Storyteller | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 23, 2015 | |||
Recorded | 2014–15 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 46:12 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | ||||
Carrie Underwood chronology | ||||
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Singles from Storyteller | ||||
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Storyteller is the fifth studio album recorded by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood. It was released on October 23, 2015, by Sony Music Nashville. Following the release and success of her fourth studio album, Blown Away (2012), Underwood began working on Storyteller in early 2014. However, she tentatively suspended most work on the album because of her pregnancy with her first child. In the midterm, Underwood released her first greatest hits record, Greatest Hits: Decade #1 , on December 9, 2014, to much success. After the birth of her son, she took some additional time off before going back into the studio in early 2015 to finish working on the album.
Met with mostly positive reviews from music critics, Storyteller became a commercial success and set multiple records upon its release. By debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, it made Underwood the only country artist in history to have all of her first five studio albums debut at number one or two, and with a number one debut on the Top Country Albums chart, it made her the only artist to score six consecutive number one albums on the chart. Storyteller also performed well internationally upon its release, including a number four debut in Australia, number three in Canada and thirteen in the United Kingdom. As of October 2016, the album has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. [1] It marks Underwood's sixth consecutive album to go either Platinum or multi-Platinum.
The album produced two consecutive Billboard Country Airplay chart number-one singles in "Heartbeat" and "Church Bells", along with the number-two singles, "Smoke Break" and "Dirty Laundry." "Smoke Break", "Heartbeat" and "Dirty Laundry" also topped the Billboard Canada Country chart. All four singles received multi-Platinum or Platinum certifications. [2]
Storyteller was Underwood's last album under Arista Nashville and Sony Music Group, following her new deal with Universal Music Group's Capitol Nashville. [3]
After the release and success of her fourth studio album, Blown Away , in 2012 and its international supporting tour, Blown Away Tour (2012–2013), Underwood confirmed, in August 2013, that she had begun planning on a new album and would start working on it in 2014. [4] However, she released her first greatest hits album in late 2014 to much success, while pregnant with her first child. [5] After giving birth, in February 2015, Underwood went back into the studio to finish working on the album. [6] On August 20, 2015, Underwood announced the album's title and release date via live Facebook stream. [7]
Underwood has described Storyteller as being more laid-back and more twangy as opposed to her last studio album, Blown Away (2012). [5] For this album, Underwood worked with frequent collaborators such as Hillary Lindsey, Ashley Gorley, Chris DeStefano, David Hodges, Brett James, and Mark Bright, although Underwood also worked with new collaborators such as Liz Rose, Zach Crowell, and Jay Joyce. [8] Joyce produced the album's lead single "Smoke Break", which Underwood wrote with DeStefano and Lindsey. [9]
Underwood revealed the album's track listing on September 9, 2015, via her Instagram account. On September 10, 2015, Underwood appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and also performed "Smoke Break". On September 21, 2015, Underwood performed the song at the Apple Music Festival in London. [10]
On October 9, 2015, "Heartbeat" was released as a promotional single from the album. [11] The song features background vocals by country artist Sam Hunt . It sold 23,000 copies and debuted at number 26 on Hot Country Songs chart for the week ending October 31, 2015. As of October 26, 2015 the song has sold 31,000 copies. [12] The song also entered the Scottish Singles Chart at number 80.
"Renegade Runaway" was released as the second promotional single on October 16, 2015. It sold 13,000 copies and debuted at number 34 on Hot Country Songs chart. A third and final promotional single, "What I Never Knew I Always Wanted" was released October 19, 2015. It sold 9,000 copies and entered the Hot Country Songs chart at number 38 and reached number 32. As of November 21, 2015, it sold 21,000 copies. All three singles were made available for download on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital retailers with a pre-order of the full Storyteller album.
In support of the album, Underwood returned to headline the C2C: Country to Country festival for the first time since 2013, making her the first artist to headline the festival twice. She performed concerts in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Oslo and Stockholm.
"Smoke Break", the lead single off Storyteller, was released on August 21, 2015. The song set an all-time record for the largest first-week radio adds in the history of Country Aircheck, with 145 Mediabase adds and 159 total Billboard and Country Aircheck reporting stations lined up for the song's official airplay impact date. [13] [14] It reached number four on the Hot Country Songs chart and number two on the Country Airplay chart.
