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From A Room: Volume 2 is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton, released on December 1, 2017 through Mercury Nashville. Produced by Dave Cobb and Stapleton, the album comprises a range of music styles, including country, Southern rock and Southern soul. Commercially, it debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200.

Background

Stapleton released From A Room: Volume 1 in May 2017, and confirmed the release of Volume 2 for later that year. Like its predecessor, the album takes its name from Nashville's RCA Studio A, where the recording sessions took place. The album tracks "Tryin' to Untangle My Mind", "Hard Livin'" and "Midnight Train to Memphis" have been featured in his "All-American Road Show Tour" prior to the release. The latter song was previously recorded by his former band The SteelDrivers. The album opens with a cover of Kevin Welch's "Millionaire", and closes with a cover of Homer Banks and Lester Snell's "Friendship," previously recorded by Pops Staples. The tracks "Millionaire", "Scarecrow in the Garden" and "Tryin' to Untangle My Mind" were released as a promotional singles with the album preorder on October 20, November 4 and 17, respectively.

Music and themes

"We recorded that song , but I've always continued to play that song even when I'm not in that band, so it got time to be recorded again like, "Listen, I still play this song every night. We should record it." One's got a banjo on it, and the other one's got a little Bo Diddley drums underneath it. It's still the same song at its core, it's just a song I've always loved."

A Kentucky.com music journalist stated traditional country and Southern soul "play into the record equally." For a Rolling Stone reviewer the Americana album comprises country, folk, blues, Southern rock and soul. The opening track "Millionaire" is a mid-tempo soul-influenced heartland rock ballad driven by acoustic guitar, lyrically about "spare love" and appreciating relationship closeness over material wealth, with his wife and music collaborator Morgane on background vocals. The Southern rock track "Hard Livin'" comprises phase-shifted guitar riff, with a Rolling Stone writer comparing it to Traveller's "Nobody to Blame".

Featuring celtic-sounding verses, the ballad "Scarecrow in the Garden" tells the story of a heir of a West Virginia farm, who laments bad times not allowing him to enjoy the same prosperity of his ancestors, an immigrant family from Northern Ireland. The narrator in the bluesy rock and traditional country song "Tryin' to Untangle My Mind" confesses his past habits of drinking whiskey, dating women and spending all his little money. "Nobody's Lonely Tonight" is a slow soul ballad about looking for some comfort after giving up on love. "A Simple Song" was written with Darrell Hayes, Stapleton's father-in-law, where the narrator is heartened by his family's presence while dealing with quotidian struggle. Lyrically, "Midnight Train to Memphis" is about a person that gets to listen to the train's rumbling sound every day of his time in prison. Delivered alone, "Drunkard's Prayer" finds the singer playing the part of a broken, lonely man who wants to change and seeks for forgiveness. The cover of the song "Friendship" is a country soul track, that differs from the original for its R&B influences, "deeper" groves and guitar tremolo.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	81/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A−
Rolling Stone
Las Vegas Weekly
Pitchfork	7.3/10
PopMatters	8/10

From A Room: Volume 2 received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 81 out of 100, which indicates "universal acclaim" based on eight reviews.

Writing for NPR, Jewly Hight noted Stapleton "chose several songs that dwell on, even savor, meaningful attachments", listing as examples "Millionaire", "A Simple Song", "Friendship" and "Scarecrow in the Garden". Compared to Volume 1, Hight opined that its emotional center "lies elsewhere." She concluded saying "folding these songs into his repertoire lends greater emotional weight to his entire body of work. Wise and sensitive storyteller that he is, he knows that deprivation and loss are felt the most deeply when it's clear what's at stake." Robert Crawford of Rolling Stone described it as "lean and live-sounding" while "Stapleton's voice remains as titanic ever, but on these nine tracks, he packs an equally sized punch as both picker and bandleader." Also from the music magazine, Will Hermes compared it to Volume 1 and opined, "the band's the same but leaner, stripped to guitars, bass, drums and Stapleton's mighty voice, with harmonies by his wife, Morgane, smartly moved up in the mix. Again, the songs feel like unearthed classics."

Reviewers from The A.V. Club opined "Stapleton's gravelly vocals sell his own openly emotive songs like no one else could," adding that he "runs the gamut of emotions and genres, traveling from the hard-rocking rumination on the difficulties of "Hard Livin'" to the minimalist blues of "Nobody's Lonely Tonight." Writing for Variety, Chris Willman called it the second-best country album of the year, only behind Stapleton's own Volume 1. Terence Cawley in The Boston Globe said the songs were "expertly crafted." Mike Davies in Folk Radio UK called "Scarecrow In The Garden" the best song in the album, followed by "Drunkard’s Prayer". For Kentucky.com, Walter Tunis summarized his review writing "Stapleton's vivid, unvarnished musical portraits are already striking in ways that distinguish him from pretty much any of his country contemporaries." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said it is "a collection of moments, just like Vol. 1, but that's the charm of Vol. 2," and opined that without "crafting a major statement" the songs "work on their own terms." Entertainment Weekly ranked it at number 9 on their list of best albums of 2017, along with Volume 1. Also along with Volume 1, Variety included it on the top 20 of best albums of the year.

