''Encore'' is the debut studio album by French

electronic music Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...

record producer

DJ Snake William Sami Étienne Grigahcine (born 13 June 1986), known by his stage name DJ Snake, is an Algerian French music producer and DJ, first achieving international recognition in 2013 by releasing an instrumentation-oriented single called " Turn D ...

, released on 5 August 2016 by

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mu ...

. It features collaborations with Bipolar Sunshine,

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead sing ...

, Yellow Claw,

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

, among others. The album garnered mixed reviews from critics. ''Encore'' debuted at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and spawned four singles: "

Middle Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek (d ...

", "

Talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

", " Let Me Love You" and "The Half".

Singles

On October 16, 2015, Snake premiered the album's

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release ...

, "

", which was written by William Grigahcine, Adio Joshua Marchant and Aaron Kleinstub, produced by DJ Snake and Aalias, and features vocals by English singer Bipolar Sunshine. The song was a huge success, reaching the top-twenty in France and the United States, as well as the top-ten and top-five in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and Australia. "

", featuring Australian vocalist

George Maple Jess Higgs (born 25 May 1989), known professionally as George Maple, is an Australian born, LA based recording artist, songwriter and record producer. In 2017, Maple released her own debut album, ''Lover'' which debuted at #2 on the Australia ...

, written by Grigahcine, Jess Higgs,

Harley Streten Harley Edward Streten (born 5 November 1991), known professionally as Flume, is an Australian DJ and music producer. He is regarded as a pioneer of future bass who helped popularise the genre. His self-titled debut studio album, '' Flume'', wa ...

Alex Burnett Alex James Burnett (born July 26, 1987) is an American former professional baseball right-handed relief pitcher. He is tall and weighs . He was drafted in the 12th round of the 2005 Major League Baseball draft by the Minnesota Twins. Minor lea ...

, James David, Chris Emerson, and produced by Snake, was released as the second single on 10 June 2016. The third single, " Let Me Love You", featuring

, was released the same day as the album and reached the top-ten in 28 countries, including number four in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, number two in the

and Australia and number one in many European countries such as

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. "The Half", featuring

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. In 2009, he signed a record deal with Def Jam Recordings. Jeremih's commercial debut single, " Birthday Sex" ...

Young Thug Jeffery Lamar Williams (born August 16, 1991), known professionally as Young Thug, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is considered to be an influential figure of his generation, with his music impacting the modern sound of hip ...

and

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, rapper, disc jockey (DJ) and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ. At the ag ...

, was released on 7 February 2017, as the fourth single off the album. It was written by Grigahcine,

Jeremy Felton Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. In 2009, he signed a record deal with Def Jam Recordings. Jeremih's commercial debut single, "Birthday Sex", ...

, Jeffrey Lamar Williams,

Kasseem Dean Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, rapper, disc jockey (DJ) and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ. At the ag ...

Brittany Hazzard Brittany Talia Hazzard, professionally known as Starrah, is an American songwriter, singer and rapper. She has written or co-written multiple songs that have reached the top 20 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, including Rihanna's "Needed Me", No ...

, and Jean-Baptiste Kouame, and produced by Snake and

Free School Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procure ...

Critical reception

''Encore'' received generally positive reviews from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mu ...

s. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 62, based on 4 reviews. Chuck Arnold from ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

'' praised the album for delivering on "sure-fire singles ("Middle", Sober")" while also displaying Snake's EDM credentials on the more "harder electronic assaults ("Sahara", "Propaganda"), saying that "''Encore'' keeps the party rocking while barely missing a dance step." Ed Ledsham of ''

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History '' ...

'' said, "Overall, ''Encore'' is a worthwhile listen. It obviously suffers from many of the problems that dance music albums generally suffer from but it does well to show off Snake's ear for hooks just as well as his ear for drops."

Will Hermes Will Hermes (born December 27, 1960 in Jamaica, Queens, New York City) is an American author, broadcaster, journalist and critic who has written extensively about popular music. He is a longtime contributor to ''Rolling Stone'' and to National Pu ...

, writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'', felt the featured guests were underutilized throughout the track listing, citing "The Half" and "Let Me Love You" as examples. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' editor Matthew Schnipper said that despite containing some banging earworms ("Sahara", "Ocho Cinco", "Propaganda"), the rest of the record falters when Snake overextends his talent to create a legitimate album filled with "ill-advised rap songs and bad ballads" concluding that, " ey’re inoffensive, sure, but they’re completely unnecessary. Not sure what made him turn down."

Commercial performance

In the United States, ''Encore'' debuted at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' 200, with 32,000

equivalent album units The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...

, marking DJ Snake's first top ten album. The album got over 16.9 million streams in its first week. ''Encore'' was DJ Snake's first album to debut at number one on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Top Dance/Electronic Albums.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2016 debut albums DJ Snake albums Albums produced by DJ Premier Albums produced by Fraser T. Smith Albums produced by Louis Bell Interscope Records albums