"Heartbeat" was released as the second single from Storyteller at the 2015 American Music Awards. [15] The song made its official impact on country radio on November 30, 2015. [16] It has reached number two on the Hot Country Songs chart and number one on the Country Airplay chart, becoming her 14th leader on the chart, widening her record for the most number-one's among women in the history of the chart.
"Chaser" was released as a single exclusively to UK radio stations on April 1, 2016. It marked Underwood's first limited release to European stations.
"Church Bells" is the third single from "Storyteller" in the US, and was released to country radio on April 11, 2016. [17] It has reached number two on the Hot Country Songs chart and number one on the Country Airplay chart, becoming Underwood's 15th number one on that chart. [18] The song was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at the 59th Grammy Awards.
On August 12, 2016, it was confirmed that "Dirty Laundry" would be serviced as the fourth single in the United States and Canada, and was released to country radio on September 5, 2016. [19] It peaked at number two on Country Airplay chart and number three on Hot Country Songs chart.
Underwood began the Storyteller Tour: Stories in the Round on January 30, 2016, in Jacksonville, Florida to support the album. [20] The first leg of the tour was completed by May 31, 2016. On July 21, 2016, Billboard published their mid-year touring update for the highest-grossing tours between November 10, 2015, and June 6, 2016, and Storyteller Tour was ranked the tenth highest-grossing tour for that period with a total gross of $29,993,822 and total attendance of 449,396.
The tour was concluded on November 28, 2016. It has grossed $51,204,491 and had played to a million fans.
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 74/100 [21] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [22] |
Billboard | [23] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [24] |
Exclaim! | 6/10 [25] |
Newsday | B+ [26] |
Rolling Stone | [27] |
Spin | 7/10 [28] |
USA Today | [29] |
Vice (Expert Witness) | A− [30] |
Storyteller received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album has an average score of 74, based on nine reviews. It is the highest Metascore for any of Underwoods' albums. [31]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said the record "demands attention and it deserves it, too", [22] while The Boston Globe 's Sarah Rodman called it Underwood's best album yet. [32] Jewly Hight from Billboard wrote, "Unlike newer country acts who can sound like they’re merely co-starring with their own faddish production, Underwood commands the spotlight, balancing the well-established extremes of her on-stage persona -- Midwestern girl-next-door and imperious diva -- within these freshened-up aesthetic frames." [33] Robert Christgau wrote in Vice that the record has more "good tales" on it than Underwood's Greatest Hits album. "She still oversings sometimes, as idols will", he said, "but finally she's relaxed enough to let the songs narrate for themselves—be they torch-carrying and fuck-you songs, bad girl and justifiable homicide songs, or tonight's-the-night and happily-ever-after songs." [30]
New York Times critic Jon Caramanica was less impressed, finding much of the songwriting devoid of "bite or pulp" while accusing Underwood of singing bombastically throughout the album. "She largely picks songs that serve as launch platforms for her ballistic-missile voice," he wrote, "but they don’t cohere into a whole identity." [34] In Exclaim! , Stuart Henderson wrote that the record is "more than halfway boring," explaining that "it isn't uninspired or weakly performed. Rather, it is boring in spite of the overwhelming bombast, the booming bass and pounding drums, the huge vocals, the wailing guitars; it is boring because rather than electrifying you, it distances and anaesthetizes." [25]
The album received a nomination for Album of the Year for the 50th annual Country Music Association Awards. It won Favorite Album - Country at the 2016 American Music Awards, Underwood's fifth album to do so. [35]
Year | Association | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | American Country Countdown Awards [36] | Album of the Year | Nominated |
Billboard Music Awards [37] | Top Country Album | Nominated | |
CMA Awards [38] | Album of the Year | Nominated | |
BCMA Awards [39] | International Album of the Year | Nominated | |
American Music Awards | Favorite Album - Country | Won |
In the United States, Storyteller debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 177,000 album-equivalent units; the album sold 164,000 copies in pure sales, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting the album's streaming and track equivalent album units. [40] This made Underwood the only country artist to have his or her first five studio albums debut at number one or number two on the Billboard 200 chart. [41] In addition, the album debuted at number one on the Top Country Albums chart, earning Underwood another record as the only artist to score six consecutive number one albums on that chart. [41] It held the number two position on the Billboard 200 in its second week, moving another 81,000 units, including over 73,000 album copies sold. [42] On the chart dated December 19, it rose back to number one on the Top Country Albums for a second week. [43] It was certified Gold by the RIAA on December 4, 2015, for shipments of over 500,000 copies in the US. [44] In October 2016, the album was certified Platinum, one year after its release, becoming the sixth album by Underwood to receive a Platinum certification. [1] As of April 2017, the album has sold 752,100 copies in the US. [44] [45]
