Lost in Time is the fifth studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by American R&B

Contemporary R&B

Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...

 recording artist Eric Benét

Eric Benét

Eric Benét, is an American singer. His duet with Tamia, "Spend My Life With You" was a number one song for three weeks on the US Billboard R&B chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2000....

, released November 30, 2010 on Reprise Records

Reprise Records

Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...

. It is the follow-up to Love & Life (2008). Production for the album took place during 2010 at various recording studios and was handled by Benét, George Nash, Jr., and Demonté Posey. Lost in Time contains musical elements of 1970s soul music

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 and features guest appearances by Chrisette Michele

Chrisette Michele

Chrisette Michele Payne , known professionally as Chrisette Michele, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter....

, Faith Evans

Faith Evans

Faith Renée Evans is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career with the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B...

, Eddie Levert

Eddie Levert

Edward "Eddie" Levert is an American singer, and is the lead vocalist of the soul/funk/R&B vocal group, The O'Jays.Levert was born in Bessemer, Alabama, but was raised in Canton, Ohio. While attending high school, he met buddies Walter Williams, Bill Isles, Bobby Massey, and William Powell...

, Ledisi

Ledisi

Ledisi Anibade Young is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Her first name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba. Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major...

, and Benét's daughter, India.

The album debuted at number 33 on the 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...

 chart, selling 32,200 copies in its first week. Its first single "Sometimes I Cry

Sometimes I Cry

"Sometimes I Cry" is a song by American singer Eric Benét. It is the lead single from his fifth album Lost In Time. The song has peaked at number 20 so far on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.- Charts :...

" became an Urban AC

Urban Adult Contemporary

Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...

 hit and peaked at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

 chart. Upon its release, Lost in Time received positive reviews from music critics. Benét promoted the album with a supporting tour that spanned November to December 2010.

Background

The album is the follow-up to Benét's fourth studio album, Love & Life (2008). Recording sessions took place during 2010 at various recording locations, including Big City Recording in Granada Hills, California, La Casa De Benét Studio and Studio City Sound in Studio City, California, Tanner-Monagle and The Laboratory Recording Studio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and The Palms Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada. Benét produced the album with songwriter Demonté Posey and longtime creative partner George Nash, Jr., Benét's cousin. He returned to his hometown Milwaukee and recorded with local musicians for the album, including the string section of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its primary performing venue is the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts...

. Benét also recorded duets for the album with R&B recording acts Faith Evans

Faith Evans

Faith Renée Evans is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career with the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B...

, Chrisette Michele

Chrisette Michele

Chrisette Michele Payne , known professionally as Chrisette Michele, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter....

, Ledisi

Ledisi

Ledisi Anibade Young is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Her first name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba. Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major...

, and Eddie Levert

Eddie Levert

Edward "Eddie" Levert is an American singer, and is the lead vocalist of the soul/funk/R&B vocal group, The O'Jays.Levert was born in Bessemer, Alabama, but was raised in Canton, Ohio. While attending high school, he met buddies Walter Williams, Bill Isles, Bobby Massey, and William Powell...

.

Music

Lost in Time incorporates elements of 1970s soul music

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

. For the album, Benét sought to expand on the classicist soul style of his previous album's title track, "Love & Life", and produce an album-length homage to 1970s-era R&B. Benét said of the album's style in a press release, "People just need to have some feel good R&B in their lives. I want people to remember what music can feel like, and that desire took me all the way back to that time. My development as an artist is a direct result of being immersed in that era [...] When it comes to something that resonates in your soul, you have to have something constructed with live musicians". Prior to recording, he researched articles and documentaries about audio recording in that time period. In an interview for Blues & Soul

Blues & Soul

Blues & Soul is a British music magazine covering black music. Genres covered include soul, R&B, jazz, hip hop, reggae and world music. It was first published in 1966 and is known for first using the term Northern Soul....

, he discussed recording live in order to authenticate such a sound, stating

Release and promotion

The album was released by Reprise Records

Reprise Records

Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...

 on November 30, 2010. Its first single "Sometimes I Cry

Sometimes I Cry

"Sometimes I Cry" is a song by American singer Eric Benét. It is the lead single from his fifth album Lost In Time. The song has peaked at number 20 so far on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.- Charts :...

" was released on August 2, 2010 and became a number-one hit on the Urban AC

Urban Adult Contemporary

Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...

 chart. It peaked at number 16 in November and ultimately spent five weeks on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

 chart. It also charted at number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay. Benét has said of the song, "[It] is about how you've completely moved on but still there's still some melancholy about the break-up. Maybe you're even dating somebody, but sometimes, when you're alone, you're sad about what could have been". "Never Want to Live Without You" was released as the album's second single on November 1. It charted at number 75 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. In promotion of Lost in Time, Benét is performing on a two-month long, nationwide tour with R&B recording artist Fantasia. The tour spans November and December, concluding with December 31, 2010 and January 1, 2011 concert dates at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri.

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 33 on the 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...

 chart, with first-week sales of 32,200 copies in the United States. It also entered at number eight on Billboard

Billboard charts

The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...

s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...

 chart.

