''Higher'' is the fifth studio album by American musician
Chris Stapleton
Christopher Alvin Stapleton (born April 15, 1978) is an American country singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born in Kentucky, Stapleton moved to Nashville in 1996 to study for an engineering degree from Vanderbilt University, but dropped out to pur ...
, released through
Mercury Nashville
Music Corporation of America, formerly known as Universal Music Group Nashville, is Universal Music Group's country music subsidiary. It was officially opened in 1945 as #MCA Nashville, MCA Nashville and #Mercury Nashville, Mercury Nashville wh ...
on November 10, 2023. The album was produced by
Dave Cobb
Dave Cobb (born July 9, 1974) is an American record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, best known for producing the work of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, The Highwomen, Take That, Rival ...
, Stapleton and his wife
Morgane. It was preceded by the lead single "
White Horse
A white horse is born predominantly white and stays white throughout its life. A white horse has mostly pink skin under its hair coat, and may have brown, blue, or hazel eyes. "True white" horses, especially those that carry one of the dominant w ...
".
Background and recording
The album was recorded at
RCA Studio A
RCA Studio A is a music recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee, built and founded in 1965 by Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Harold Bradley as an addition to the RCA Victor Studio the company established seven years prior. Together these two s ...
in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, and additionally features producer
Dave Cobb
Dave Cobb (born July 9, 1974) is an American record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, best known for producing the work of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, The Highwomen, Take That, Rival ...
on acoustic and electric guitar and Stapleton's wife
Morgane on backing vocals, synthesizer and tambourine, along with contributions from members of his touring band J.T. Cure and Derek Mixon, as well as
Paul Franklin, and Lee Pardini. A press release stated that the album "span
genres and def
eseasy categorization", while ''
Uproxx
Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...
'' described the album and lead single "White Horse" as "emotionally raw and brutally honest".
The track "Loving You on My Mind" was previously recorded by
Josh Turner
Joshua Otis Turner (born November 20, 1977) is an American Country music, country singer and songwriter. In 2003, he signed to Universal Music Group Nashville, MCA Nashville Records. That same year, his Long Black Train, debut album's title t ...
on his 2010 album ''
Haywire''.
Critical reception
''Higher'' received a score of 76 out of 100 on review aggregator
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
based on five critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception.
''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...
''s Dylan Barnabe wrote that while the album "may not muster the same anthemic thunder of singles like 'Might as Well Get Stoned' (though 'White Horse' comes close),
..it illustrates Stapleton's range and willingness to colour outside the lines", finding that "he's a little bit older and a little bit wiser, but Stapleton is still the same storyteller and he's still got things to say".
Alyssa Goldberg of ''
Paste
Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to:
Science and technology
* Adhesive or paste
** Wallpaper paste
** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water
* Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...
'' stated, "musically, ''Higher'' maintains the same high-caliber energy as Stapleton's previous work
..However, lyrically ''Higher'' is more reserved" than his past work, concluding that "despite
he album's
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads
* He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English
* He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana)
* Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
lyrical shortcomings, Chris Stapleton still reigns high in the country genre and has delivered another admirable album".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...
of
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 ...
felt that "the heart of ''Higher'' resides in stark, intimate ballads and, especially, simmering soul numbers that rely as much on a supple groove as it does on Stapleton's gruff testifying".
Lorie Liebig of ''
American Songwriter
''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
History
The ''American Songwri ...
'' wrote that "although his sound is more varied than ever, the collection of songs feels cohesive. He's never been an artist too confined by genre lines, but ''Higher'' lets Stapleton roam free creatively".
John Amen of ''
No Depression'' wrote, "Stapleton is at once adventurous and a proponent of the tried and true. With ''Higher'', he navigates an array of intriguing sonics. As with previous outings, though, it's his voice — equal parts straight bourbon, aloe balm, Marlboro smoke, and Tupelo honey — that stands out and carries the day. You might call it irresistible, signature, even as it conjures the ghosts of country music's great progenitors."
