Hourglass | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 20, 1997 | |||
Recorded | May-October 1996 | |||
Studio | Chalker's Creek, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts Westlake Audio, West Hollywood, California Right Track Studios, New York City | |||
Length | 54:51 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer |
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James Taylor chronology | ||||
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Singles from Hourglass | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [2] |
MusicHound | 3.5/5 [3] |
Rolling Stone | [4] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [5] |
Hourglass is the fourteenth studio album by singer-songwriter James Taylor released in 1997. It was his first studio album in six years since 1991's New Moon Shine . It was a huge commercial success, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard 200, his first Top 10 album in sixteen years and also provided a big adult contemporary hit, "Little More Time With You".
The album also gave Taylor his first Grammy since JT , when he was honored with Best Pop Album in 1998. The album also won producer/engineer Frank Filipetti a Grammy that year for Best Engineered Album. The majority of the album was recorded using a Yamaha O2R mixer and three Tascam DA-88 multitrack recorders, [6] which were early digital devices not typically used by top level artists, as most major label records were still being recorded to analog tape at that time.[ citation needed ]
The album was dedicated to Don Grolnick who was a frequent collaborator with Taylor and who died during the Hourglass sessions in 1996 due to Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Hourglass was an introspective album with lyrics that focused largely on Taylor's troubled past and family. "Jump Up Behind Me" paid tribute to his father's rescue of him after the Flying Machine days, and the long drive from New York City back to his home in Chapel Hill. [7] "Enough to Be On Your Way" was inspired by the alcoholism-related death of his brother Alex earlier in the decade. [8] The themes were also inspired by Taylor's divorce from actress Kathryn Walker, which took place in 1996. [9] Rolling Stone found that "one of the themes of this record is disbelief", while Taylor told the magazine that it was "spirituals for agnostics." [10]
All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [17] | Silver | 60,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [18] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
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