| Welcome Home | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | May 12, 2017 (2017-05-12) | |||
| Recorded | January 3–9, 2017 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | Country[1] | |||
| Length | 38:42 | |||
| Label | Elektra, Southern Ground | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Zac Brown Band chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Welcome Home | ||||
| ||||
Welcome Home is the fifth studio album by Americancountry music bandZac Brown Band. It was released on May 12, 2017, viaElektra Records. The album features the singles "My Old Man" and "Roots" which charted onHot Country Songs andCountry Airplay.Dave Cobb is the album's producer.
Before the album,Zac Brown worked with producerDave Cobb on a track for the multi-artist albumSouthern Family in 2016. Cobb also serves as producer onWelcome Home.[3]
Taste of Country describes the album as "a more mature album, aimed at the group's older fans" and notes that "One mostly finds Brown showing appreciation for loved ones". The track "Trying to Drive" is a re-recording of a song that first appeared on the band's 2010 live albumPass the Jar: Zac Brown Band and Friends Live from the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta, featuring co-writerAslyn on guest vocals.[4]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllMusic rated the album 3 out of 5 stars, saying that "While the constant parade of country homilies gets a bit weary, the sound ofWelcome Home is a warm, comfortable bath. Brown still has a way with a honeyed melody and his band is just as supple, meaning this album is the very definition of music as comfort food."[1] Jonathan Bernstein ofRolling Stone gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars, praising the sound of "Roots" and "Her Majesty" but adding that "it's hard not to hear Welcome Home as an anxious defense of fame and fortune, a reactionary right-turn in response to the mixed reviews the band received for their most recent global pop-grab... A decade after 'Chicken Fried', Zac Brown is laboring strenuously to ensure everyone that he still drinks cold beer on a Friday night, apologizing for a musical adventurousness that he'd be better off simply embracing."[3] Rating it "C+", Chuck Yarborough ofThe Plain Dealer felt that "My Old Man", "Trying to Drive", and "Family Table" were the album's strongest songs, but criticized "Start Over" as derivative of "Toes". He also felt that the album overall lacked songs as strong as the singles fromJekyll + Hyde.[5]Slant Magazine reviewer Jeremy Winograd also rated it 2.5 out of 5 stars, saying in his review that "Zac Brown's constant reassurances throughout Welcome Home that he's still just a regular dude, set to 40 minutes of aggressively blandAmericana, give off the stench of overcompensation" for the "crossover pop" sounds of the previous album. He overall panned many of the songs' lyrics and sounds, saying that "Far worse is the cynical nature of the album's roosty overtures. If Brown's lyrics weren't so painfully on the nose, it might not be so obvious that he's deliberately attempting to parlay Cobb's style and reputation into perceived authenticity", while citing "Trying to Drive" as the strongest track.[6]
The album debuted at number two on theBillboard 200 and number one on theTop Country Albums chart with 146,000 equivalent album units, of which 139,000 are traditional album sales.[7] In the following week, it sold 23,100 copies.[8] The album has sold 308,600 copies in the US as of September 2018.[9]Welcome Home was the band's first studio album since 2008'sThe Foundation not to top theBillboard 200.
All tracks are written byZac Brown,Niko Moon, and Ben Simonetti except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Roots" | Coy Bowles, Brown, Moon, Simonetti | 3:51 |
| 2. | "Real Thing" | 3:50 | |
| 3. | "Long Haul" | 3:32 | |
| 4. | "2 Places at 1 Time" | 3:40 | |
| 5. | "Family Table" | 3:31 | |
| 6. | "My Old Man" | 3:47 | |
| 7. | "Start Over" | Brown, Moon, Simonetti,Pharrell Williams | 4:13 |
| 8. | "Your Majesty" | Brown, Moon, Simonetti, Kenny Habul | 3:42 |
| 9. | "Trying to Drive" (featuringMadison Ryann Ward) | Brown, Moon, Simonetti, Aslyn | 4:26 |
| 10. | "All the Best" (featuringKacey Musgraves) | John Prine | 4:11 |
Adapted fromWelcome Home liner notes.[10]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[21] | Gold | 40,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)