''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
''s Thomas Bedenbaugh found "White Horse" to be "the best of the album's uptempo cuts, and largely due to its relative lyrical subtlety" as "most of the other songs on ''Higher'' are lyrically vague and repetitive in their fixation on the trials of broken, lonely men and the women in their lives".
Track listing
Personnel
Musicians
*
Chris Stapleton
Christopher Alvin Stapleton (born April 15, 1978) is an American country singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born in Kentucky, Stapleton moved to Nashville in 1996 to study for an engineering degree from Vanderbilt University, but dropped out to pur ...
– lead vocals (all tracks), electric guitar (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13), acoustic guitar (1, 3, 5, 10–14),
slide guitar
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...
(1, 2),
12-string acoustic guitar (3, 13), backing vocals (6–9), string arrangement (6)
* J. T. Cure – bass guitar (1–13)
* Derek Mixon – drums (1–13), shaker (1, 5, 6, 10, 13);
bongos
Bongos (Spanish language, Spanish: ''bongó'') are an Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger ''hembra'' () and the smaller ''macho'' ...
,
triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...
(5)
*
Dave Cobb
Dave Cobb (born July 9, 1974) is an American record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, best known for producing the work of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, The Highwomen, Take That, Rival ...
– acoustic guitar (1, 3–6, 8–13),
shaker (6, 10, 13), string arrangement (6),
nylon-string guitar
The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the modern steel-string a ...
(7), 12-string acoustic guitar (13)
*
Morgane Stapleton
Morgane Stapleton (pronounced "Morgan"; née Hayes; born January 25, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter and the wife of Chris Stapleton. She performs background, harmony, and duet vocals in her husband's band, was instrumental in the creati ...
– backing vocals (1, 3–5, 7, 8, 10–13), synthesizer (1, 3, 5, 8, 12, 13), tambourine (1, 5–7, 10, 12)
* Lee Pardini – piano (1, 3, 10, 11, 13), synthesizer (5, 13),
Hammond B3
Hammond may refer to:
People
* Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist
* Hammond (surname)
* Justice Hammond (disambiguation)
Places Antarctica
* Hammond Glacier, Antarctica
Australia
*Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in Sout ...
(6, 8–10, 13),
Wurlitzer electric piano
The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from 1954 to 1983. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptually similar to ...
(9, 12, 13)
* Sari Reist –
cello
The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
(6)
* Austin Hoke – cello (6)
* Kevin Bate – cello (6)
* Kristin Wilkinson – string arrangement (6)
* Stephen Lamb – string arrangement (6)
* Alicia Enstrom – violin (6)
* David Angell – violin (6)
* David Davidson – violin (6)
* Janet Darnall – violin (6)
* Jenny Bifano – violin (6)
* Jung-Min Shin – violin (6)
* Mary Van Osdale – violin (6)
*
Paul Franklin –
pedal steel
The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...
(9, 11–13)
Technical
* Chris Stapleton –
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stat ...
* Morgane Stapleton – production
* Dave Cobb – production
*
Pete Lyman
Pete Lyman is a mastering engineer, and owner of Infrasonic Mastering, an audio and vinyl mastering studio with three locations in United States. He has mastered Grammy-award winning and nominated albums for Chris Stapleton, Tanya Tucker, Jason I ...
–
mastering
*
Vance Powell
Vance Powell is an American six-time Grammy Award winning record producer, engineer and mixer. His credits include Phish, Chris Stapleton, Jack White, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, The White Stripes, Arctic Monke ...
–
mixing,
engineering
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
,
immersive mix engineering, recording
* Gena Johnson – recording, additional engineering
* Koehn Terry – additional engineering, mixing assistance
* Michael Fahey – additional engineering, mixing assistance
* Daniel Bacigalupi – mastering assistance
* Philip Smith – recording assistance
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Chris Stapleton
2023 albums
Chris Stapleton albums
Albums produced by Chris Stapleton
Albums produced by Dave Cobb
Albums produced by Morgane Stapleton
Mercury Nashville albums