustic guitar, banjo
- Jerry Douglas – background vocals, dobro
- Barry Bales – background vocals, upright bass
Chart performance
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Albums Chart[9] | 23 |
| Dutch Albums Chart[10] | 49 |
| German Albums Chart[11] | 51 |
| Irish Albums Chart[12] | 28 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart[13] | 32 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart[14] | 4 |
| Swedish Albums Chart[15] | 10 |
| UK Albums Chart[16] | 11 |
| UK Country Albums[17] | 1 |
| US Billboard 200[9] | 3 |
| US Billboard Folk Albums[9] | 1 |
| US Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums[18] | 1 |
| US Billboard Top Country Albums[19] | 1 |
Notes
- ↑ Jurek, Thom. "Paper Airplane review". Allmusic. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ↑ Hermes, Will (April 28, 2011). "Reviews/Music". Rolling Stone (1129): 98.
- ↑ "Paper Airplane - Alison Krauss & Union Station > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ↑ "Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplane". Christianity Today. Retrieved April 2011. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
- ↑ "Alison Krauss & Union Station Fly to No. 1 on Country Album chart". Roughstock. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
- ↑ "The Country Boys Continue to Dominate the Charts". Roughstock. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
- ↑ "Upcoming Releases". Hits Daily Double. HITS Digital Ventures. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016.
- 1 2 3 "Paper Airplane - Alison Krauss & Union Station". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ↑ "dutchcharts.nl - Dutch charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ↑ "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts - German Albums". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
- ↑ "irishcharts.com - Discography Alison Krauss". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ↑ "charts.org.nz - New Zealand charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
- ↑ "norwegiancharts.com - Norwegian charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ↑ "swedishcharts.com - Swedish charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
- ↑ "Chart Stats - Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplane". chartstats.com. Archived from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ↑ "The Official Charts - UK Country Charts - May 14, 2011". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
- ↑ "Bluegrass Albums - Week of April 30, 2011". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ↑ "Top Country Albums - Week of April 30, 2011". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
| Preceded by My Kinda Party by Jason Aldean |
Top Country Albums number-one album April 30, 2011 – May 7, 2011 |
Succeeded by My Kinda Party by Jason Aldean |