Chris Stapleton – Higher (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Chris Stapleton – Higher (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:36 minutes | 1,00 GB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mercury Nashville

Current ACM Entertainer of the Year, Chris Stapleton is set to release his 5th Studio Album, Higher. The album includes 14 songs including the first single-“White Horse”. Chris has won numerous awards including eight Grammy Awards, 10 Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards including current Entertainer Of The Year, and 14 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards. He was named the ACM’s Artist-Songwriter of the Decade. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Stapleton at number 170 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

The album was recorded at RCA Studio A in Nashville, Tennessee, and additionally features producer Dave Cobb on acoustic and electric guitar and Stapleton’s wife Morgane on backing vocals, synthesizer and tambourine, along with contributions from members of his touring band J.T. Cure and Derek Mixon, as well as Paul Franklin, and Lee Pardini. A press release stated that the album “span[s] genres and def[ies] easy categorization”, while Uproxx described the album and lead single “White Horse” as “emotionally raw and brutally honest”.

The key to Chris Stapleton’s immense success, of course, is his remarkable, inimitable vocal tone: a worn-leather rasp that can stretch high and low, project real strength and sweetness, and isn’t specifically “country”—there are traces of Stax soul, Ray Charles’ R&B and deep-fried Southern rock. But Stapleton also feels reliable; he’s an artist of integrity and good taste who doesn’t bother with false moves or trying on trends. In short, he is classic in real time. And that hasn’t changed with Higher, his fifth solo album (after fronting the band Steeldrivers for years) in less than a decade. Co-produced once again with Dave Cobb, the album taps into the catholic formula that works well for him. Single “White Horse” is glorious arena rock, a sinewy flex with some particularly heavy moments. “South Dakota” brings Memphis-blues stomp, slithering confidently and managing to make that prairie state sound badass: “I’m in South Dakota/ Trouble ain’t hard to find.” Written with Miranda Lambert, “What Am I Gonna Do” is a mid-tempo pleaser with lazy-sun Skynyrd guitar and Stapleton, as always, beautifully complimented by harmonies from his wife Morgane Stapleton. She matches him as an equal duet partner and not just support on “It Takes a Woman,” a ’70s-ish country ballad that gives Stapleton the chance to hit an otherworldly note as he sings, “You make me hiiiiiiiigh and keep my feet on the ground.” Sultry “Think I’m In Love With You” delivers a very ’80s adult-contemporary vibe, complete with urbane strings—violin not fiddle. “Loving You On My Mind” is silky R&B, Stapleton sounding like a natural lover man as he sings, “Ever since there’s a morning/ I’ve been wondering/ How you do that thing you did last night.” He pushes toward falsetto on that one, but goes all the way on soulful ballad “Higher.” Acoustic “Mountains Of My Mind” is gentle as a mountain stream and evokes memories of Guy Clark, while memorable “The Bottom” has a Willie Nelson feel, as Stapleton finds a way to deepen country’s tangling of love—and heartbreak—and alcohol: “The heart holds a memory/ And the memory holds a past/ And the past holds a woman/ At the bottom of a glass/ So I don’t have a problem/ If I don’t see the bottom.” And “Crosswind” is a metaphor-rich driving song (“carrying a heavy load,” “picking up speed”) that mimics the rhythm of rolling truck wheels for an excellent snapshot of outlaw country: “Trying to keep all the rubber on 65/ Might not make it out alive/ White-knuckling the wheel just to survive/ Caught in the crosswind.” The parts are old, but Stapleton makes it feel brand new. – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:
1-1. Chris Stapleton – What Am I Gonna Do (03:01)
1-2. Chris Stapleton – South Dakota (04:41)
1-3. Chris Stapleton – Trust (03:23)
1-4. Chris Stapleton – It Takes A Woman (04:06)
1-5. Chris Stapleton – The Fire (03:45)
1-6. Chris Stapleton – Think I’m In Love With You (03:42)
1-7. Chris Stapleton – Loving You On My Mind (03:29)
1-8. Chris Stapleton – White Horse (04:27)
1-9. Chris Stapleton – Higher (04:02)
1-10. Chris Stapleton – The Bottom (04:06)
1-11. Chris Stapleton – The Day I Die (04:05)
1-12. Chris Stapleton – Crosswind (03:23)
1-13. Chris Stapleton – Weight Of Your World (03:54)
1-14. Chris Stapleton – Mountains Of My Mind (04:25)

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