Chris Stapleton: Starting Over (2LP) [MERCURY NASHVILLE]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set spreads all 14 songs across four sides of 180g vinyl. Starting Over won Best Country Album at the 64th Grammy Awards and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 103,000 units in its first week.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in France

About the album

Some singers need a big production to fill a room. Chris Stapleton needs a microphone and a reason, and on his fourth album, his first since the two From A Room volumes, he found plenty of reasons in his own day-to-day life, writing songs he later described as reactions to the moment rather than tunes saved up for years.

He produced it with Dave Cobb, and the band leans on warm, live-in-the-room arrangements. The title track is an easygoing love song, "Cold" swells into strings and full-throated soul, and "Arkansas" and "Devil Always Made Me Think Twice" bring the boogie. He tips his hat to a songwriting hero with two Guy Clark covers, "Worry B Gone" and "Old Friends," and his wife Morgane's harmonies are all over the record. The songwriting credits also include John Fogerty and Mike Campbell.

Metacritic's critics landed on "universal acclaim," and Slant Magazine called the arrangements "sparse and uncluttered."

Also at Kops: more Chris Stapleton on vinyl · browse Country

Tracklist

Listen

On Mercury Nashville, the 2020 album.