Civilians (Joe Henry album)

Civilians is an album by Joe Henry, released in 2007.

Concept

Civilians is the title of an album by Joe Henry. Civilians, Henry's tenth album, was released on September 11 of 2007. It was his first album of material since 2003's Tiny Voices. In an interview with Impose Magazine, Henry stated that he wanted to write an album to be less about the production and geared more toward the feel of a band playing in a room. This approach is evident from the more stripped back and raw feel of the album compared to the polish and sophistication heard on his previous three albums. Civilians is less upbeat and more influenced toward jazz and folk which have melancholy undertones.

Reception

The album received strong praise across the board achieving an average score of 77 on metacritic. Thom Jurek of AMG praised the album for its straight forward sound. Dan Ouellette of Billboard was impressed with Henry's story telling, especially on the track "Our Song". Meanwhile, Joshua Klein of Pitchfork Media criticised the album for its sound, describing the tempo as "dour". He also seemed to express some dissatisfaction for the album's social commentary on American life.

Track Listing

1. Civilians 2. Parker's Moon 3. Civil War 4. Time is a lion 5. You can't fail me now 6. Scare me to death 7. Our song 8. Wave 9. Love is enough 10. I will write my book 11. Shut me up 12. God only knows