''Back 2 Life'' is the third studio album by American R&B singer LeToya Luckett. It was released by eOne Music Entertainment on May 12, 2017. Her first album in eight years, it marked Luckett's first project as an independent artist after the release of her first two solo albums '' LeToya'' (2006) and '' Lady Love'' (2009), both of which were produced under

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

. Luckett consulted a variety of musicians to work with her on ''Back 2 Life'', including Jo Blaq,

Warryn Campbell Warryn Stafford Campbell, Jr. (born August 21, 1975) is an American record producer. He has worked with a number of contemporary gospel, gospel, hip hop and Contemporary R&B, R&B artists. Campbell originally got his start as a session musician a ...

, D'Mile, Andre Harris, and J. White Did It. The album earned generally positive reviews from music critics though some found that it lacked cohesiveness. ''Back 2 Life'' debuted and peaked at number 91 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, marking Luckett's lowest charting project in the United States up to then, and reached number four on the US

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' mag ...

chart. The album was preceded by two singles, including " Back 2 Life" and "Used To", the former of which peaked at number six on the

Adult R&B Songs The Adult R&B Songs chart (formerly called Adult R&B Airplay) is an airplay chart that is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on urban adult contemporary radio stations, whose playl ...

chart.

Background and promotion

In January 2014, Luckett announced that the title of her third studio album would be called ''Until Then'' on ''

The Wendy Williams Show ''The Wendy Williams Show'' (often shortened to ''Wendy'') is an American Broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show created and hosted by Wendy Williams, and produced by Wendy Williams Productions, along with Perler Productions. The show was d ...

'', with a planned 2016 release. " Don't Make Me Wait" was released as a promotional single on February 11, 2014, to iTunes. More than a year later a remix featuring American-rapper

T.I. Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (born September 25, 1980), known professionally as T.I. or Tip, is an American rapper and singer raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Harris is credited as a pioneer of the hip hop subgenre trap music, along with fellow Georgi ...

was released on March 10, 2015. On January 5, 2015, Luckett released the track "I'm Ready" on her YouTube channel. On January 16, 2015, Luckett released "Together" inspired to end illegal gun violence in America in recent partnership with the Caliber Foundation. On December 7, 2016, Luckett released the lead single " Back 2 Life" to iTunes. On March 23, 2017, eOne Music released the teaser trailer to the second single "Used To", continuing from the "Back 2 Life" music video. On April 10, 2017, Luckett announced the release date and new title of her upcoming third studio album on her Twitter account: "HEY LOVES!!! Excited to announce my album #Back2Life hits the stores May 12th!!!", thus renaming it from ''Until Then'' to ''Back 2 Life'', with the song "Don't Make Me Wait" removed, and 13 songs added. On April 17, 2017, the album was available for pre-order on iTunes.

Singles

" Back 2 Life" was released as the album's lead single on December 7, 2016. The song debuted at number 26 on the US Adult R&B Airplay chart on February 4, 2017 and has since peaked at number six. The music video was released to Luckett's

Vevo Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...

account on January 10, 2017. "

Used To "Used To" is a song by Swedish singer Sandro Cavazza featuring Lou Elliotte. The song was released on 9 November 2018 and peaked at number 63 in Sweden. Remixes were released in February 2019. Cavazza said "We wrote the song as a duet picturi ...

" was released as the album's second single on April 17, 2017, with the music video premiering the same day. "In The Name" was released as the album's third single on the day of release, and the music video for it was released on July 31, 2017.

Critical reception

''Cryptic Rock''s Jackie Knightowl called the album "a 13 course musical medley culinary masterpiece." She felt that with ''Back 2 Life'', Luckett "wields her fairy wand and transforms each song into a gilded masterpiece, perfectly assembled with passionate lyrics and catchy rhythmic arrangements." ''Delux Magazine''s Shadress Denise noted that "thirteen tracks of love, heartbreak, loneliness, and questions about where her quest of love will end make up this collection of songs. Each track not only demonstrates her growth in music, but life and love as well."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

editor Andy Kellman rated the album three stars out of five. He found that ''Back 2 Life'' was "worthy of notice" and noted that the album's "moments of pain and unease do alternate with warm slow jams and assured dancefloor grooves with the singer facing new horizons." Edward Bowser from ''Soul in Stereo'' called the album a "great showcase of LeToya’s musical diversity but sometimes that comes at the price of consistency. The album too often switches gears, bouncing from retro to big band and back to sparse modern production. While all of those tracks are notable individually, collectively they don’t make for a seamless listen and it hurts the overall package."

Commercial performance

In the United States, ''Back 2 Life'' debuted and peaked at number ninety-one on the ''Billboard'' 200. It also reached number forty-four on the

Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

chart, number thirty on the Top Album Sales chart, number fourteen on the

R&B Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

chart, and number four on the

chart. ''Back 2 Life'' was Luckett's first album not to reach the top spot on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart.

Track listing

Notes * "Back 2 Life" samples " Back to Life" by Soul II Soul.

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums Albums produced by D'Mile Albums produced by J. White Did It Albums produced by Warryn Campbell LeToya Luckett albums