''These Times'' is the second studio album by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

SafetySuit SafetySuit is an American rock band from Tulsa, Oklahoma, currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their 2008 major label debut album ''Life Left to Go'' featured songs "Stay" and " Someone Like You", the former first achieving fame by climbing t ...

, released on January 10, 2012, through

Universal 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 i ...

. The album follows their 2008 debut ''

Life Left to Go ''Life Left to Go'' is the debut studio album by American rock band SafetySuit, released on May 13, 2008, through Universal Motown Records. It was produced by Greg Archilla, who had previously collaborated with SafetySuit on their independent EP. ...

''. It was released exclusively through

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on January 3, 2012, before a wide release the following week. ''These Times'' was produced by

Howard Benson Howard Benson is an American music producer and multi-instrumentalist. He was nominated for the Producer of the Year Grammy Award in 2007 and 2008. Early life and education Benson was born and raised in a middle-class family in greater Philadel ...

Ryan Tedder Ryan Tedder (born June 26, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. As well as being the lead vocalist of the pop rock band OneRepublic, he has an independent career as a songwriter and producer for various artists since th ...

, and

Espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

, along with several self-produced songs, departing from their previous work with producer Greg Archilla. The album reached number 7 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, making it their highest charting album to date.

Track listing

Critical reception

''These Times'' 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 ...

. Rick Florino of

ARTISTdirect ARTISTdirect is an American online digital media entertainment company. Overview Founded in 1994, it owns several websites, including artistdirect.com and artistdirectinterviews.com. These websites are a group of affiliate websites offering mul ...

describes the album as "a catchy, captivating, and classy outing from modern rock's finest young outfit" that "is the first must-have album of 2012". Gregory Heaney of

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 ...

rated the album three out of five stars and states: "The album finds the band taking a more spacious approach to the genre, surrounding their heartfelt, midtempo jams in a warm blanket of reverb and keyboards, giving them a real sense of depth."

Charts

Personnel

Credits adapted from

SafetySuit

*Doug Brown –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

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 ...

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 ...

*Dave Garofalo – guitar *Jeremy Henshaw –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

*Tate Cunningham –

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 ...

, keyboards, percussion

Additional musicians

– keyboards *

Espen Lind Espen Lind (born 13 May 1971) is a Norwegian record producer, songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is one half of the production team Espionage, and together with his long time partner Amund Bjorklund he has written and/or produced ...

–

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

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, ...

, keyboards *

– bass, drums, guitar, keyboards,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

Noel Zancanella Noel Patrick Zancanella is an American record producer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. He has written and produced songs for rock and pop artists such as Taylor Swift, OneRepublic, Maroon 5, B.o.B., Gym Class Heroes, Gavin DeGra ...

– bass, drums, guitar, keyboards

Technical

* Jon Marius Aareskjold – mixing * Jerry Beltran – A&R * Howard Benson –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

, programming * Amund Björklund –

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 ...

* Doug Brown – engineer, production, programming * Bruce Carbone – A&R,

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

* Smith Carlson – engineer * Tate Cunningham – engineer, mixing, production, programming * Paul DeCarli – digital editing, engineer *

– production * Chris Gehringer – mastering * Serban Ghenea – mixing * John Hanes – mixing * Hatsukazu "Hatch" Inagaki – engineer *

Rich Isaacson Rich Isaacson is an international music entrepreneur whose influence spans artists such as Wu-Tang Clan, MIKA, Akon, Gustavo Santaolalla, Charles Bradley, Mobb Deep, Melanie Fiona, SafetySuit, and Three 6 Mafia. Background Isaacson was born i ...

– executive producer * Espen Lind – engineer, mixing *

Chris Lord-Alge Chris Lord-Alge is an American mix engineer. He is the brother of both Tom Lord-Alge and Jeff Lord-Alge, both of whom are also audio engineers. Chris and Tom are known for their abundant use of dynamic compression for molding mixes that play wel ...

– mixing * Andres Martinez – design,

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

* Francis Murray – engineer * Jon Nicholson – drum technician * Mike Plotnikoff – engineer *

– production * Phil Seaford – assistant * Ryan Tedder – engineer, production, programming * Marc VanGool –

guitar technician A guitar technician (or 'guitar tech') is a member of a music ensemble's road crew who maintains and sets up the musical equipment for one or more guitarists. Depending on the type and size of band, the guitar tech may be responsible for stringin ...

* Noel Zancanella – production, programming

Release history

Source:

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:These Times 2012 albums SafetySuit albums Universal Records albums Albums produced by Ryan Tedder