''Lights Out'' is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter

Ingrid Michaelson Ingrid Ellen Michaelson (born December 8, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Her first album, '' Slow the Rain,'' was released in 2005, and she has since released eight more albums: '' Girls and Boys,'' '' Be OK'', '' Everybody' ...

, released on April 15, 2014 through Cabin 24 Records under exclusive license to Mom + Pop Music. It debuted at number 5 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 37,000 copies in its first week. The

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

from the album, "

Girls Chase Boys "Girls Chase Boys" is the lead single from Ingrid Michaelson's sixth studio album, '' Lights Out''. The song peaked at number 52 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Background Michaelson spoke about the development of the song and stated, It was w ...

", was released on February 4, 2014. The second single from the album, "Afterlife", was released on October 2, 2014. The third single, "Time Machine", was released on February 19, 2015. A deluxe edition with an alternate cover and a bonus disc was released on November 11, 2014.

Critical reception

''Lights Out'' received 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 ...

upon its release. 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 critics, the album has 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 74, based on 5 reviews, indicating "generally positive reviews" feedback.

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 Matt Collar rated the album four stars out of five, stating how the release shows "Michaelson has captured that sound of love." At ''

The Oakland Press ''The Oakland Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Oakland County, Michigan with headquarters in Troy. It is owned by 21st Century Media, with which its parent company merged in 2013 after filing for bankruptcy. The local historical society t ...

'',

Gary Graff Gary Graff (born 1960) is an American music journalist and author. Biography Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Graff attended Taylor Allderdice High School where he wrote for school newspaper ''The Taylor Allderdice Foreword''. He receiv ...

rated the album three stars out of four, writing how the release is "filled with emotional heavy lifting", and the LP features "Michaelson's use of choral arrangements throughout is just one of the elements that remind us of what a clever artist she is while also pushing her in fresh directions."

Commercial performance

The album entered the ''Billboard'' 200 chart at number 5, with first-week sales of 37,000 copies. It also debuted at number 2 on Top Rock Albums. It has sold 160,000 copies as of August 2016.

Track listing

Personnel

Ian Axel Ian Axel (born March 28, 1985) is an American singer and songwriter. After becoming well-known with his song "This Is the New Year", he developed a solo career, eventually joining forces with long-time writing partner, Chad King, to form the duo ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(13), vocals (13) * Jeremy Bose –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, programming * Leslia Broussard – clapping, background vocals * C.J. Camarieri –

french horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Adam Christgau –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Cason Cooley –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

, percussion, piano, programming,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, background vocals *

Trent Dabbs Trent Dabbs is an American singer-songwriter who was raised in Jackson, Mississippi and is based in Nashville for his professional career. As a solo artist, Dabbs has released eleven albums, including his latest album, ''Positano'', as well as ...

–

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(9,10), vocals (9,10) * Eric Darken – percussion, programming * Nathan Dugger – electric guitar * Cara Fox –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

* Lynn Grossman – clapping, stomping *

Katie Herzig Katie Herzig is an American singer-songwriter whose songs have appeared often in movies, TV shows, and commercials. Personal life Katie Herzig was born in California to a musical family. When she was one year old, her family moved to Fort Col ...

– celeste, synthesizer, background vocals * Felicia J. Hudson – clapping, background vocals * Nadim Issa –

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

* Elliot Jacobson –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, percussion, stomping *

Mat Kearney Mathew William Kearney (; born December 1, 1978) is an American musician born in Eugene, Oregon, and based in Nashville, Tennessee. So far, he has a total of five top 20 hits on the Adult Top 40 Chart. ''Just Kids'' was released on February 24 ...

– acoustic guitar, programming, synthesizer, vocals (8) * Chad King – vocals (13) *

Jacquire King Jacquire King (born January 11, 1967) is an American record producer, recording engineer and mixer. King has worked with such notable artists as Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, James Bay, Kaleo, Modest Mouse, Shania Twain, Buddy Guy, Norah Jones, ...

– clapping, stomping * Chris Kuffner –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, clapping,

e-bow The EBow, short for electronic bow or energy bow, is an electronic device used for playing string instruments, most often the electric guitar. It is manufactured by Heet Sound Products, of Los Angeles, California. It was invented by Greg Heet i ...

, acoustic guitar, electric guitar,

tenor guitar The tenor guitar or four-string guitar is a slightly smaller, four-string relative of the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar. The instrument was initially developed in its acoustic form by Gibson and C.F. Martin so that players of ...

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

omnichord The Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate known as "Sonic Strings", preset rhythms, auto-bass line functionality, and buttons for ma ...

, programming,

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 ...

, stomping, synthesizer, synthesizer bass, background vocals * Jesse Kuffner – cello,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

Greg Laswell Greg Laswell (born April 26, 1974) is an American musician, recording engineer, and record producer from San Diego, California. He attended high school at Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California. He has released 7 studio albums: '' ...

– vocals (3) * Brian Lee – bass guitar, background vocals,

whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a larg ...

* Stephen Leiweke – electric guitar * Tony Lucido – bass guitar * Jeremy Lutito – drums * Mick Lynch – acoustic guitar, background vocals * Saul Simon MacWilliams – clapping, organ, piano, stomping, synthesizer, trumpet, background vocals, Wurlitzer * Kevin May – background vocals *

– clapping, omnichord, piano, stomping, lead vocals, background vocals * Allie Moss – clapping, background vocals * The Orphanage String Quartet –

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

* Adam Pallin – programming, keyboards, background vocals * Wendy Parr – background vocals * Bess Rogers – clapping, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, stomping, background vocals *

Dan Romer Dan Romer is an American film composer, music producer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. Career As a film composer, Romer's scores include four-time Oscar-nominated ''Beasts of the Southern Wild'', '' Beasts of No Nation'', '' Chasing Coral' ...

– bass guitar * Gabe Scott – acoustic guitar,

Hammer dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...

* F. Reid Shippen – programming * Storyman – vocals (4) * Hannah Winkler – clapping, background vocals

Chart performance

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2014 albums Ingrid Michaelson albums Vertigo Records albums