Songs from Black Mountain | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 10, 2006 | |||
Recorded | May 2005 | |||
Genre | Alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock | |||
Length | 42:23 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Producer | Jim Wirt | |||
Live chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Songs from Black Mountain | ||||
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 50/100[1] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Alternative Addiction | [3] |
Billboard | unfavorable[1] |
Entertainment Weekly | B−[4] |
musicOMH | [5] |
Paste | 1/10[1] |
Rolling Stone | [6] |
Slant Magazine | [7] |
Songs from Black Mountain is the eighth studio album by Live. It was released in most countries on April 10, 2006, but was released on May 9 in Canada, May 29 in the UK and June 6 in the US. It was their only release through Epic Records.[8] The first single, "The River", was released on March 21, 2006. It is the last album to feature lead vocalist Ed Kowalczyk before his departure from the band in 2009. It is also the final studio album to feature the original lineup (Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Gracey). Kowalcyzk rejoined in 2016, but Taylor, Dahlheimer, and Gracey were all fired from the band by the end of 2022.[9]
Although the album had some international success, including reaching number 1 in the Netherlands, it had the lowest US sales of any of Live's studio albums since their first album, Mental Jewelry, peaking at number 52 on the Billboard 200.
Live signed with Epic Records in 2005, having left Radioactive after the release of their 2003 album, Birds of Pray.[8] Singer Ed Kowalczyk explained that Songs from Black Mountain is in the same vein as Birds of Pray: "The album itself kind of took its lead from where we were with Birds of Pray, which was just a really basic, stripped [approach]...It's just amazing. It's just a great album and the excitement level of [Epic] and the band, everybody is just really pretty blown away by it."[10]
All tracks are written by Ed Kowalczyk
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The River" | 2:58 |
2. | "Mystery" | 3:45 |
3. | "Get Ready" | 3:32 |
4. | "Show" | 3:24 |
5. | "Wings" | 3:51 |
6. | "Sofia" | 3:54 |
7. | "Love Shines (A Song for My Daughters About God)" | 3:21 |
8. | "Where Do We Go from Here?" | 3:46 |
9. | "Home" | 3:23 |
10. | "All I Need" | 3:13 |
11. | "You Are Not Alone" | 3:43 |
12. | "Night of Nights" | 3:33 |
Total length: | 42:23 |
Live
Additional personnel
Chart (2006) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (ARIA)[11] | 4 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12] | 66 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[13] | 14 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[14] | 1 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[15] | 73 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[16] | 6 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[17] | 4 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[18] | 14 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[19] | 73 |
US Billboard 200[20] | 52 |
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[21] | 18 |
Chart (2006) | Position |
---|---|
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[22] | 65 |
Song | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUS | BEL (FL) | NED | |||||||||
"The River"[23] | 33 | 49 | 15 | ||||||||
"Mystery" | — | — | — | ||||||||
"Wings" | — | — | — | ||||||||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[24] | Gold | 35,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |