Ripcord (album)


Ripcord is the ninth studio album by New Zealand-born Australian country music singer Keith Urban. It was released on 6 May 2016 via Hit Red and Capitol Records Nashville. The album produced the singles ""; "Break on Me", "Wasted Time", "Blue Ain't Your Color", and "The Fighter". It also features duets with musicians like Carrie Underwood, Pitbull, and Nile Rodgers. Just like his previous album Fuse, Urban co-worked with multiple producers on this one, this was also busbee's final album as a producer before his death in 2019.
The album was nominated for Best Country Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
On April 7, 2017, the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Background

This album has been called Urban's most experimental album to date. Urban told Rolling Stone, "It was a lot of searching, a lot of experimenting, and when you get to work with as many people as I did, you end up with a lot of stuff."
One of the tracks, "Sun Don't Let Me Down" features Pitbull, and Nile Rodgers on guitar. The first verse in that song makes reference to Urban's wife Nicole Kidman's 1995 film To Die For.

Promotion

Urban promoted the album by performing "Wasted Time" on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on 6 May and on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on 12 May 2016. Three days after the album was released Urban played a free lunchtime concert in front of the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on 9 May 2016. He performed tracks from Ripcord such as "Gone Tomorrow " and "Blue Ain't Your Color". Urban embarked on a world tour in support of the album on the RipCORD World Tour, beginning on 2 June 2016.

Singles

The album's lead single "" was released on June 9, 2015. It reached number forty on the US Hot 100 and number two on both the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. The song was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards but lost to Chris Stapleton's "Traveler".
The second single "Break on Me" was released on 23 October 23, 2015. It reached number one on the Country Airplay chart and peaked at number six on Hot Country Songs, as well as number 54 on the Hot 100.
"Wasted Time" was released as the third single on April 4, 2016. Like its predecessor, it also reached number one on Country Airplay chart. In addition, it peaked at number four on Hot Country Songs and at number 51 on the Hot 100.
"Blue Ain't Your Color" was released on July 30, 2016 as the album's fourth single by Urban via Snapchat. The song reached number one on both the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. Also, it reached number 24 on Hot 100.
"The Fighter", a duet with fellow country musician Carrie Underwood, was released as the album's fifth single on February 6, 2017. Urban wrote the song with his producer busbee while the two were in London. It was inspired by conversations that Urban had with his wife Nicole Kidman early in their relationship. It peaked at number two on both the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay chart. It also reached number 38 on the Hot 100 chart.

Critical reception

Ripcord has received generally positive reviews from music critics. On Metacritic — which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72 based on 4 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". ABC News Allan Raible says that the album "is not really a country record" but rather "...more of an electric-pop influenced record," saying that it " reeks of formula but at the same time, there's something enjoyably adventurous about this record." At The Sydney Morning Herald, the album received three stars and reports that "Urban threads a tight needle, updating the slick contemporary American country sound he, long ago, mastered with the warm washes and bright punctuation of pop music," adding that "t is, at first suggestion, an almost ludicrous concept, but it's testament to Urban's craftsmanship that the record is dexterous and pleasing."
Sounds Like Nashville described the album as "a remarkably diverse album that pushes boundaries and furthers Urban’s evolution as an artist."
For the collaborations on the album, The News-Sentinels Michael McCall describes "The Fighter", the duet with Carrie Underwood, as "a modern update of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell", and views the collaboration with Pitbull and Nile Rodgers as something "more like an exercise than a celebration".

Accolades

The album received a nomination for Album of the Year both at the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards and 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards. It was also nominated for Best Country Album at the 59th Grammy Awards.
YearAssociationCategoryResult
2016CMA AwardsAlbum of the Year
201759th Annual Grammy AwardsBest Country Album
2017ACM AwardsAlbum of the Year
2017Billboard Music AwardsTop Country Album

Commercial performance

Ripcord debuted at number one in Urban's home country of Australia, and at number 21 in New Zealand. It stayed at number one on the Australian albums chart for a second week, becoming his first album to spend more than one week at the top of that chart. The album was certified Platinum in Australia for shipments of over 70,000 units.
The CD debuted at number 3 on the Canadian Albums chart and was certified Gold for shipments of over 40,000 units.
In the US, it debuted at number one on the Billboards Top Country Albums chart, becoming Urban's fifth number one album on that chart. The disc also debuted at No. 4 on Billboard 200, earning over 106,000 album-equivalent units during its first week. The album remained at number one on the Top Country Albums chart for a second week. On April 7, 2017, the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA. As of June 2018, it has sold over 740,700 copies in the United States.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from AllMusic and Ripcord liner notes.
"Gone Tomorrow "
"John Cougar, John Deere, John 316"
"Wasted Time"
"Habit of You"
"Sun Don't Let Me Down"
"Gettin' in the Way"
"Blue Ain't Your Color"
"The Fighter"
"Break on Me"
"Boy Gets a Truck"
"Your Body"
"That Could Still Be Us"
"Worry 'Bout Nothin'"
Production

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australian Albums 25
Canadian Albums 45
US Billboard 20027
US Top Country Albums 3

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

Release history