Chief is the third studio album by Americancountry music artistEric Church. It was released on July 26, 2011, viaEMI Nashville.[2] The album produced five singles, including Church's first two number one hits on the USBillboardHot Country Songs chart—"Drink in My Hand" and "Springsteen", as well as the Top 10 hits "Creepin'" and "Like Jesus Does" and the Top 20 "Homeboy". In November 2024, the album was certified four-times Platinum by the RIAA, for having shipped over 4,000,000 records.[3] As of April 2017, the album has sold 1,957,700 copies in the United States.[4]
Upon its release,Chief received generally positive reviews from most music critics. AtMetacritic, which assigns anormalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received anaverage score of 77, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[6]
AllMusic reviewer Thom Jurek gave it 5 stars out of 5, saying that it is "defiant, well-conceived, and more carefully executed than it sounds, with some excellent songs".[7] In a review forSlant Magazine, critic Jonathan Keefe stated that "It just doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense to champion traditional country music while singing over hard-rock arrangements and occasionally Auto-Tuned vocal tracks. That's not to say he doesn't do a lot of things, particularly with his songwriting and with some risky production choices, awfully well here. Chief doesn't make him a country music Jesus, but it does back up a good deal of his braggadocio."[9]
Rolling Stone placed the album at number 19 on its Best Albums of 2011 list.[10]
The album debuted at number one on the USBillboard 200 and theTop Country Albums chart, selling 145,000 copies in its first week of release.[11] In its second week, the album fell to number two on the Billboard 200 while still remaining at number one on the Top Country Albums chart. The album was certified Platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on June 20, 2012, andtriple platinum on August 31, 2016 for combined sales and streams of over three millionunits in the United States.[3] As of August 2017, the album has sold 1,957,700 copies in the United States.[12]
