''BLACKsummers'night'' is the fourth
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by American recording artist
Maxwell, released July 7, 2009 on
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
. It is the follow-up to his third album ''
Now
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Now ...
'' (2001). Recording sessions for the album took place during 2003 to 2009 and production was handled entirely by Maxwell and Hod David.
The album debuted at number one on the US
''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 316,000 copies in its first week. It became Maxwell's fourth consecutive US
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Platinu ...
album and produced four singles that achieved ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' chart success. Upon its release, the album received acclaim from most music critics and earned Maxwell two
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
at the
52nd Grammy Awards
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares Pe ...
. It has sold over one million copies in the United States.
The sequel ''
blackSUMMERS'night
''BLACKsummers'night'' is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Maxwell, released July 7, 2009 on Columbia Records. It is the follow-up to his third album '' Now'' (2001). Recording sessions for the album took place during 2003 to ...
'' was released on July 1, 2016.
Background
Recording sessions for the album took place during 2007 to 2009 at
Chung King Studios
Chung King Studios was a recording studio that operated in New York City under that name from 1986 to 2015. It was founded by producer John King and engineer Steve Ett with financial backing from the Etches brothers, occupying three different locat ...
, Bowery Digital, and Platinum Sound Recording Studios in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
[Per liner notes from ''BLACKsummers'night'' album] The album was produced entirely by Maxwell and musician Hod David.
[ ''BLACKsummers'night'' is Maxwell's first album since his hiatus after his third album, '']Now
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Now ...
'' (2001), and serves as the first part of his scheduled trilogy of albums.[Capobianco, Ken]
Review: ''BLACKsummers'night''
''The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
''. Retrieved on July 19, 2009.
The music of ''BLACKsummers'night'' is rooted in general soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...
, and it features a more straightforward musical structure than Maxwell's previous work such as ''Embrya
''Embrya'' is the second studio album by American recording artist Maxwell, released on June 30, 1998, by Columbia Records. As on his 1996 debut album ''Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite'', he collaborated with record producer and Sade collaborator Stuar ...
'' (1998).[Nero, Mark Edward]
Review: ''BLACKsummers'night''
About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...
. Retrieved on September 13, 2009. Maxwell's lyrics concern his falling in and out of love during his sabbatical period prior to the album's release. In an interview with Pete Lewis of ''Blues & Soul
''Blues & Soul'' is a British music magazine, established in 1967 by John Abbey. ''The Independent'' has noted ''Blues & Soul'' as being the equal of magazines such as ''NME'' and '' Q''. ''Billboard'' magazine has called ''Blues & Soul'' "a r ...
'', Maxwell stated "The inspiration was real life itself. You know, while I was taking time away from the industry, I came across a relationship that took me by surprise."
Release and promotion
The album was released on July 7, 2009 in multiple formats: digital, physical CD only, physical CD/DVD (Deluxe Version), and vinyl. The deluxe version includes video, entitled "5DAYSofBLACK", which discusses the development of songs and also includes the music video for "Pretty Wings".
The album produced four singles. Its lead single "Pretty Wings" debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart, ultimately spending 47 weeks on the chart.[ Chart History – Maxwell: R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ''Billboard''. Retrieved on May 2, 2010.] It also spent 18 weeks and peaked at number 33 on the Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
and at number 12 on its Radio Songs component chart.[ Chart History – Maxwell: Hot 100 ''Billboard''. Retrieved on 2010-05-02.][ Chart History – Maxwell: Radio Songs ''Billboard''. Retrieved on May 2, 2010.] The album's second single, "Bad Habits", peaked at number four on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, spending 46 weeks on the chart. It peaked at number 71 on the Hot 100, at number 38 on the Radio Songs chart, and at number 16 on the Hot Dance Club Songs
Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...
chart. The third single "Cold" spent one week at number 62 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The album's fourth single "Fistful of Tears" spent 24 weeks on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, peaking at number 11. It charted at number 94 on the Hot 100 and at number 63 on the Radio Songs chart.
Critical reception
''BLACKsummers'night'' received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 85, based on 15 reviews. In the ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'', Greg Kot
Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...
said it "evokes the complex late ‘70s albums of Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
", as "Maxwell explores his vulnerabilities and idiosyncrasies, while toughening up his sound." ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' writer Jody Rosen
Jody Rosen (born June 21, 1969 in New York City) is an American journalist and author. He is a contributing writer for ''The New York Times Magazine''.
