''Hard Love'' is the sixth studio album by American

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Ch ...

band

Needtobreathe Needtobreathe (stylized as NEEDTOBREATHE) is an American rock band from Seneca, South Carolina. The band is composed of Bear Rinehart (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Seth Bolt (backing vocals, bass), Josh Lovelace (backing vocals, keys), Randall H ...

, released on July 15, 2016, through

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. Hard Love garnered three singles including "Happiness", "Testify", and "Great Night".

Background and recording

''Hard Love'' was produced by

Dave Tozer Dave Tozer is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, songwriter, and musician. He has worked with several R&B, hip-hop, rock and pop artists including John Legend, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, John Mayer, Snoop Do ...

Ed Cash Edmond Martin Cash (born August 6, 1971) is a producer, songwriter, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist. AllMusic/ref> He was named the "Producer of the Year" at the Gospel Music Awards for four consecutive years (2004–2007) and gains recogn ...

Jon Levine The Philosopher Kings are a Canadian band. The band was most commercially successful in the late 1990s and have been nominated for five Juno Awards, winning one in 1996 for "Best New Group". Most of the band members, current and former, have also ...

Ido Zmishlany Ido Zmishlany is a multi-platinum American record producer and songwriter. Ido has written and produced songs for such artists as Justin Bieber, Khalid, Shawn Mendes, Imagine Dragons, The Chainsmokers, Needtobreathe, Camila Cabello, Demi Lovat ...

and co-produced by the band. The album was recorded at Plantation Studios in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

, Night Fox Studio and Germano Studios in

New York, NY 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 ...

Promotion

In support of the album, the band went on a "Tour De Compadres 2016" that began on August 17, 2016, and concluded on November 12, 2016. The tour included 53 stops across the United States.

Critical reception

''Hard Love'' received mostly positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's Neil Z. Yeung rated the album four out of five stars and calls it "cleverly crafted praise music." Chris Major of TheChristianBeat.org rated the album 4.4 out of 5 and writes, "(the album) packs both energy and encouragement into its forty minute runtime. With diverse sounds and deep thought poured into each song, NEEDTOBREATHE does not hold back has outdone itself once again. H A R D L O V E is easily worth a full listen-through from both fans and new audiences." Jesus Freak Hideout's Christopher Smith rated the album three and a half stars out of five and calls it "a solid record."

Awards and accolades

On August 9, 2017, it was announced that ''H A R D L O V E'' would be nominated for a

GMA Dove Award A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

in the Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year category at the 48th Annual GMA Dove Awards. On October 17, 2017, ''H A R D L O V E'' won the GMA Dove Award for Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year with Kari Jobe alongside art producers

and Ido Zmishalny being the receipts at a ceremony at

Allen Arena Allen Arena is an List of indoor arenas, indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. The arena was named in honor of James C. and Linda Allen, the facility's primary benefactors. James Allen is a member of the board of trustees fo ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

Commercial performance

''Hard Love'' debuted at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart and at No. 2 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, moving 50,000

equivalent album units The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...

in its first week of release, of which 46,000 were in traditional album sales. This is the band's highest charting album to date, besting the No. 3 ''Billboard'' 200 debut of their 2014 release ''

Rivers in the Wasteland ''Rivers in the Wasteland'' is the fifth studio album by American Christian rock band Needtobreathe, released on April 15, 2014, through Atlantic Records, Curb Records and Word Records. The album was produced by the band along with Kevin Augunas, ...

''.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for ''Hard Love'' adapted from album liner notes. Needtobreathe *

Bear Rinehart William Stanley "Bear" Rinehart III (born September 6, 1980; also known by the stage name Wilder Woods) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who is a founding member and lead singer of the rock band, Needtobreathe. In 2019, he annou ...

– vocals, synthesizers, guitars,

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

* Bo Rinehart – synthesizers, programming, guitars,

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

, backing vocals * Josh Lovelace – acoustic piano,

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

, synthesizers, backing vocals * Seth Bolt – synthesizers, bass guitar, drum programming, percussion, backing vocals Additional musicians *

– additional keyboards (2), drum programming (2) *

– acoustic piano (3), organ (3, 4, 7), programming (3, 7), guitars (3, 4, 10), bass guitar (3), handclaps (3, 4), synthesizers (4, 10), drum programming (4, 10),

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

(4), finger snaps (4), stomps (4), backing vocals (7), synth bass (10) * Chris Connors – programming (3), synthesizers (4, 10), drum programming (4, 10), organ (10) * Rodrick Simmons – organ (5), keyboards (6) * Ido Zmishlany – keyboards (6), programming (6), guitars (6), backing vocals (6) * Roger Cliche – organ (6) * Sam Getz – guitars (7), additional guitars (9) * John Murchison –

upright bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

(4) * Pete Donnelly – bass (7) *

Dylan Wissing Dylan Wissing is an American drummer, percussionist and composer. Biography Wissing is best known for playing the "big drums" on Alicia Keys' Grammy Award-winning Number One Hit " Girl on Fire. Besides recording records with artists such as D ...

– drums (3, 7) * Will Chapman – drums (8), programming (8) * Colin Callahan – handclaps (3) * Matt Schenck – handclaps (3) * Tomás Shannon – handclaps (3) * Randall Harris – handclaps (4), finger snaps (4), stomps (4) * Hayden Lamb – handclaps (7), backing vocals (7) * Simon Harding – saxophone (2, 3) * Steve Tirpak – trombone (3), trumpet (3) * Chuck Dalton – trumpet (2, 3) * Clayton Bryant – backing vocals (3, 4, 10) * Carla Kelly – backing vocals (3, 10) * Carmen Roman – backing vocals (3, 10) * Darnell White – backing vocals (3, 4) *

Michael Trent Michael Trent is an American musician from Denver. He performs as a solo act and in the band Shovels & Rope since 2008. Career Trent first performed as the lead singer in the Denver, Colorado band Tinker's Punishment, before moving to the South ...

– vocals (7) *

Cary Ann Hearst Cary Ann Hearst (born August 10, 1979) is a folk/roots rock musical artist from South Carolina, US. She performs as a solo act, as well as with her husband, Michael Trent, in the band Shovels & Rope. Hearst's influences are rooted in the soulful, ...

– vocals (7) * Randall Harris – backing vocals (7), drums (9) * Ebony Johnson – backing vocals (10) Technical * Seth Bolt – engineer (1-5, 7-12), additional engineer (6) * Bo Rinehart – engineer (2, 11, 12) * Chris Connors – engineer (3, 4, 7, 10) * Dave Tozer – engineer (3, 4, 7, 10) * Ido Zmishlany – engineer (6) *

– engineer (11, 12) * Randall Harris – assistant engineer (1-5, 7, 8, 10) * Matt Schenck – assistant engineer (3, 7, 10) * Mikey Reaves – assistant engineer (4, 5, 10) * Michael Trent – additional engineer (7) * Robert Orton – mixing * Dave Kutch – mastering at The Mastering Place (New York, NY) Design and Additional Credits * Pete Ganbarg – A&R * Mikey Reaves – additional vocal production (2) * Eric Hurtgen – creative direction, cover design * Bo Rinehart – creative direction, cover design * Joshua Drake – cover photography * Eric Ryan Anderson – additional photography * Steve Bursky – management

Background and recording

Promotion

Critical reception

Awards and accolades

Commercial performance

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References