2 is the second studio album by the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 rock band Black Country Communion

Black Country Communion

Black Country Communion is an English-American rock supergroup featuring Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian, and Joe Bonamassa.-Formation and Black Country :...

. The album was released on June 13, 2011 in Europe, and in the United States one day later.

Overview

Writing for 2 started as early as August 2010 according to Glenn Hughes, a month before the release of the band's debut album, Black Country

Black Country (album)

Black Country is the debut release by the English-American rock supergroup Black Country Communion. The album was released in Europe on 20 September 2010, and in the US one day later.-Overview:...

. As with its predecessor, the songs were recorded at Shangri-La Studios in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and were produced by Kevin Shirley

Kevin Shirley

Kevin Shirley is a music producer and mixer for many artists, such as the bands Journey, Iron Maiden, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Joe Bonamassa, Marya Roxx, Dream Theater, Tyler Bryant, Mr. Big, and Europe.-Biography:...

. The first batch of seven songs was recorded in four days according to Hughes' personal Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 account. Recording was finished on February 22, 2011, and Shirley completed the mastering two days later.

The album's official title and track listing were released on March 23, 2011, with the official album art following on March 29, 2011.On May 5, 2011, the band released the single "The Outsider" for free digital download from their official website. On June 8, 2011, the band released the music video for one of the songs off the new album, "Man in the Middle". The video was directed by Davin Maske and features studio footage of the band intercut with Hughes driving around L.A. in a cherry red 1965 Ford Thunderbird.

Track listing

Personnel

• Glenn Hughes – lead & backing vocals, bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Joe Bonamassa
  Joe Bonamassa
  Joe Bonamassa is an American blues rock guitarist and singer.-Early life:Bonamassa was born and raised in New Hartford, United States. His parents owned and ran a guitar shop. He is a fourth-generation musician...
  
   – lead
  Lead guitar
  Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
  
   & rhythm guitar
  Rhythm guitar
  Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
  
  s, backing vocals, lead vocals on "The Battle for Hadrian's Wall" and "An Ordinary Son", theremin on "Smokestack Woman"
• Jason Bonham
  Jason Bonham
  Jason John Bonham is an English drummer. Jason's parents are Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham and his wife Pat Phillips. After his father's death in 1980, he has played with Led Zeppelin on different occasions, including the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert at The O2 Arena in London in...
  
   – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  
• Derek Sherinian
  Derek Sherinian
  Derek Sherinian is a rock keyboardist who has toured and recorded for Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kiss, and Alice In Chains. He was also a member of Dream Theater and is the founder of the instrumental metal-fusion band Planet X...
  
   – keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  

Additional personnel

• Kevin Shirley
  Kevin Shirley
  Kevin Shirley is a music producer and mixer for many artists, such as the bands Journey, Iron Maiden, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Joe Bonamassa, Marya Roxx, Dream Theater, Tyler Bryant, Mr. Big, and Europe.-Biography:...
  
   – production
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
  , mixing
  Audio mixing (recorded music)
  In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
  
  
• Bob Ludwig
  Bob Ludwig
  Bob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
  
   – mastering
  Audio mastering
  Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
  
  
• Jeff Bova
  Jeff Bova
  Jeff Bova is an American Grammy Award winning keyboardist, composer, arranger and record producer. He has been active in music industry since the mid-1970s, contributing to dozens of recordings by significant mainstream artists like Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker,...
  
   – orchestration
  Orchestration
  Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
  
  

Chart performance

Chart (2011)	Peak position
Austrian Albums Chart Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann...	17
Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...	56
German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	7
Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...	83
Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...	33
Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	24
Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75...	15
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	23
US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	71
US Billboard Hard Rock Albums	6
US Billboard Independent Albums Independent Albums The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels...	10
US Billboard Rock Albums	19