Career Journalism
Rosen served as critic-at-large for '' T: The New York Times Style Magaz ...
called it "an R&B album about love, not just sex, for grown-ups who know the difference". ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''s Clover Hope
Clover Hope is a Guyanese-American music journalist. She was previously an editor at '' Billboard'', '' XXL'', and Jezebel. She is a contributing editor for ''Pitchfork'' as of 2020. Hope's debut book ''The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop ...
observed more concise and "existentialist" songwriting than on his previous work. "The constant with Maxwell is that he tackles the topic of love with a philosopher's eye", Hope wrote. "It's easy to fancy the mood of his music over its poeticism, but with ''BLACK'', he strikes a pleasant balance that's neither boring nor overwhelming."[Hope, Clover]
Review: ''BLACKsummers'night''
''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''. Retrieved on July 19, 2009. ''Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' critic David Drake found Maxwell "structurally ambitious" and avant-garde in his approach to musical structure, while writing that the record's best songs balance "compositional excellence, development, and tension, with carefully designed moods that reflect or complement each work's lyrical focus". ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' writer Ann Powers
Ann K. Powers (born February 4, 1964) is an American writer and pop music critic. She is a music critic for NPR and a contributor at the ''Los Angeles Times'', where she was previously chief pop critic. She has also served as pop critic at ''The ...
found its songs' structure complementary to the album's themes, stating "the music replicates the experience of an intimate connection, its ebbs and surges, its sometimes frustrating turns". Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' later named it 2009's best album and found it radical in terms of contemporary R&B because of its supplicant and "elliptical" lyrics, hand-played instrumentation, fluid melodies, and "even when the rhythm gets funky, the sad, lovely songs — about a crumbling romance — are suffused with a yearning that's almost too intimate. It's soul music reinventing itself, moment to moment.[Pareles, Jon]
2009 in Pop – Reggae and Rock Operas, Intimacies and Anthems
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Retrieved on May 3, 2010.
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
was less enthusiastic, writing in ''MSN Music
''MSN Music'' was a part of MSN's web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. The website also served as a digital music store from 2004 to 2008.
History
I ...
'' that Maxwell "really believes that the quality of the sex is measured by its curlicues—and by how long it takes to come true"; he named "Badhabits" and "Helpsomebody" as the album's highlights. ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
''s Paul Mardles was more critical, accusing Maxwell of exhibiting a "fondness for cliche". Allison Stewart from ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' called the album "cerebral but impersonal" and felt that it "never quite breaks free of its self-imposed restraints".[Stewart, Allison]
Review: ''BLACKsummers'night''
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. Retrieved on May 2, 2010. ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
''s Leah Greenblatt said Maxwell's "sentiments rarely transcend the boudoir — and listeners lulled by the album's unvaryingly sleek, high-gloss beats may just drift off to dreamland before they get there". In the ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'', Jim DeRogatis
James Peter DeRogatis (born September 2, 1964) is an American music critic and co-host of ''Sound Opinions''. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as ''Rolling Stone'', '' Spin'', ''Guitar World'' and ''Modern Drummer'', and for 15 ...
wrote that several songs "never rise above the level of pleasant background music", which he nonetheless found "gorgeously recorded, tastefully arranged and beautifully played".[DeRogatis, Jim]
Review: ''BLACKsummers'night''
. ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
''. Retrieved on May 3, 2010.
''BLACKsummers'night'' was one of 2009's most critically acclaimed music releases, being ranked near or at the top of several critics' year-end lists of best albums. It was voted the year's 14th best album in the Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...
, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published in ''The Village Voice''. It was also ranked seventh best by the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
, ninth by ''Billboard'', fifth by ''The Boston Globe''s Sarah Rodman, and first by ''The Washington Post''s Chris Richards. ''BLACKsummers'night'' also earned Maxwell 2010 Grammy Awards
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares Pe ...
in the categories of Best R&B Album
The Grammy Award for Best R&B Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the R&B music genre. Honors ...
and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance was awarded between 1968 and 2011. The award has had several minor name changes:
*In 1968 it was awarded as Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance, Male
*From 1969 to 1994 it was awarded as Best R&B V ...
