''Uncaged'' is the third 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 ...
group
Zac Brown Band
Zac Brown Band is an American country music band based in Atlanta, Georgia. The lineup consists of Zac Brown (lead vocals, guitar), Jimmy De Martini (fiddle, vocals), John Driskell Hopkins (bass guitar, guitar, baritone guitar, banjo, ukulele, ...
. It was released on July 10, 2012. The album's lead single, "The Wind" was released on June 6, 2012. The album received widely positive reviews from critics and debuted at number one on the
''Billboard'' 200. At the
2013 Grammy Awards, it won the award for
Best Country Album.
Background
Zac Brown called the album "Your basic country-Southern rock-bluegrass-reggae-jam record" saying "It's really about making people dance, you just don't let them go. There's a lot of songs on the record that when we play them live we'll extend out long. But it's really about just grabbing people in that pulse and then not letting them go that entire song." Clay Cook said "This is first record that we’ve made from start to finish in one thought, the previous albums have been a collection of songs … this is an ''album''.”
Artwork
The cover features artist Brandon Maldonado's 2009 ''Our Lady of Merciful Fate''.
Critical reception
Upon its release, ''Uncaged'' received generally positive reviews from most music critics.
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 rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, 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 72, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
The positive reviews came from
About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...
,
AbsolutePunk
''AbsolutePunk'' was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate (the most recent CEO). The website mainly focused on artists who are relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to featu ...
,
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 ...
, ''
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 ...
'', ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'', ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', Roughstock,
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 ...
, ''
Tampa Bay Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute ...
'',
Taste of Country
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...
and the ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
''. Robert Silva of About.com gave it a three and a half out of five stars, writing that "Overall, ''Uncaged'' is a more low-key effort than either ''The Foundation'' or ''You Get What You Give''. There's a fair amount of genre-hopping on the album, but it feels authentic for a band that's always played outside the confines of the country box."
Gregory Robson of AbsolutePunk gave it a score of 87 percent, calling "''Uncaged'', a genre-bending, head-turning collection that vaults ZBB to the top of the roots-rock pedestal."
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 rated it four stars out of five stars, calling it "the sound of a band operating from a position of considerable strength".
Jeff Giles of ''American Songwriter'' rated the album a three and a half out of five stars, and writes of the album, "Uncaged is an album that proves a successful country artist really can have it all — that it’s possible to tastefully blend the sensitive singer/songwriter tropes of Laurel Canyon artists like James Taylor, the faux Caribbean pandering of Jimmy Buffett, the deeply felt roots excursions of the Avett Brothers, and the smartly crafted pop concessions of Jason Mraz."
Melissa Maerz of ''Entertainment Weekly'' gave then album a B grade, writing that the album "isn't so much a folksy jam-band opus as a savvy industry professional's idea of what that should sound like."
Randy Lewis of the ''Los Angeles Times'' gave the album a two and a half out of four stars, calling it "modestly refreshing."
Matt Bjorke of Roughstock gave the album a perfect five rating, noting that "''Uncaged'' is without a doubt the best album of this band's career and make no mistake, the Zac Brown Band are clearly a band in every sense of the word...''Uncaged'' only enhances their status as the best band in country music."
Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine rated the album a four out of five stars, noting how "there's something to be said for an album that's such a refreshing and clean break from what has become country music's rather depressing norm."
Sean Daily of The ''Tampa Bay Times'' graded the album a B−, noting how "the chase is over."
Billy Dukes of Taste of Country rated the album a four out of five stars, writing that "On paper, ‘Uncaged’ should not work as an album, let alone a country music album. The new release from Zac Brown Band redefines “something for everybody.” Country, reggae, bedroom R&B… Brown and his ever-growing motley crew stretch the Nashville sound further than any other artist. If they weren’t so talented, this project would fall apart long before the title-track...Yet somehow, it doesn’t
'sic''"
Brian Mansfield
Brian Mansfield (born September 24, 1963) is an American writer and journalist.
Early life and education
Mansfield grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from David Lipscomb High School.
In 1984, Mansfield received a bachelor's degre ...
of ''USA Today'' rated the album a perfect four stars, writing that "Most country acts find a successful formula, then stick pretty closely to it. ''Uncaged'', Brown's third major-label studio set, is just all over the place, a big, happy, sprawling musical celebration that encompasses square-dance and samba rhythms, California country-rock and sultry Southern soul."
The mixed reviews were from
Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television.
History
''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...
, ''
Daily News'' and the ''
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.
The magazine was first known fo ...
''. Jon Bernstein of Consequence of Sound rated the album a three out of five stars, writing that "...if there’s anything at fault with Brown’s latest, it’s the trap of lapsing into self-satisfaction with the way in which the band defies labeling."
Jim Farber of the ''Daily News'' rated the album a two out of five stars, writing that "At least the surface of Brown’s songs can modestly please."
Chuck Eddy of the ''Rolling Stone'' rated the album a two and a half out of five stars, writing that "''Uncaged'', sounds, well, caged."
Commercial performance
''Uncaged'' debuted at number one on the US
''Billboard'' 200, selling 234,000 copies in its first week of release, giving them their second number one album and best sales week yet.
In its second week, it sold 78,000 copies, falling to number 2. In its third week of release, it sold an additional 48,000 copies, returning to number one on the chart. The album was specially priced for $3.99 at the
Amazon MP3
Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers.
It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manage ...
store for its first week of release, which some sources suggest may have contributed around 25,000 to 30,000 of its debut number.
In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the
Canadian Albums Chart
The ''Billboard'' Canadian Albums is the official record chart
A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given ...
, selling 8,100 copies, the band's first number one in Canada.
''Uncaged'' was certified Platinum by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
on November 20, 2013,
and as of September 2015, it has sold 1,200,000 copies in the United States.
Track listing
Personnel
Zac Brown Band
*
Coy Bowles – electric guitar, slide guitar, resonator guitar, Hammond organ
*
Zac Brown – acoustic guitar, lead vocals, electric guitar
*
Clay Cook – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Hammond organ, piano, back-up vocals, Fender Rhodes, pedal steel, co-lead vocal on "Last But Not Least"
*
Daniel de los Reyes – congas, shakers, timbales, cowbell, tambourine, chimes, triangle
*Jimmy de Martini – violin, back-up vocals
*
Chris Fryar – drums
*
John Driskell Hopkins – bass guitar, back-up vocals, upright bass
Guest musicians
* Matt Mangano – bass guitar on "Island Song"
* Tim McFatter – tenor saxophone on "Overnight"
* Dan Oestreicher – baritone saxophone on "Overnight"
*
Trombone Shorty – trombone & trumpet on "Overnight"
*
Amos Lee
Amos Lee (born Ryan Anthony Massaro, June 22, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter whose musical style encompasses folk music, folk, rock music, rock, and Soul music, soul.
Lee has recorded five albums on Blue Note Records and has toured as ...
– co-lead vocal on "The Day That I Die"
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
2012 albums
Albums produced by Keith Stegall
Atlantic Records albums
Zac Brown Band albums
Grammy Award for Best Country Album