Before This World is the nineteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter James Taylor. It was released on June 15, 2015. After a 45-year wait, James earned his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with Before This World. The album, which was released on June 16 through Concord Records, arrived on top the chart of July 4, 2015, more than 45 years after Taylor arrived on the list with Sweet Baby James. The album launched atop the Billboard 200 with 97,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 21, 2015 according to Nielsen Music. Of its start, pure album sales were 96,000 copies sold, Taylor's best debut week for an album since 2002's October Road. It is Taylor's first new studio album of original material since October Road and first studio album of any kind since Covers in 2008. He recorded the album in a barn on his property in western Massachusetts with Steve Gadd on drums and Jimmy Johnson on bass. In April 2015, he announced a short U.S. tour running from July 2 to August 6 to promote the album, which then continued into 2016 and 2017.
Background
James Taylor released his most recent original album, October Road, in 2002. Following this, Taylor did not prioritize writing new material for many years. He grew concerned he might never create another original album, and convinced his close family, friends, and manager it would be best to cut off communication from everything. He subsequently lived alone to write the album in a waterfront apartment in Newport, Rhode Island.
Recording
Recording began with 10 days in January 2014 at The Barn in Massachusetts recording basic tracks. This was followed by some dubbing on the backup vocalists in March 2014 at Ocean Way in Los Angeles.
Live performance
Before the album's releasing, James Taylor started to perform several new tracks from the upcoming album on his 2014 All Star Band tour. "Today Today Today", "You And I Again" and "Stretch of the Highway" were debuted at the May 30, 2014 show and played throughout the tour; the traditional song "Wild Mountain Thyme" also earned a regular place in the shows. At Toronto's show on July 24, 2014, James Taylor performed "SnowTime" specially and explained that the song was written about Toronto. "Angels of Fenway", "Montana" and "Before This World / Jolly Springtime" were all performed during his shows in his spring and summer tour of 2015, to coincide with the album's release.
Commercial performance
Before This World debuted at number one with 97,000 units moved on the week ending June 21, becoming Taylor's first number-one album on the US Billboard 200 chart. This made Taylor surpass Black Sabbath to become the second-longest waiting artist for a number-one album – 47 years since James Taylor — behind a 54-year wait by Tony Bennett. Also, he had scored 11 Top 10 albums before achieving his first No. 1, just behind Neil Diamond. The following week, the album came in at No. 5, selling 50,000 copies in its second week. On the UK Albums Chart, the album started at number 4 with 13,801 copies on sales, became Taylor's fourth top 10 albums. It also tied with The Best of James Taylor for his highest-ranking album on chart, while both are peaked at number four.
Track listings
All tracks written by James Taylor, except as noted.