Commercial performance

From A Room: Volume 2 debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 with 125,000 album-equivalent units, of which 116,000 were in pure album sales. With Volume 1, which also opened at number 2, Stapleton is the first country act to score two top-two charting albums in a calendar year on the Billboard 200 since Luke Bryan in 2013.

Track listing

Track listing adapted from the iTunes Store.

Personnel

Credits for From a Room: Volume 2 adapted from AllMusic.

Charts

Release history

References

1. Watts, Cindy (October 14, 2017). "Chris Stapleton Announces Next Album in Nashville". The Tenneseean. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
2. Watts, Cindy (April 5, 2017). "Chris Stapleton reveals 2 new albums in 2017". The Tennessean. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
3. Gage, Jeff (October 16, 2017). "Chris Stapleton Details New Album 'From A Room: Volume 2'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
4. ^ Gage, Jeff (October 20, 2017). "Hear Chris Stapleton's Soulful New Song 'Millionaire'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
5. ^ Gage, Jeff (November 3, 2017). "Hear Chris Stapleton's Haunting New Song 'Scarecrow in the Garden'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
6. ^ Betts, Stephen L. (November 17, 2017). "Hear Chris Stapleton's Bluesy New Song 'Tryin' to Untangle My Mind'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
7. Shapiro, Ari (December 1, 2017). "Chris Stapleton Dives Into His Archives For 'From A Room: Volume 2'". NPR. Retrieved December 1, 2017. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
8. ^ Tunis, Walter (November 27, 2017). "Did Chris Stapleton make two brilliant albums in 2017? 'Vol. 2' is out Friday". Kentucky.com. Retrieved November 30, 2017. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
9. "10 New Albums to Stream Now: U2, Neil Young and More Editors' Picks". Rolling Stone. December 1, 2017. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
10. ^ Hight, Jewly (November 23, 2017). "First Listen: Chris Stapleton, 'From A Room: Volume 2'". NPR. Retrieved November 23, 2017.
11. ^ Crawford, Robert (November 30, 2017). "Chris Stapleton's 'From A Room: Volume 2': Track-by-Track Guide". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
12. ^ Mooney, Thomas (December 1, 2017). "Chris Stapleton's 'From A Room: Volume 2': Essential Track-By-Track Guide". Wide Open Country. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
13. ^ "Reviews and Tracks from From A Room: Volume 2 by Chris Stapleton". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
14. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (December 1, 2017). "AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". AllMusic. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
15. ^ Modell, Josh; Ihnat, Gwen; Garner, Marty Sartini (December 1, 2017). "Here are 3 new albums you should know about this week". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
16. ^ Hermes, Will (December 1, 2017). "Review: Chris Stapleton, One of Country's Hottest Names, Makes It a Double". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
17. Bell, Josh (December 7, 2017). "Chris Stapleton's 'From a Room: Volume 2' Plays Like A Solid Odds And Sods". Las Vegas Weekly. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
18. Deusner, Stephen M. (December 10, 2017). "Chris Stapleton From A Room: Volume 2". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
19. Thiessen, Christopher (December 15, 2017). "Chris Stapleton: From A Room, Vol. 2". PopMatters. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
20. Willman, Chris (December 5, 2017). "Album Review: Chris Stapleton's 'From a Room: Volume 2'". Variety. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
21. Cawley, Terence (December 7, 2017). "A merry month of new music". The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
22. Davies, Mike (December 5, 2017). "Chris Stapleton – From A Room: Volume 2". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
23. "The 25 Best Albums of 2017". Entertainment Weekly. December 5, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
24. "The 20 Best Albums of 2017". Variety. December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
25. ^ Caulfield, Keith (December 10, 2017). "U2 Scores Eighth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With 'Songs of Experience'". Billboard. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
26. "From A Room: Volume 2". iTunes (US). 2017.
27. "From A Room: Volume 2 - Chris Stapleton — Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
28. "ARIA Australian Top 50 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. December 11, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
29. "U2 Achieves Sixth No. 1 Album In Canada". FYIMusicNews. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
30. "Dutchcharts.nl – Chris Stapleton – From A Room: Volume 2" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
31. "NZ Heatseeker Albums Chart". Recorded Music NZ. December 11, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
32. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
33. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
34. "From A Room: Volume 2". Amazon. 2017.
35. "From A Room: Volume 2 [LP]". Amazon. 2017.
36. "From A Room: Volume 2 [LP]". Amazon. 2017.

External links

• Chris Stapleton's channel on YouTube

• Pages with empty short description
• 2017 albums
• Albums produced by Dave Cobb
• Chris Stapleton albums
• Mercury Nashville albums
• Americana albums
• Southern soul albums
• Southern rock albums