Outside of the United States, the album debuted at number three in Canada, number four in Australia, [46] number six in Scotland, number thirteen on the UK Albums Chart—becoming her second top twenty album in the region [47] —and charted in another six regions.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Renegade Runaway" | Jay Joyce | 3:40 | |
2. | "Dirty Laundry" |
| Joyce | 3:25 |
3. | "Church Bells" |
| Mark Bright | 3:15 |
4. | "Heartbeat" |
| Crowell | 3:31 |
5. | "Smoke Break" |
| Joyce | 3:20 |
6. | "Choctaw County Affair" | Jason White | Joyce | 3:31 |
7. | "Like I'll Never Love You Again" |
| Joyce | 3:37 |
8. | "Chaser" |
| Joyce | 4:24 |
9. | "Relapse" |
| Crowell | 3:24 |
10. | "Clock Don't Stop" |
| Bright | 3:23 |
11. | "The Girl You Think I Am" |
| Bright | 3:38 |
12. | "Mexico" |
| Bright | 3:28 |
13. | "What I Never Knew I Always Wanted" |
| Bright | 3:36 |
Total length: | 46:12 |
Credits adapted from AllMusic. [50]
Performers
Musicians
Production and design
Following the release of the album, five of its songs charted on the Hot Country Songs: "The Girl You Think I Am" at number 38 (8,000 copies sold), "Like I'll Never Love You Again" at number 39 (8,000 copies), "Dirty Laundry" at number 47 (3,000 copies), "Relapse" at number 48 (4,000 copies) and "Church Bells" at number 49 (2,300 copies). [51]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [73] | Silver | 60,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [74] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label | Edition(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | October 23, 2015 | Sony Music Nashville | Standard | [75] | |
Canada | [48] | ||||
United Kingdom | Columbia | [76] | |||
United States |
| [48] |
Carrie Marie Underwood is an American singer. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005. Underwood's single "Inside Your Heaven" made her the first country artist to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the only solo country artist in the 2000s to have a number-one song on the Hot 100. Her debut album, Some Hearts (2005), was bolstered by the successful crossover singles "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and "Before He Cheats", becoming the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history. She won three Grammy Awards for the album, including Best New Artist. The next studio album, Carnival Ride (2007) had one of the biggest opening weeks of all time by a female artist and won two Grammy Awards. Her third studio album, Play On (2009), produced the single "Cowboy Casanova", which had one of the biggest single-week upward movements on the Hot 100.
"Inside Your Heaven" is a song written by Andreas Carlsson, Pelle Nylén, Savan Kotecha, and produced by Desmond Child. Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice, the final two contestants on the fourth season of American Idol, each released a version of the song in June 2005.
Some Hearts is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood, released on November 14, 2005, by Arista Nashville. The album contains the number one country singles "Jesus, Take the Wheel", "Don't Forget to Remember Me", "Wasted", and "Before He Cheats". The album contains the Billboard Hot 100 number one single, "Inside Your Heaven", as a bonus track.
"Jesus, Take the Wheel" is a song written by Brett James, Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson, and recorded by American country music artist Carrie Underwood. It was released on October 18, 2005, as the first single from Underwood's debut album Some Hearts (2005). The ballad tells of a woman seeking help from Jesus in an emergency and surrendering control to a higher power.
American country music singer Carrie Underwood has released nine studio albums, one greatest hits album, and 29 singles. Underwood rose to fame after winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005. Her debut album, Some Hearts, was released in 2005 and is the fastest-selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history. It also became the best-selling solo female country debut in Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) history, as well as the top-selling debut album of any American Idol contestant in the United States.
Carnival Ride is the second studio album by American country music artist Carrie Underwood. It was released in the United States on October 23, 2007, by Arista Nashville. On this album, Underwood was more involved in the songwriting process; she set up a writers' retreat at Nashville's famed Ryman Auditorium to collaborate with Music Row tunesmiths such as Hillary Lindsey, Craig Wiseman, Rivers Rutherford, and Gordie Sampson.
Play On is the third studio album by American country music singer Carrie Underwood. It was released in the United States on November 3, 2009, through Arista Nashville. Play On was produced by Mark Bright who also produced Underwood's Carnival Ride and seven other songs off of Some Hearts.
