''Mercury Lane'' is the debut studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer

Jimmie Allen James Edward Allen (born June 18, 1985) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He was signed to Broken Bow Records imprint Stoney Creek, for which he released the two singles " Best Shot" and " Make Me Want To" and the 2018 album '' ...

. It was released on October 12, 2018 via

Broken Bow Records BBR Music Group (formerly Broken Bow Records) is an American record label based in Nashville. Founded in July 1999 by Benny Brown, the label specializes in country music. The label's executive vice president is Jon Loba. Craig Morgan had the f ...

' Stoney Creek imprint. The album includes the singles " Best Shot" and " Make Me Want To".

Content

The album is named after the street on which Allen grew up. He wrote over half of the album's 15 tracks. Serving as producer are Eric Torres and

Ash Bowers Ashley Walton "Ash" Bowers is an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, and manager. Between 2003 and 2013, he was a recording artist: first as the lead singer of the band Forty5 South, then as a solo artist on Broken Bow Reco ...

, the latter of whom also formerly recorded on Stoney Creek. Of the album's content, Allen said that it "touches on all of those ideals and truly feels like I’m sharing a piece of my heart with the world. I’ve been working toward this moment for so long; I can’t wait to share it with everyone." The track "Boy Gets a Truck" was previously recorded by

Keith Urban Keith Lionel Urban ( né Urbahn; 26 October 1967) is an Australian and American country singer, songwriter and guitarist. Recognised with four Grammy Awards, he has also received 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, including the Jim Reeves Int ...

on his 2016 album '' Ripcord''.

Critical reception

''CelebMix'' reviewer Laura Klonowski called it "an accomplished, polished record" and "a

coming of age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

country album that firmly puts Jimmie Allen on the map as the most exciting male country artist currently on the scene." Pip Ellwood-Hughes of ''Entertainment Focus'' thought that the album was "solid", while praising Allen's vocals on "Wait for It" and "Underdog" and the lyrics of "How to Be Single", but also stating that "he plays it a little too safe opting for songs that are likely to hit on radio rather than connect with the listener." It received 3 out of 5 stars from

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 ...

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 ...

, who wrote that "Possessed with a friendly, unassuming voice, Allen is pleasing to hear, but he fades into the background a bit too easily."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at No. 11 on Top Country Albums, with 3,000 copies sold and 7,000 in

equivalent album units The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of songs streamed and songs downloaded equal to one traditional album sale. The album-equivalent unit ...

. It sold a further 900 copies the following week. It has sold 13,800 copies in the United States as of April 2019.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from

- lead vocals, background vocals *Dave Cohen -

Hammond B-3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created from rotat ...

, keyboards,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

*David Dorn - Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards, piano *Lee Hendricks -

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

*Mark Hill - bass guitar *Brandon Hood -

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

*Evan Hutchings -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, programming *Troy Lancaster - electric guitar *Gale Mayes - choir *Rob McNelley - electric guitar *Andrea Merritt - choir *Wendy Moten - choir *Justin Ostrander - electric guitar *Adam Shoenfeld - electric guitar *Eric Torres - background vocals *

Ilya Toshinsky Bering Strait was a Russian country music band, whose style was sometimes called "redgrass". In 2003, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award and appeared on the TV show ''60 Minutes''. The group disbanded in 2006. The lineup on their first al ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, electric guitar,

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2018 debut albums BBR Music Group albums Jimmie Allen albums