Crash My Party is the fourth studio album by American country music artist Luke Bryan. It was released on August 13, 2013, by Capitol Records Nashville.[1][2] Its first single, the title track, reached number one on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.[3] The album was produced by Jeff Stevens.[4][5] A deluxe edition with four bonus tracks is available digitally or by exclusive Target and Walmart CDs.[3][5]

Crash My Party
Studio album by
ReleasedAugust 13, 2013 (2013-08-13)
Recorded2013
GenreCountry
Length44:32
LabelCapitol Nashville
ProducerJeff Stevens
Luke Bryan chronology
Tailgates & Tanlines
(2011)
Crash My Party
(2013)
Kill the Lights
(2015)
Singles from Crash My Party
  1. "Crash My Party"
    Released: April 7, 2013
  2. "That's My Kind of Night"
    Released: August 5, 2013
  3. "Drink a Beer"
    Released: November 11, 2013
  4. "Play It Again"
    Released: March 24, 2014
  5. "Roller Coaster"
    Released: July 14, 2014
  6. "I See You"
    Released: November 3, 2014

Even though the reception towards the album by music critics was mixed, the album has seen remarkably high commercial success.[6] On its first week, the album sold 528,000 copies and debuted at number one on both the Billboard 200, Bryan's first album to do so on that chart, and Top Country Albums charts.[7] It was certified Platinum by the RIAA on September 30, 2013, and became the third best-selling album of 2013.[8] By July 2014, the album had reached over 2 million in sales in the United States.[9]

Critical reception edit

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic56/100[6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [10]
American Songwriter     [11]
Country WeeklyB−[12]
HitFixB−[13]
Music Is My Oxygen     [14]
NewsdayB[15]
The Oakland Press    [16]
Rolling Stone     [17]
Roughstock     [18]
Taste of Country     [19]
USA Today    [20]

Crash My Party garnered mixed reception from music critics. At Metacritic, they assign a weighted average score to ratings and reviews from selected mainstream critics, which based upon six reviews, the album has a Metascore of 56.[6]

At Rolling Stone, Chuck Eddy felt that "Given the drinking songs he's best at, he'd be better off pretending spring break lasts all year long" because he cannot seem to match up to "Kenny Chesney's knack for lonely contemplation."[17] Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic told that some of the tracks "seem slightly cookie-cutter", yet at the same time "he does seem savvy," and "somebody who embraces what real redneck living is about in 2013."[10] At The Boston Globe, Sarah Rodman gave the album a mixed review, and wrote that the album sounds somewhat generic "But the majority of the record is given over to 'Party' games we've heard Bryan [...] and many others in contemporary country [...] play before."[21] Eric Allen of American Songwriter noted how "Crash My Party is melodiously rewarding despite its sporadic lyrical missteps."[11] At Music Is My Oxygen, Rob Burkhardt felt that Bryan "chose to coast on that momentum" from his previous album.[14]

At USA Today, Jerry Shriver highlighted that in comparison to his last album this has a "slightly more generic-sounding" tone, and he wrote that Bryan "comes across as just another backwoods party animal with an amped-up sound and indiscriminate taste in women."[20] At The Oakland Press, Gary Graff felt that the release was yet "another mostly upbeat and good-humored set, which, more than anything else, demonstrates Bryan's and producer Jeff Stevens' knack for picking out exactly the right songs for the singer to record."[16] Melinda Newman of HitFix alluded to how the release "will be a nice new chapter in a pleasingly familiar book, if not a particularly high-octane one."[13] At Country Weekly, Joseph Hudak told that "All the imagery his fans have come to demand is there", however "In the future, it'd be nice to see Luke, the reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year, grow out of the fields he's so clearly comfortable in."[12]

Billy Dukes of Taste of Country felt that "there is little to differentiate the two projects", which this may lead some people to "line up to pigeonhole him", and noted that "There are hits to be found on his fourth studio album, but a lack of powerful album cuts makes the project much less exciting than one would like."[19] At Newsday, Glenn Gamboa called Bryan "a singles hitter [...] in more ways than one", which means that he felt "Bryan never hits a home run, but he sure does connect a lot." They also continue on to say that "every time he tries to swing for the fences, he strikes out."[15] Matt Bjorke of Roughstock evoked that "Crash My Party clearly features melodies and ideas that come from outside of Country's traditions, nobody would mistake the album for anything but a Country Music album, a strong, well-made modern one which makes times to nod to tradition while still looking forward."[18]

