Born Free (Kid Rock album)
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 63/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [2] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (B)[3] |
| Rolling Stone |  [4] |
Born Free is American artist Kid Rock’s eighth studio album. It released on November 16, 2010 with the title track being its lead single. The album is a rock and roll collaboration produced by Rick Rubin featuring several high profile artists such as, T.I., Sheryl Crow, and Bob Seger. This is Kid Rock's first album not to feature a Parental Advisory sticker. It is also described as a country music album. Kid Rock described it as "very organic blues-based rock and roll".[5] Cable network TBS used the title track, "Born Free", for its coverage of the 2010 Major League Baseball postseason. It was announced on June 16, 2011 that Born Free was certified Platinum by the RIAA for shipments in excess of one million copies. This gives Kid Rock his sixth Platinum album certification in the US. A Michigan only promotion was released with the album. It was a 4 song EP called "Racing Father Time".
Release and Promotion
The album's lead single was the title track. The songs promotional push included being the theme for the MLB Playoffs,European Music Awards and the CMA Festival. He also performed "Times Like These" at the American Music Awards and "Care" at the Rally for Sanity. This led to a debut of 189,000 copies sold and landing at number five on the billboard top 200. VH-1 aired the Isle of Malta concert special. The following single "God Bless Saturday" became the secondary theme song for ESPN's College Game Day. The third single "Collide" saw him reunite with Sheryl Crow and go on a joint tour together. "Purple Sky" failed to chart and the final single was "Care" with rapper TI and depending on the version Martina McBride,Mary J Blidge or Angelenna Pressly of the Pistol Annies. The song lead to a 12 city charity tour,all the money from the tour went to 12 cities personally choice for donation.
Track listing
All tracks are written by R. J. Ritchie and Marlon Young, except where noted
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Born Free" | 5:14 |
| 2. | "Slow My Roll" | 4:19 |
| 3. | "Care" (featuring Martina McBride and T.I.) (Ritchie, Young, Clifford Harris) | 4:12 |
| 4. | "Purple Sky" (Ritchie, Young, J. Boland) | 4:06 |
| 5. | "When It Rains" | 4:46 |
| 6. | "God Bless Saturday" | 3:35 |
| 7. | "Collide" (featuring Sheryl Crow and Bob Seger on piano) | 4:49 |
| 8. | "Flyin' High" (featuring Zac Brown) | 4:03 |
| 9. | "Times Like These" | 5:57 |
| 10. | "Rock On" | 5:23 |
| 11. | "Rock Bottom Blues" | 3:51 |
| 12. | "For the First Time (In a Long Time)" | 5:46 |
Target Bonus Tracks
- Rock N Roll Jesus (live)
- Lowlife/Keep Your Hands To Yourself (live)
- Care (Demo Version w Mary J. Blige)
Racing Father Time EP
- The Midwest Fall
- Lonely Road Of Faith (Alt Version)
- Slow My Roll (Porch Version)
- Forty
Reception
Critical
Upon its release, Born Free received positive reviews from most music critics.[6] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 63, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[6]
Allmusic praised Born Free, saying it "goes a long, long way toward keeping that heartland flame burning bright: it’s familiar yet fresh, and song for song it’s the best album Kid Rock has cut since "Devil Without a Cause."[2] This album was number 16 on Rolling Stone's list of the 30 Best Albums of 2010.[7]
Personnel
- Kid Rock - lead vocals, guitar
- Marlon Young - lead guitar
- David Hidalgo - guitar
- Matt Sweeney - guitar
- Justin Meldal-Johnsen - bass
- Chad Smith - drums, percussion
- Benmont Tench - keyboards, piano
- Blake Mills - banjo, guitar
- Additional personnel
- Bob Seger - piano on "Collide"
- Sheryl Crow - vocals on "Collide"
- Zac Brown - vocals on "Flying High"
- T.I. - vocals on "Care"
- Martina McBride - vocals on "Care"
Charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Albums Chart[8] | 11 |
| European Top 100 Albums[9] | 25 |
| German Albums Chart[10] | 9 |
| German Downloads Chart[11] | 3 |
| US Billboard 200[8] | 5 |
| US Billboard Top Rock Albums[8] | 1 |
| UK Albums Chart | 139 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2010) | Rank |
|---|---|
| German Albums Chart[12] | 92 |
| German Albums Chart[13] | 16 |
Samples
- " Born Free"
- " I Feel Fine " by The Beatles(song uses the acoustic gutair chord progression as its rhythm gutair on the chorus)
- "God Bless Saturday"
- "It's A Long Way To The Top" by AC/DC (gutair riff but altered to sounding southern rock)
- "Collide"
- "Against The Wind" by Bob Seger ( bassline)
- "Times Like These"
- "Learn To Be Still" by The Eagles (uses structure of the song)
- "Rock Bottom Blues"
- "Bring It On Home" by Led Zeppelin (uses bassline from the slow blues intro to the song)
Covers
- "Purple Sky" - originally titled Telephone Romeo by Jason Boland & the Stragglers
- "Forty" - John Eddie
Demos
Note- Most of these demos discussed on target exclusive interview of the album with Kid Rock and Rick Rubin
- American Circus
- Born Free ( TBT Version)
- Care ( released as hidden track on the album)
- Cucci Galore (released on 2012's Rebel Soul)
- Detroit,Michigan (released on 2012's Rebel Soul)
- Eminent Front ft Lil Wayne ( Who Cover)
- Flying High (Porch Version)
- Forty ( released on Racing Father Time EP)
- For The First Time ( 40 takes according to Target Bonus Interview)
- God Bless Saturday ( Heavy Version)
- Midwest Farmers
- Mountain Music ( Alabama Cover)
- One Woman Man
- Purple Sky (Alt Country Version)
- Purple Sky (Rock Version)
- Rock On (Acoustic)
- Slow My Roll-Porch Version ( released on Racing Father Time EP)
- The Midwest Fall ( released on Racing Father Time EP)
- Times Like These (Acoustic)
- Wanted ft Bon Jovi and T.I.
References
- ^ Light, Alan. "Born Free". Metacritic.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b Born Free - Kid Rock allmusic. Retrieved on 2010-11-19.
- ^ Collis, Clark (2010-11-10). "Born Free Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Light, Alan (2010-11-16). "Born Free". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Bonaquro, Alison. "Kid Rock Feels like he is Born Free to Sing with Everybody". CMT.com. Retrieved 4 June 2010.Graham, Adam (30 May 2010). "Kid Rock to Launch New Album Sept. 7". The Detroit News. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
- ^ a b "Born Free Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-12-02.
- ^ "The 30 Best Albums of 2010". Rolling Stone (December 25, 2010). Retrieved 2011-01-18
- ^ a b c "Chart listing for Born Free". Billboard. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
- ^ http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/european-albums?tag=relcharts
- ^ ""The Boss" ist der neue Chef der Album-Charts - media control". Media-control.de. 2010-11-23. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
- ^ "Rihanna siegt "Loud" in den Download-Charts - media control". Media-control.de. 2010-11-26. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
- ^ "VIVA Album Top 50 - Alle Musikvideos - Chart". VIVA.tv. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
- ^ "Billboard 200 Year-End 2011". Retrieved 2012-05-03.