''Leave It All Behind'' is the second studio album by musical duo

the Foreign Exchange The Foreign Exchange is music duo consisting of the American rapper Phonte and the Dutch record producer Nicolay, their music is a blend of hip hop, soul, R&B and electronica. Musical career The pair initially made contact via message boar ...

. It was released on October 14, 2008 via the Foreign Exchange Music and Hardboiled LLC. Production was handled entirely by member Nicolay. In the United States, the album peaked at number 68 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, ...

and number 13 on the Heatseekers Albums charts. The song "Daykeeper" off of the album received a

Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance The Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality urban/alternative performance ...

nomination at the

52nd Annual Grammy Awards The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares P ...

Critical reception

''Leave It All Behind'' was met with universal acclaim from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

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 ...

, which assigns a

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 82 based on five reviews.

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 ...

's Andy Kellman praised the album, calling it "a concise and complete set of songs that brings out the best of both producer Nicolay and Phonte". Andrew Martin of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'' declared that "this talented duo has made one hell of an album, actually one of the best of 2008, in the process". Norman Mayers of ''Prefix'' wrote: "with electronic and live sounds, emotional production and excellent vocals from some of the underground scene's best, ''Leave It All Behind'' is an open and experimental take on

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

and

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

, highly successful, at that". Ian Cohen of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' stated: "musically, Nicolay's in his comfort zone, making the sort of album he'd been more or less heading towards since ''

Connected Connected may refer to: Film and television * ''Connected'' (2008 film), a Hong Kong remake of the American movie ''Cellular'' * '' Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology'', a 2011 documentary film * ''Connected'' (2015 TV ...

'', an album that, while certainly rooted in hip-hop, knocked like a pillow fight". In his mixed review for ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'',

Nathan Rabin Nathan Rabin () is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for ''The A.V. Club'', a position he held until he left the ''Onion'' organization in 2013.

noted: "Nicolay has never been afraid to go soft and smooth, but his production on ''Leave It'' sometimes borders on

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

Track listing

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2008 albums The Foreign Exchange albums Albums produced by Nicolay (musician)