''Not In Chronological Order'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter

Julia Michaels Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...

, released on April 30, 2021, by

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

. The album's subject matter centers on themes of

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

, self reflection and

ideal womanhood Ideal womanhood, perfect womanhood, perfect woman and ideal woman are terms or labels to apply to subjective statements or thoughts on idealised female traits. The concept of the "ideal woman" The term is applied in the context of various times an ...

. Upon its release, ''Not in Chronological Order'' received generally positive reviews. However, the album became Michael's lowest charting release on the ''Billboard'' 200, where it reached number 183; Michaels blamed Republic's lack of promotional support for the album as the cause of its lack of success.

Background

Michaels released her debut single " Issues" in 2017, followed by three

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

s (EP), ''

Nervous System In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes th ...

'' (2017), '' Inner Monologue Part 1'' and ''

Inner Monologue Part 2 ''Inner Monologue Part 2'' is the fifth extended play by American singer and songwriter Julia Michaels Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see ...

'' (both 2019). In 2020, she released the single "Lie Like This", followed by "All Your Exes" and "Love Is Weird" the following year. On April 9, 2021, ''

Women's Wear Daily ''Women's Wear Daily'' (also known as ''WWD'') is a fashion-industry trade journal often referred to as the "Bible of fashion".Horyn, Cathy"Breaking Fashion News With a Provocative Edge" ''The New York Times''. (August 20, 1999). It provides infor ...

'' announced that Michaels would release her debut studio album on April 30. She confirmed this on April 14, along with the album's name as ''Not in Chronological Order'' and its artwork.

Critical reception

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 an average score of 70 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 5 reviews. '' Clash''s Randy Radic thought ''Not in Chronological Order'' is soft in certain parts and "thick with sinew" in others, and equally allows Michaels to showcase her songwriting talent and "charismatic, oh-so-expressive voice". Alexis Petridis of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' considered the album enjoyable and a display of Michaels's talent, but lacking in star quality. Writing for ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', Hannah Mylrea was favorable of its depiction of romance and Michaels's signature one-liners, adding, it "confidently chronicles every dizzying high and crushing blow that love brings – affairs of the heart have, after all, long been Michaels’ specialist songwriting subject".

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *

– vocals , background vocals *

JP Saxe Jonathan Percy Starker Saxe (born March 23, 1993), known professionally as JP Saxe, is a Canadian musician and singer. He is best known for his collaboration with American singer and his now ex-girlfriend Julia Michaels titled " If the World Was ...

– guitar *

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

– programming *

The Monsters & Strangerz The Monsters & Strangerz are an American production and songwriting team from Miami, Florida. The team features The Monsters: Alexander "Eskeerdo" Izquierdo, Stefan Johnson, Jordan K. Johnson and Oliver "German" Peterhof and The Strangerz: Marcus ...

– programming , guitar , keyboards * John Ryan – background vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming ; drums, synthesizer programming * David Campbell – string arranger *

G Koop Robert Mandell, professionally known as G Koop, is an American Grammy award, Grammy-nominated record producer, songwriter and musician. Early life G Koop is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. His father had a large collection of albums, and ...

– guitar * India Carney – background vocals * Mario Jose – background vocals * Michael Pollack – background vocals, keyboards * Pierre Luc – guitar * Matt Zara – guitar * Chris Null – guitar Technical *

Randy Merrill Randy Merrill is an American mastering engineer who has worked with international artists including DAY6, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Harry Styles, One Direction, Adele, Imagine Dragons, Beck, Liam Gallagher, Jonas Brothers, Muse, Cage the ...

–

mastering engineer A mastering engineer is a person skilled in the practice of taking audio (typically musical content) that has been previously mixed in either the analog or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in distr ...

Serban Ghenea Șerban Ghenea (born October 13, 1969) is a Grammy award-winning Romanian-Canadian audio engineer and mixer. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1969. In 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. He later attended ...

– mixer * Ben Rice –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, vocal producer *

Steve Churchyard Steve Churchyard is an English record producer, recording engineer and mixer who began his career at Sir George Martin’s AIR Studios in London. He currently resides in the United States. He has been nominated for 15 Grammy awards. In 2008 he wo ...

– engineer * John Ryan – engineer, vocal producer * Jeff Gunnell – engineer *

Stefan Johnson The Monsters & Strangerz are an American production and songwriting team from Miami, Florida. The team features The Monsters: Alexander " Eskeerdo" Izquierdo, Stefan Johnson, Jordan K. Johnson and Oliver "German" Peterhof and The Strangerz: Marcu ...

– engineer , vocal producer * Michael Pollack – engineer, vocal producer * Gian Stone – vocal producer * The Monsters & Strangerz – vocal producer * Bo Bodnar – assistant recording engineer

Charts

Release history

References

{{Julia Michaels 2021 debut albums Julia Michaels albums Albums produced by the Monsters & Strangerz Republic Records albums