Hourglass (James Taylor album)

Hourglass is singer-songwriter James Taylor's 14th studio album. Taylor's first studio album in six years was released in 1997 to glowing notices. It built upon the success of his previous effort, New Moon Shine.

Hourglass
Studio album by
James Taylor
ReleasedMay 20, 1997 (1997-05-20)
RecordedMay, October 1996
Chalker's Creek, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Westlake Audio, West Hollywood, California
Right Track Studios, New York City JT and band were recorded in May before the summer tour at JT's house followed by guest contributions in October in NYC and LA.
Length51:51
LabelColumbia
Producer
James Taylor chronology
Live
(1993)		 Hourglass
(1997)		 Greatest Hits Volume 2
(2000)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
MusicHound3.5/5[3]
Rolling Stone[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]

Hourglass was an introspective album that earned Taylor his best critical reviews in almost twenty years. The album's lyrics focused largely on Taylor's troubled past and family. "Jump Up Behind Me" paid tribute to his father's rescue of him after the Flying Machine days, and the long drive from New York City back to his home in Chapel Hill.[6] "Enough to Be On Your Way" was inspired by the alcoholism-related death of his brother Alex earlier in the decade.[7] The themes were also inspired by Taylor's divorce from actress Kathryn Walker, which took place in 1996.[8] Rolling Stone found that "one of the themes of this record is disbelief", while Taylor told the magazine that it was "spirituals for agnostics."[9] Critics embraced the dark themes on the album, and Hourglass was a huge commercial success, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard 200 (Taylor's first Top 10 album in sixteen years) and also provided a big adult contemporary hit on "Little More Time With You". The album also gave Taylor his first Grammy since JT, when he was honored with Best Pop Album in 1998. The album also won producer/engineer Frank Filipetti a Grammy that year for Best Engineered Album. The majority of the album was recorded using Yamaha O2R and Tascam DA-88 machines, which were early digital devices not typically used by top level artists, as most major label records were still being recorded to analog tape at that time.

There is an enhanced CD version of the album containing interviews, photos, and videos.

Track listing

All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.

  1. "Line 'Em Up" – 4:45
  2. "Enough to Be on Your Way" – 5:29
  3. "Little More Time with You" – 3:53
  4. "Gaia" – 5:32
  5. "Ananas" – 5:45
  6. "Jump Up Behind Me" – 3:30
  7. "Another Day" – 2:23
  8. "Up Er Mei" – 3:49
  9. "Up from Your Life" – 5:17
  10. "Yellow and Rose" – 4:55
  11. "Boatman" (Livingston Taylor, M. Taylor) – 3:59
  12. "Walking My Baby Back Home" (Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk) – 2:27
  13. "Hangnail" (also known as "Money O Money") – 2:24 [hidden track]

Personnel

Production
  • Producers – Frank Filipetti and James Taylor
  • Associate Producer – Jill Dell'Abate
  • Production Assistant – Ted Cammann
  • Engineered and Mixed by Frank Filipetti
  • Assistant Engineers – Tim Gerron and Pete Karam
  • Mix Assistant – Pete Karam
  • Technical Support – John Morrison
  • Mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound (New York, NY).
  • Art Direction – Stephanie Mauer
  • Design – Chris Quinn
  • Photography – Herb Ritts
  • Management – Cathy Kerr for PAM Artist Management.

References
  1. AllMusic review
  2. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  3. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 1125. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. Rolling Stone review
  5. "James Taylor: Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on January 5, 2013. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  6. White, Long Ago and Far Away, p. 318.
  7. White, Long Ago and Far Away, p. 306.
  8. White, Long Ago and Far Away, p. 301.
  9. "In 'Up From Your Life,' you sing, 'For an unbeliever like you/ There's not much they can do.' In 'Gaia,' you call yourself a 'poor, wretched unbeliever.'" Interview, Rolling Stone, June 24, 1997.
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