"Undo It" is a song written by Carrie Underwood, Kara DioGuardi, Marti Frederiksen, and Luke Laird. It was made available to digital retailers on October 27, 2009, and was released as an official single on May 24, 2010. The song is the third single from Underwood's third studio album, Play On.
Blown Away is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood. It was released in the United States and Canada on May 1, 2012, by Arista Nashville. After finishing her successful Play On Tour in December 2010 to promote her third studio album Play On, Underwood started working on the album, but took her time, as she "wanted to change things up", and needed to step away from the "celebrity bubble" to "have real things to write about and to sing about". It took her over one year to finish the album, which, according to Underwood, ended up having a "darker storyline" than her previous efforts.
Platinum is the fifth studio album by American country music singer and songwriter Miranda Lambert. It was released on June 3, 2014, by RCA Nashville.
"Something in the Water" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Carrie Underwood, from her compilation album Greatest Hits: Decade #1. The song was released on September 29, 2014, as the album's lead single through Arista Nashville. It was written by Underwood, Chris DeStefano, Brett James, and produced by Mark Bright.
Greatest Hits: Decade #1 is the first greatest hits double album by American country music singer Carrie Underwood, released on December 9, 2014, by Arista Nashville. The release contains every single from Underwood's first four studio albums: Some Hearts (2005), Carnival Ride (2007), Play On (2009), and Blown Away (2012), except "Some Hearts" from its album of the same name. Two newly recorded songs were included: "Something in the Water" and "Little Toy Guns". The album also contains four additional tracks.
"Smoke Break" is a song recorded by American country music artist Carrie Underwood from her fifth studio album, Storyteller. It was released on August 21, 2015, through Sony Music Nashville, as the album's lead single. It was written by Underwood, Chris DeStefano, and Hillary Lindsey, and was produced by Jay Joyce. Musically, it has lyrics about escaping life's many stresses.
"Dirty Laundry" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood from her fifth studio album, Storyteller (2015). The song was written by Zach Crowell, Ashley Gorley, and Hillary Lindsey, with production from Jay Joyce, and was released as the fourth single from the album in the United States and Canada. The single was shipped to country radio on August 22 and made its official impact on September 5. The song was certified Platinum by the RIAA on January 23, 2020.
"Church Bells" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood from her fifth studio album, Storyteller. The song was written by Zach Crowell, Brett James, and Hillary Lindsey, with production from Mark Bright, and was released as the third single from the album in the United States, being shipped to radio on April 3, 2016, and had an official impact date of April 11, 2016.
"Heartbeat" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood from her fifth studio album, Storyteller. It was written by Underwood, Ashley Gorley, and the song's producer, Zach Crowell. Country singer Sam Hunt sings backing vocals on the track. The song was released to the radio by Arista Nashville on November 30, 2015, as the album's second single, after "Smoke Break". Musically, "Heartbeat" is a country pop and a R&B song with lyrics that relate to the feeling of intimacy experienced by being alone with one's lover. It appears to be inspired by Underwood's marriage to Mike Fisher.
"The Fighter" is a song by New Zealand Australian country music singer Keith Urban featuring American country music singer Carrie Underwood. It was released on 6 February 2017 as the fifth and final single from Urban's 2016 album, Ripcord. Urban co-wrote and co-produced this song with busbee. The song has entered the record charts of Australia, Canada, the United States, Belgium, and Scotland, where it became Urban's first song to enter the Scottish and Belgian charts. The song is certified Triple Platinum in the US, Quadruple Platinum in Australia, and Platinum in Canada.
Cry Pretty is the sixth studio album by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood. The album was released on September 14, 2018, as Underwood's first album with Capitol Records Nashville after signing a global deal with Universal Music Group at the start of 2017. The album marked the first co-producing effort by Underwood, who partnered with David Garcia for the record.
My Gift is the first Christmas album and seventh studio album by American country music singer Carrie Underwood. It was released on September 25, 2020, through Capitol Records Nashville. Produced by Greg Wells, My Gift features guest appearances from John Legend and Underwood's oldest son Isaiah.
Denim & Rhinestones is the ninth studio album by American country music singer Carrie Underwood. The album was released on June 10, 2022, through Capitol Records Nashville. The album was recorded throughout the years of 2021 and 2022, with production from David Garcia, who previously produced Cry Pretty (2018) and My Savior (2021), with co-production from Underwood as well. The album entered the top ten in the United States, and the top 40 in Scotland, Australia, and Canada. It failed to enter the UK Albums Chart, but entered at number one on the UK Country Albums chart.