Critical response

Lost in Time received positive reviews from music critics. Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...

 gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and complimented its "seductive pastiche", calling the album "the kind of record that might not be deep but shimmers pleasingly on the surface". Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

s Gail Mitchell described Lost in Time as a "spirited nod to the '70s soul/funk that has influenced [Benét's] career". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

noted Benét's voice as "more flexible than ever" and called him "an able and sometimes ardent mimic to boot, not just of Maxwell

Maxwell (musician)

Maxwell , is an American R&B, funk and neo soul musician. He played an important role in the development of the soul sub-genre, neo-soul.-Early life:...

’s tender histrionics but of several other styles". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It is the primary newspaper in Milwaukee, the largest newspaper in Wisconsin and is distributed widely throughout the state...

writer Jon M. Gilbertson complimented Benét's musical influences and smooth soul

Smooth soul

Smooth soul is a subgenre of soul music that developed in the early 1970s from soul, funk and pop music in the United States. The subgenre experienced mainstream success from the time of its development to the late 1970s, before its succession by disco and quiet storm.Smooth soul is characterized...

 style. USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

s Steve Jones gave the album three out of four stars and praised his "sensual and sophisticated balladry" on the album. Mikael Wood of The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

called it a "crafty album" and praised Benét's classicist musical sources, writing that he "expertly channels the plush balladry of mid-’80s Luther Vandross

Luther Vandross

Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...

 ('Never Live Without You'), the propulsive zing of early-’70s Philly soul

Philadelphia soul

Philadelphia soul, sometimes called the Philadelphia Sound or Sweet Philly, is a style of soul music characterized by funk influences and lush instrumental arrangements, often featuring sweeping strings and piercing horns. The subtle sound of a glockenspiel can often be heard in the background of...

 ('Paid,' featuring Eddie Levert himself), and the frantic cheer of last-days disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 ('Good Life')".

Track listing

Musicians

• Eric Benét – executive producer, horn arrangements, producer, string arrangements, vocal arrangement, vocals
• India Benét – vocals, background vocals
• Yetunde Bronson – choir, chorus
• Mario Brown – choir, chorus
• Paul Brozowski – trombone
• Chrisette Michele – vocals
• Timothy Cobb – string conductor
• Ericka Collier – choir, chorus
• Greg Collier – choir, chorus, background vocals
• Aaron Cunningham – choir, chorus
• Faith Evans – vocals, background vocals
• Greg Flint – French horn
• Sena Ford-Williams – choir, chorus
• Michael Franceschi – trombone
• Lisa Fuller – violin
• Mike Giacobassi – violin
• Jason Gillette – flute, alto flute, alto saxophone
• Nathan Hackett – viola
• Kathy Harris – choir, chorus
• Denise Janae – vocals, background vocals
• Afton Johnson – bass
• John Johnson – guitar
• Guy Kammerer – flugelhorn, trumpet
• Danis Kelly – harp
• Jeanyu Kim – violin
• Tim Klabunde – violin
• Scott Kreger – bass
• Kathryn Krubsack – French horn
• Ledisi – vocals
• Eddie Levert – vocals, background vocals

• Laura Love – cello
• Sascha Mandl – violin
• John McVicker – choir, chorus, drums, background vocals
• Brett Murphey – flugelhorn, trumpet
• George Nash, Jr. – Fender rhodes, guitar, horn arrangements, instrumentation, keyboards, producer, soloist, string arrangements, synthesizer, vocal arrangement
• Rafael Padilla – percussion
• Michael Pauers – baritone saxophone
• Jeff Pietrangelo – flugelhorn, trumpet
• Erin Pipal – viola
• Andy Raciti – bass
• Brek Renzelman – viola
• Margot Schwartz – violin
• Eric Segnitz – violin
• Ilana Setapin – violin
• Micah Shaw – Fender rhodes, piano, synthesizer
• Ruslan Sirota – piano, synthesizer
• Karen Smith – violin
• Kim Staples – choir, chorus
• Michelle Stokes – choir, chorus
• Peter Szczepanek – cello
• Cornelius Tamisha – choir, chorus
• Peter Thomas – cello
• Olga Tuzhilkov – viola
• Andrea Wagoner – violin
• Warren Wiegratz – flute, tenor saxophone
• Courtney Williams – choir, chorus
• Troy Sharon Willingham – choir, chorus
• Benjamin Wright – horn arrangements, string arrangements
• Adrien Zltoun – cello

Production

• Brian Avnet – management
• Michael Bliesner – assistant engineer
• Donna Caseine – publishing
• Julia DeCiantis – booking
• Zach Iser – booking
• Liza Joseph – administration
• Sean Jurewicz – assistant engineer
• Rob Katz – assistant engineer
• Mary March – management
• Nabil – photography
• Jim Reith – Pro-Tools

• David Renzer – publishing
• Trevor Sadler – mastering
• Mark Siegel – booking
• Kevin Sucher – administration, engineer, instrumentation, keyboards, mixing, production consultant, sound consultant
• Paul Tavenner – assistant engineer
• Steven Valenzuela – assistant engineer
• Ellen Wakayama – creative director
• Meg White – booking
• Denise A. Williams – creative director
• Shelley Wiseman – administration, management
• Biju Zimmerman – assistant engineer

Charts

Chart (2010)	Peak Position
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...	33
US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...	8