We'll Never Turn Back
Encyclopedia
We'll Never Turn Back is a studio album
by American gospel
and soul
singer Mavis Staples
, released April 24, 2007 on ANTI- Records
. Recorded in 2007 and produced by roots rock
and blues
musician Ry Cooder
, it is a concept album
with lyrical themes relating to the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Upon its release, We'll Never Turn Back received positive reviews from most music critics. It was also named one of the best albums of 2007 by several music writers and publications.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 76, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic writer Thom Jurek gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and commended Staples for her vocal ability and performance, while calling it "the kind of album we need at the moment, one that doesn't flinch from the tradition but doesn't present it as a museum piece either". The Boston Globe
s Renée Graham praised Staples's singing and additional songwriting on the album, stating "Mavis Staples doesn't so much sing a song as baptize it in truth". Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian
praised her performance, stating "Staples is magnificent… Her voice is in tatters by the closing 'Jesus Is On the Mainline', and the memory lingers long after those ragged final notes". Entertainment Weekly
s Will Hermes gave We'll Never Turn Back a B+ rating and described Staples's voice as "rich, weathered, and full of fire". Evening Standard
writer Pete Clark gave it four out of four stars and praised Ry Cooder's production.
Jon Pareles
of The New York Times
called the album "bluesy, unvarnished, gutsy and knowing", and he described its music as "righteous, not self-righteous, and never far from roots in the Mississippi mud". However, PopMatters
writer Lester Feder expressed that its "musical sophistication" can overshadow Staples's lyrics, stating "the album’s sound is so easy on the ears that it is extremely tempting to let it drown out the challenging sentiments of her words". In his consumer guide for MSN Music
, music critic Robert Christgau
gave We'll Never Turn Back an A- rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks". Christgau praised Staples's performance and wrote "she doesn't merely revive rousing old songs--she brings their moral passion into the present". Both USA Today
and the Chicago Sun-Times
gave it ratings of three-and-a-half out of four stars. Jim DeRogatis
of the latter publication wrote that Staples "infuses the material with a passion and urgency undiminished by the passing of time", and he discussed the relevance of the album's themes to current events, stating:
The Washington Post
s Bill Friskics-Warren shared a similar sentiment in his review, writing "Staples reinvests… with the moral authority to speak to social and economic injustices that persist today" and "rarely have 'remakes' sounded so tonic or inspired". The album received an A rating from the Boston Herald
, which wrote "In the course of celebrating a landmark, Staples and Cooder make one of their own". We'll Never Turn Back also received perfect ratings from The Independent
and NOW
magazine. LA Weekly
s Ernest Hardy gave it a rave review and lauded the album's sound, writing "Powerfully raw, suggestive blues is the foundation of the CD, but that root allows the collaborators to sprawl through other genres, reminding you of the connections between them all — blues and gospel, spirituals and jazz".
(number 11) and The Austin Chronicle (number five). The album was ranked number 48 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007. Los Angeles Times
columnist Todd Martens named We'll Never Turn Back the second best album of the year, and Greg Kot
of the Chicago Tribune
ranked it number one on his list of the best albums of 2007.
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 gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
and soul
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...
singer Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...
, released April 24, 2007 on ANTI- Records
ANTI-
ANTI- is an American record label founded in 1999 as a sister label of Epitaph Records.While Epitaph's focus has shifted over the last decade from mostly punk rock, nowadays ANTI- has a more diverse roster, ranging from country , hip hop , reggae , Soul , folk , rap-rock , indie rock...
. Recorded in 2007 and produced by roots rock
Roots rock
Roots rock is a term now used to describe rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid sub-genres from the later 1960s including country rock and Southern rock, which have been seen as responses to the...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musician Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
, it is a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
with lyrical themes relating to the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Upon its release, We'll Never Turn Back received positive reviews from most music critics. It was also named one of the best albums of 2007 by several music writers and publications.
Critical response
We'll Never Turn Back received positive reviews from most music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 76, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic writer Thom Jurek gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and commended Staples for her vocal ability and performance, while calling it "the kind of album we need at the moment, one that doesn't flinch from the tradition but doesn't present it as a museum piece either". The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
s Renée Graham praised Staples's singing and additional songwriting on the album, stating "Mavis Staples doesn't so much sing a song as baptize it in truth". Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
praised her performance, stating "Staples is magnificent… Her voice is in tatters by the closing 'Jesus Is On the Mainline', and the memory lingers long after those ragged final notes". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s Will Hermes gave We'll Never Turn Back a B+ rating and described Staples's voice as "rich, weathered, and full of fire". Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
writer Pete Clark gave it four out of four stars and praised Ry Cooder's production.