(for "Pretty Wings"). Musician Greg Puciato
Gregory John Puciato (born March 27, 1980) is an American musician best known as the former lead vocalist and lyricist of the metalcore band the Dillinger Escape Plan. He is also the lead singer of the Black Queen and Killer Be Killed, in which ...
named ''BLACKsummers'night'' his favorite album of 2009. In the 2020 list by Rolling Stone of the Top 500 Albums of All-Time, it was ranked number 467.
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart in July 2009, with first-week sales of 316,000 copies,[Sisario, Ben]
‘Blacksummers’night’ Takes Maxwell to No. 1
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Retrieved on September 13, 2009. serving as Maxwell's highest first-week sales. It also entered at number one on ''Billboard''s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...
, and at number two on the Top Digital Albums
The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...
.[Digital Albums – Week of July 25, 2009](_blank)
''Billboard''. Retrieved on May 2, 2010. In its second week on the ''Billboard'' 200, it fell to number two with an additional 103,000 copies sold. In its third week, the album dropped to number three with 72,000 more copies sold. In its fourth week, the album sold 55,000 more copies at number three on the chart. By August 2009, ''BLACKsummers'night'' had sold 550,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan
Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...
. Charting at number seven on the ''Billboard'' 200, the album sold 43,000 copies in its fifth week. It maintained its position at number seven in its sixth week, selling an additional 38,000 copies. It spent 42 weeks on both the ''Billboard'' 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.[ Chart History – Maxwell: Billboard 200 ''Billboard''. Retrieved on May 2, 2010.][ Chart History – Maxwell: R&B/Hip-Hop Albums ''Billboard''. Retrieved on May 2, 2010.]
In Canada, the album debuted at number 25 on the Top 100 chart, spending one week on the chart.[ Chart History – Maxwell: Canadian Albums ''Billboard''. Retrieved on May 2, 2010.] In the United Kingdom, ''BLACKsummers'night'' entered at number 66 on the UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
, spending one week on the chart,[Album Performance: ''BLACKsummers'night''](_blank)
acharts. Retrieved on May 2, 2010. and at number 23 on the UK R&B Chart
The UK Hip Hop and R&B Singles Chart and the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart (also known as The Official UK Hip Hop and R&B Charts, the Top 40 Hip Hop and RnB Singles and the Top 40 Hip Hop and RnB Albums, or simply the UK Urban Chart) are 40-posi ...
.[Top 40 R&B Albums Archive – 7th November 2009](_blank)
The Official UK Charts Company
The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...
. Retrieved on May 2, 2010. On January 19, 2010, the album was certified platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Platinu ...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
,[Gold & Platinum – Searchable Database: Artist: Maxwell](_blank)
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
. Retrieved on March 21, 2010. following shipments in excess of one million copies in the United States. It serves as his fourth consecutive platinum-selling album and has sold more than one million copies in the United States. As of May 2016, it had sold 1,213,000 units in the US.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits for ''BLACKsummers'night'' adapted from AllMusic.
* Benedetto Nino Caccauale – engineer
* Dave Clauss – assistant
* Tom Coyne – mastering
* Chris Dave – drums
* Chris "Daddy" Dave – drums
* Hod David – audio production, engineer, guitar, instrumentation, producer, various instruments
* Nicola Formichetti – stylist
* Jesse Gladstone – assistant, engineer
* Keyon Harrold – trumpet
* Derrick Hodge – bass, bass instrument
* Eric L. Johnson – photography
* Nicolas Klam – stylist
* Mike Makowski – assistant
* Glen Marchese – engineer, mixing
* Maxwell – primary artist
* Shedrick Mitchell – organ
* Musze – audio production, engineer, instrumentation, producer, various instruments
* Anthony Palazzole – assistant
* Mike Pela
Mike Pela (13 January 1950 – 23 July 2022) was a British record producer and mixer. He worked with various artists including Sade, Maxwell, Savage Garden and others, spanning a wide array of genres.
Career
Pela started his career in the 19 ...
– engineer, mixing
* Federico Pena – keyboards
* Saunders Sermons – trombone
* Curtis Smith – hair stylist
* Kenneth Whalum III – saxophone
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
External links
*
*
BLACKsummers'night
' at Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...
*
BLACKsummers'night
' at Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blacksummers'night
2009 albums
Maxwell (musician) albums
Columbia Records albums
Grammy Award for Best R&B Album
Albums recorded at Chung King Studios