Commercial performance edit

Crash My Party sold over 528,000 copies during its first week of release.[7] In 2013, it became the fourth best-selling album in its debut week, with the only albums to achieve better first week sales being Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2, Jay Z's Magna Carta... Holy Grail, and Drake's Nothing Was the Same.[7] Any album by a male country music artist has not been sold this well in nine years.[7] For the week of August 31, 2013, the album reached number one on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts.[7] As a result, this became Bryan's second number one album that year.[22] The album's title track climbed the charts and reached number 2 on Hot Country Songs.[23] The next week, the album broke the record for the largest second-week percentage sales drop for a number-one debuting album of the Nielsen SoundScan era.[24]

Crash My Party became the third best-selling album of 2013 in the United States with over 1,521,000 copies sold that year.[8] In 2014, the album sold an additional 754,000 copies,[25] and it reached its two million sales mark in July 2014.[9] In May 2015, the album surpassed the total in sales of Bryan's previous album (2011's Tailgates & Tanlines) to become his best-selling album to date.[26] As of July 2017, the album has sold over 2.7 million copies in the United States.[27]

Track listing edit

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."That's My Kind of Night"3:10
2."Beer in the Headlights"2:52
3."Crash My Party"3:54
4."Roller Coaster"
  • Carter
  • Swindell
4:19
5."We Run This Town"
3:14
6."Drink a Beer"3:23
7."I See You"3:06
8."Goodbye Girl"2:39
9."Play It Again"
  • Davidson
  • Gorley
3:47
10."Blood Brothers"4:03
11."Out Like That"3:18
12."Shut It Down"3:16
13."Dirt Road Diary"3:31
Total length:44:32
Deluxe Edition
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
14."What Is It with You"4:00
15."Sunburnt Lips"
3:25
16."Better Than My Heart"
3:44
17."Your Mama Should've Named You Whiskey"
  • Laird
  • Jeremy Spillman
  • T. Rhett
3:42
Total length:59:23
International Tour Edition[31]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
18."She Get Me High"
  • Bryan
  • Jeff Stevens
  • Jody Stevens
3:37
19."Good Lookin' Girl"
  • Bryan
  • Carter
  • Jim McCormick
3:43
Total length:1:06:43

Personnel edit

Charts edit

Singles edit

Year Single Peak chart positions
US Hot Country US Country Airplay US CAN Country
[62]
CAN
2013 "Crash My Party" 2 1 18 1 18
"That's My Kind of Night" 1 2 15 2 19
"Drink a Beer" 1 1 31 1 34
2014 "Play It Again" 1 1 14 1 20
"Roller Coaster" 5 1 43 1 56
"I See You" 1 1 41 1 51

Certifications edit

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[63] 2× Platinum 160,000^
United States (RIAA)[64] 4× Platinum 4,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References edit

  1. ^ Whitaker, Sterling (July 12, 2013). "Luke Bryan Reveals Track Listing for Upcoming Album 'Crash My Party'". The Boot. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  2. ^ Pacella, Megan (June 27, 2013). "Luke Bryan Reveals Name, Cover Art for 2013 New Album". Taste of Country. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  3. ^ a b "Luke Bryan Offering Deluxe Edition of New Album, Crash My Party". Country Music Television. July 9, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  4. ^ Watts, Cindy (June 26, 2013). "Luke Bryan reveals details for new album, 'Crash My Party'". The Tennessean. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Conaway, Alanna (July 11, 2013). "Luke Bryan "Crash My Party" Tracklist & Cover Art". Roughstock. Archived from the original on July 13, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  6. ^ a b c Metacritic (August 15, 2013). "Critic Reviews from Crash My Party". CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d e Caulfield, Keith (August 20, 2013). "Luke Bryan's 'Crash My Party' Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  8. ^ a b Paul Grein (January 2, 2014). "The Top 10 Albums and Songs of 2013". Chart Watch. Yahoo.
  9. ^ a b Paul Grein (July 16, 2014). "Chart Watch: Sia Is Up From Down Under". Yahoo! Music.
  10. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (August 12, 2013). "Crash My Party - Luke Bryan". Allmusic. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  11. ^ a b Allen, Eric (August 15, 2013). "Luke Bryan: Crash My Party". American Songwriter. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  12. ^ a b Hudak, Joseph (August 14, 2013). "Crash My Party by Luke Bryan". Country Weekly. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
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  23. ^ Price, Deborah Evans (31 August 2013). "Luke Bryan's Big 'Party'". Billboard. Vol. 125, no. 33. p. 40. ProQuest 1473703650.
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  25. ^ Paul Grein (December 19, 2014). "Taylor Swift, 'Frozen,' and the Battle for the Year's #1 Album". Yahoo! Music. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
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