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
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...
called the album "bluesy, unvarnished, gutsy and knowing", and he described its music as "righteous, not self-righteous, and never far from roots in the Mississippi mud". However, PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
writer Lester Feder expressed that its "musical sophistication" can overshadow Staples's lyrics, stating "the album’s sound is so easy on the ears that it is extremely tempting to let it drown out the challenging sentiments of her words". In his consumer guide for MSN Music
MSN Music
MSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...
, music critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave We'll Never Turn Back an A- rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks". Christgau praised Staples's performance and wrote "she doesn't merely revive rousing old songs--she brings their moral passion into the present". Both 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...
and the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
gave it ratings of three-and-a-half out of four stars. Jim DeRogatis
Jim DeRogatis
James "Jim" DeRogatis is an American music critic and co-host of Sound Opinions. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as Spin, Guitar World and Modern Drummer, and for fifteen years was the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.He joined Columbia College Chicago as a full-time...
of the latter publication wrote that Staples "infuses the material with a passion and urgency undiminished by the passing of time", and he discussed the relevance of the album's themes to current events, stating:
The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
s Bill Friskics-Warren shared a similar sentiment in his review, writing "Staples reinvests… with the moral authority to speak to social and economic injustices that persist today" and "rarely have 'remakes' sounded so tonic or inspired". The album received an A rating from the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
, which wrote "In the course of celebrating a landmark, Staples and Cooder make one of their own". We'll Never Turn Back also received perfect ratings from The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
and NOW
NOW (magazine)
Now is a free weekly newspaper in Toronto, Canada. It was first printed on September 10, 1981 by Michael Hollett and Alice Klein. Now is an alternative weekly mixing arts and entertainment news with political coverage....
magazine. LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
s Ernest Hardy gave it a rave review and lauded the album's sound, writing "Powerfully raw, suggestive blues is the foundation of the CD, but that root allows the collaborators to sprawl through other genres, reminding you of the connections between them all — blues and gospel, spirituals and jazz".
Accolades
We'll Never Turn Back was named one of the best albums of 2007 by several music writers and publications, including PopMattersPopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
(number 11) and The Austin Chronicle (number five). The album was ranked number 48 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007. Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
columnist Todd Martens named We'll Never Turn Back the second best album of the year, and Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
ranked it number one on his list of the best albums of 2007.
Track listing
- All songs were produced by Ry CooderRy CooderRyland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
.
Personnel
Credits for We'll Never Turn Back adapted from liner notes.- Aisha Ayers – production assistant
- David Bartlett – photography
- Joachim Cooder – percussion, arranger, producer
- Ry CooderRy CooderRyland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
– guitar, mandolin, arranger, producer - Mike ElizondoMike ElizondoMichael "Mike" Elizondo is a well-known songwriter, bassist, keyboardist, and hip hop music producer.-Musical career:Mike Elizondo is especially known for his collaborations with internationally successful producer Dr. Dre and rapper Eminem. He has played the bass for many of Dr...
– bass, piano - Betty Fikes – background vocals
- Bernie GrundmanBernie Grundman-Biography:He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1983 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan and Brian Gardner, mastered 37 projects which received Grammy Award nominations in 2005.Grundman...
– mastering - Rutha Harris – background vocals
- Andy Kaulkin – executive producer
- Jim KeltnerJim KeltnerJames Lee "Jim" Keltner is an American drummer known primarily for his session work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists...
– drums - Rep. John Lewis – liner notes
- Pete Martinez – assistant
- Charles Neblett – background vocals
- Martin Pradler – engineer, mixing
- Joshua Douglas Smith – assistant
- Mavis StaplesMavis StaplesMavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...
– arranger, vocals, author - Chris Strong – portraits
- Susan Titelman – session photographer
Chart history
| Chart | Provider(s) | Peak position |
Certification | Sales/ shipments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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... (U.S.) |
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... |
180 | Not certified | N/A |
| 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... (U.S.) |
20 | |||
| 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... (U.S.) |
99 |
External links
- We'll Never Turn Back at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
- We'll Never Turn Back at ANTI-ANTI-ANTI- is an American record label founded in 1999 as a sister label of Epitaph Records.While Epitaph's focus has shifted over the last decade from mostly punk rock, nowadays ANTI- has a more diverse roster, ranging from country , hip hop , reggae , Soul , folk , rap-rock , indie rock...
website