''Unapologetically'' is the second studio album by American
country pop
Country pop (also known as pop country or urban cowboy) is a fusion genre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience. Country pop music blends genres ...
singer
Kelsea Ballerini
Kelsea Nicole Ballerini (born September 12, 1993) is an American country pop singer. She began songwriting as a child and signed with Black River Entertainment in 2014, releasing her debut studio album the following year, '' The First Time''. ...
. It was released on November 3, 2017. Ballerini announced the album's title and release date on July 25, 2017.
In August, the album's track listing was first revealed to fans during a four-day check-in event over the mobile app
Swarm
Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...
.
A deluxe edition of the album with four new bonus tracks was released on October 26, 2018.
Singles
The album's lead single, "
Legends
A legend is a historical narrative, a symbolic representation of folk belief.
Legend(s) or The Legend(s) may also refer to:
Narrative
* Urban legend, a widely repeated story of dubious truth
* A fictitious identity used in espionage
Books, co ...
," was first released on June 7, 2017, and went for adds at country radio on July 10, 2017. It became Ballerini's fourth number one hit on the ''Billboard''
Country Airplay
Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990.
This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...
chart for the week dated February 24, 2018.
"
I Hate Love Songs" was released on March 12, 2018 as the album's second official single. It reached a peak of number 25 on the ''Billboard'' Country Airplay chart.
"
Miss Me More
"Miss Me More" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Kelsea Ballerini for her second studio album, '' Unapologetically'' (2017). Ballerini co-wrote the song with David Hodges and Brett McLaughlin. "Miss Me More" was released digitally ...
" was released as the third single from the album on October 15, 2018.
It reached a peak of number 2 on the ''Billboard'' Country Airplay chart.
Promotional singles
The album's title track, "Unapologetically", was released as a promotional single on August 11, 2017, the day the album became available for pre-order on iTunes. The second promotional single, "High School", was released on September 22, 2017. The third and final promotional single, "Miss Me More", was released on October 20, 2017.
Critical reception
At review aggregation website
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 ...
, ''Unapologetically'' has a
weighted average
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 74 out of 100, based on 4 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
''
Paste'' writer Robert Ham spoke about ''Unapologetically'', "it’s more country by reputation—and the artful twang in Ballerini’s voice—than in sound. But within the album, the songs eschew lovesick notions and bitter revenge fantasies", noting that, "''Unapologetically'' gains in strength as it goes along, mirroring Ballerini’s push away from a particular lover and towards the welcoming arms of a new beau."
''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' contributor
Chuck Dauphin
Charles Frederick Dauphin III (February 17, 1974 – September 18, 2019) was an American sports and country music journalist. He was a radio broadcaster for WDKN in Dickson, Tennessee
Dickson is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Located in ...
placed two songs from the album on his top 10 list of Ballerini's best songs: "Legends" at number three and the title track at number four.
Accolades
Commercial performance
''Unapologetically'' debuted at number seven on the US
''Billboard'' 200 with 44,000
album-equivalent unit
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 traditi ...
s, including 35,000 pure album sales.
It is her highest peak on the chart of her three albums.
The album has sold 156,700 copies in the United States as of October 2019.
Track listing
Personnel
Adapted from
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 ...
.
*
Kelsea Ballerini
Kelsea Nicole Ballerini (born September 12, 1993) is an American country pop singer. She began songwriting as a child and signed with Black River Entertainment in 2014, releasing her debut studio album the following year, '' The First Time''. ...
- lead vocals
*
Ross Copperman
Ross Copperman (born October 1, 1982) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter and producer with 29 number one radio hits. After his experience as an artist in the UK, Copperman discovered his talent for writing and producing country mus ...
– drum programming
*
Zach Crowell
Zach Crowell is a songwriter and record producer, who was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Crowell is involved in a joint publishing agreement with Round Hill Music and Taperoom Music.
In 2012, he co-wrote and produced the song "Confe$$io ...
– acoustic guitar
*Jennifer Denmark – background vocals
*Kris Donegan – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
*David Dorn – keyboards, organ, piano, synthesizer, synthesizer strings
*
Fred Eltringham
The Wallflowers is an American rock solo project of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jakob Dylan. The Wallflowers were originally a roots rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1989 by Dylan and guitarist Tobi Miller. The band h ...
– drums
*
Nicolle Galyon
Nicolle Anne Galyon (born July 22, 1984) is a singer, songwriter, producer, record label executive, & publishing executive from Sterling, Kansas. She has written songs for Lady A, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Dan + Shay, Flori ...
– background vocals
*Lee Hendricks – bass guitar
*
David Hodges
David Hall Hodges (born December 5, 1978) is an American songwriter and record producer from Little Rock, Arkansas. He was a studio contributor to the rock band Evanescence from 2000–2002. He has since had success co-writing and co–produci ...
– acoustic guitar
*Evan Hutchings – drums
*
Hillary Lindsey
Hillary Lee Lindsey is an American singer-songwriter. She has written songs with or for a number of artists including Michelle Branch, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Shakira, Lady A, Gary Allan, Sara Evans, Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Bon ...
– background vocals
*Jason Massey – brass arrangements, drum programming, drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, organ, string arrangements, background vocals
*Rob McNelley – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
*Lindsey Rimes – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, drum programming, string arrangements, background vocals
*
Jimmy Robbins – acoustic guitar, piano, drum programming
*
Adam Shoenfeld
Adam Shoenfeld (born April 29, 1974) is a professional guitarist, songwriter and producer based in Nashville, TN. Primarily focused on modern country music, his guitar playing has been featured on over 200 albums, and is closely associated with Bi ...
– electric guitar
*Derek Wells – electric guitar, steel guitar
*Forest Glen Whitehead – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, mandolin, background vocals
*
Nir Z
NIR or Nir may refer to:
Science and technology
* Near-infrared, a region within the infrared part of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum
* Near-infrared spectroscopy, a spectroscopic method that uses the near-infrared region (from 780 nm to 25 ...
. – drums
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
2017 albums
Kelsea Ballerini albums
Black River Entertainment albums
Albums produced by Lindsay Rimes