Set This Circus Down

Last updated
Set This Circus Down
Timcircus.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedApril 24, 2001
Studio
Genre Country
Length56:16
Label Curb Records
Producer
Tim McGraw chronology
Greatest Hits
(2000)
Set This Circus Down
(2001)
Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors
(2002)
Singles from Set This Circus Down
  1. "Grown Men Don't Cry"
    Released: March 26, 2001
  2. "Angry All the Time"
    Released: July 23, 2001
  3. "The Cowboy in Me"
    Released: November 26, 2001
  4. "Unbroken"
    Released: May 20, 2002
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com (favorable) [1]
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Billboard (favorable) [3]
Entertainment Weekly B [4]
Rolling Stone (favorable) [5]
Sputnikmusic(2.5/5) [6]

Set This Circus Down is the sixth studio album by American country music artist Tim McGraw. It was released on April 24, 2001 by Curb Records. The album produced four singles, all of which reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Contents

Content

The first single from his album is "Grown Men Don't Cry" released in March 2001 and was written by Tom Douglas and Steve Seskin. "Angry All the Time", the second single, was originally recorded by its writer, Bruce Robison, on his 1996 self-titled album. "The Cowboy in Me" is the third single, and it reached Number One one week after McGraw's duet with Jo Dee Messina, "Bring On the Rain". "Unbroken" became the album's final single in May 2002. "Things Change" is a studio recording of a song which McGraw had previously recorded as a live version, which reached #34 on the country charts in 2000 from unsolicited airplay. Another track from this album is "Telluride". Despite reaching #52, it wasn't officially released as a single. It also appears on Josh Gracin's 2008 album We Weren't Crazy , from which it was released as a single in December 2008. "Angel Boy" was made into a music video, which got some airplay on CMT, but was not released as a single either.

Reception

Commercial performance

The album reached Number One on the Top Country Albums chart. [7] It additionally peaked at No.2 on the Billboard 200 [8] while breaking the Top 20 in Canada [9] and peaking at No.95 in Australia. [10] The album has since been certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA for shipments of three million copies in the United States, as well as single platinum for sales in Canada.

Critical response

About.com gave a "favorable" review and said it would not "disappoint those used to the excellent song selection of Tim's previous releases." [1] Thom Jurek from Allmusic gave it 4 out of 5 stars and noted that Tim "masterfully and consistently flows from one sound style to the next[, yet] his familiar country-pop sound remains evident throughout, especially on the title track, a song about a fast-paced couple yearning to kick back and relax in the country (no one said the themes would be original)." [2] While Billboard magazine, [3] and Rolling Stone [5] all gave it positive and favorable reviews, David Brown from Entertainment Weekly gave it a B grade and said "From the eclectic songs he and his coproducers have chosen to the simple fact that his face doesn't appear on the cover for the first time, Set This Circus Down presents itself as an Important Statement, McGraw's career defining work[, though] McGraw doesn't write any of his material" when saying that the album "feels conceptual, almost autobiographical." [4] John "weathered old reviewer" Hanson from Sputnikmusic gave it a 2.5 average after saying "Set This Circus Down, in [his] eyes his best album, shows the time where he was at both the least level of cheese, but had not yet 'sold out,' or sold out as much as you can in the Country scene." [6]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Cowboy in Me" Al Anderson, Craig Wiseman, Jeffrey Steele 4:04
2."Telluride" Brett James, Troy Verges [11] 3:49
3."You Get Used to Somebody"Steve Bogard, Tom Shapiro 3:58
4."Unbroken"Annie Roboff, Holly Lamar 4:00
5."Things Change" Chris Lindsey, Bill Luther, Aimee Mayo, Marv Green 3:20
6."Angel Boy"Danny Orton5:11
7."Forget About Us" Mark Collie 4:09
8."Take Me Away from Here" Jeff Stevens, Steve Bogard4:35
9."Smilin'"Lindsey, Luther, Mayo, Green3:00
10."Set This Circus Down"Bill Luther, Josh Kear 3:31
11."Angry All the Time" Bruce Robison 4:30
12."Let Me Love You"Lindsey, Luther, Mayo, Green4:31
13."Grown Men Don't Cry" Tom Douglas, Steve Seskin 3:55
14."Why We Said Goodbye"Douglas, Billy Kirsch 3:44

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Studios

Charts and certifications

Singles

All singles reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and all reached top 40 on the Hot 100 chart.

YearSinglePeak chart positions
US Country
[23]
US
[24]
2001"Grown Men Don't Cry"125
"Angry All the Time"138
"The Cowboy in Me"133
2002"Unbroken"126
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [25] Platinum100,000^
United States (RIAA) [26] 3× Platinum3,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

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References

  1. 1 2 About.com review
  2. 1 2 Jurek, Thom. Set This Circus Down at AllMusic
  3. 1 2 Billboard review
  4. 1 2 Browne, David (2006-04-23). "Set This Circus Down Review". Entertainment Weekly.
  5. 1 2 "Rolling Stone review". Rolling Stone . Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved 2015-05-02.
  6. 1 2 Hanson, John "weathered old receiver" (2006-12-13). "Review: Tim McGraw – Set This Circus Down". Sputnkimusic.
  7. "Tim McGraw Album & Song Chart History – Country Albums". Billboard . Prometheus Global Media . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  8. "Tim McGraw Album & Song Chart History – Billboard 200". Billboard . Prometheus Global Media . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  9. "Tim McGraw Album & Song Chart History – Canadian Albums". Billboard . Prometheus Global Media . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  10. 1 2 Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 182.
  11. "Songwriter Tells Unlikely Stories Behind Faith Hill Hits". Rolling Stone . 2014-08-22. Archived from the original on 2016-05-31.
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  13. "Tim McGraw Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  14. "Tim McGraw Chart History (Top Country Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
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