''The Tears of Hercules'' is the thirty-first

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 British singer-songwriter

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

. It was released on 12 November 2021 through

Warner Warner can refer to: People * Warner (writer) * Warner (given name) * Warner (surname) Fictional characters * Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, stars of the animated television series ''Animaniacs'' * Aaron Warner, a character in ''Shatter Me s ...

and

Rhino A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

. It was produced by Stewart and

Kevin Savigar Kevin Savigar (born 9 November 1956) is an English session keyboardist, record producer, songwriter, and composer based in Los Angeles, CA. Perhaps most recognised for his longtime collaboration with Rod Stewart, Savigar has also contributed to ...

Background

Stewart began a songwriting and production partnership with

in the early 2010s, and they experienced widespread commercial success with ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' (2013), '' Another Country'' (2015) and ''

Blood Red Roses ''Blood Red Roses'' is the 30th studio album by British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart. It was released on 28 September 2018 through Decca Records and Republic Records. It was produced by Stewart and Kevin Savigar. Covers on the album include versio ...

'' (2018). Stewart then released a series of compilation albums, including '' You're in My Heart'', ''Cupid'' and a box set of material recorded between 1975 and 1978.

Music and lyrics

Stewart co-wrote nine of the album's tracks with

and

Emerson Swinford Emerson Swinford, a native of Chicago, is a Los Angeles-based guitarist, composer/songwriter and producer. He is currently a guitarist in the Rod Stewart band, and was formerly a member of the band Drill, a precursor to industrial- nu metal gro ...

. "I Can't Imagine" is dedicated to Stewart's wife

Penny Lancaster Penelope Claire Lancaster, Lady Stewart (born 15 March 1971) is an English model and television personality. She is married to rock singer Rod Stewart. In 2014, she joined the ITV lunchtime show '' Loose Women''. Early life Lancaster was bor ...

. "Hold On" addresses topical issues including bigotry and racism, with a reference to civil rights activist

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

. "Born to Boogie" is dedicated to

Marc Bolan Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted int ...

. The title track was written by Canadian singer-songwriter

Marc Jordan Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system of ...

and composer

Stephan Moccio Stephan Moccio is a Canadian composer, producer, pianist, arranger, conductor and recording artist. He co-wrote and co-produced the two end credit songs for ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' and its soundtrack: "Earned It" (The Weeknd) and " I Know You ...

, and originally released on Jordan's album ''Make Believe Ballroom'' (2004). Jordan had previously co-written "

Rhythm of My Heart "Rhythm of My Heart" is a song written by Marc Jordan and John Capek that Dutch rock and roll artist René Shuman included on his 1986 debut album, ''René Shuman''. In 1991, British singer Rod Stewart recorded the song for his album ''Vagabond ...

" with

John Capek John Joseph Capek is a composer, arranger, keyboardist, producer. Biography John Capek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). on 27 November 1947. He is the son of Fred Capek, a concert pianist and Mechanical Engineer, and ...

, a major hit for Stewart in 1991. The album also includes covers of " Some Kind of Wonderful" and the

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

song "These Are My People".

Release and promotion

''The Tears of Hercules'' was released on 12 November 2021. "One More Time" was released as the lead single on 16 September 2021 with an accompanying music video filmed in London on 21 August 2021. "Hold On" was released as the second single on 15 October 2021. "I Can't Imagine" followed as the third single on 5 November 2021, with an accompanying music video. On the day of release, Stewart promoted the album on television shows including ''

The Kelly Clarkson Show ''The Kelly Clarkson Show'' is an American daytime television variety talk show hosted by American singer Kelly Clarkson. It is produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and features Clarkson interviewing celebrities and segm ...

'', ''

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second it ...

'' and ''

The Graham Norton Show ''The Graham Norton Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton s ...

''.

Artwork

The photograph used for the cover artwork of ''The Tears of Hercules'' was taken by

during the video shoot for "One More Time". It depicts Stewart wearing an embroidered military-style jacket and a necklace that reads "Celtic", in support of

Celtic Football Club The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigran ...

Critical reception

''The Tears of Hercules'' was met with mixed reviews from music critics. On

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 normalised score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a

weighted mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 57 based on 5 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Referencing Stewart's songwriting,

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 Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Stewart is "in a decidedly looser frame of mind" than he was on ''

'' (2013). He described the album as "alternately baffling, absurd, sweet, and endearing". Writing for ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

'' magazine, Paul Moody stated that Stewart has "always been a master interpreter of other people’s material", describing the title track as an "atmospheric ballad". In ''

American Songwriter ''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee. History The ''American Songwri ...

'', Hal Horowitz was critical of the album's songwriting and production, but stated that "a few moments almost save this from moving into the “better luck next time” pile." In a wholly negative review for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', Roisin O'Connor described the album as a "12-track cringefest" where "Stewart celebrates carnal love in between songs about his late father".

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

Musicians

– vocals (all tracks), production (all tracks) *

– production (all tracks), keyboards (all tracks), programming (all tracks) *

– guitars (2, 4-7, 9, 11), bass (5-6) * Mike Severs – guitars (10) * J'Anna Jacoby – violin (1), fiddles (3) * Jimmy Roberts – saxophone (10) * David Palmer – drums (5) * Julia Thornton – percussion (3-5, 8-9, 11-12) * Amanda Miller – backing vocals (1-6, 8-10, 12) * Holly Brewer – backing vocals (1-10, 12) * Gemma Mewse – backing vocals (1-10) * Harlano Weekes – backing vocals (4, 8-11) * Adeola Shyllon – backing vocals (4, 8-9, 11) * Mark Agyei – backing vocals (4, 8-11) * Melissa Veszi – backing vocals (4, 8-9, 11) * Sabrina Adel – backing vocals (4, 8-9, 11) * Taya Plant – backing vocals (4, 8-9, 11) * Roo Saville – backing vocals (7-8, 12) * Jessica Childress – backing vocals (9) * T Jay Weekes – backing vocals (10)

Technical

* Kevin Savigar – recording, mixing * Joe Bozzi – mastering * Sheryl Farber – project assistance * Lisa Glines – project assistance * Patrick Milligan – project assistance * Susanne Savage – project assistance

Design

– photography * Rory Wilson – art direction, design * Kristin Attaway – packaging manager

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tears of Hercules 2021 albums Rod Stewart albums Albums produced by Rod Stewart Rhino Entertainment albums Warner Music Group albums