Hourglass by James Taylor

Hourglass is singer-songwriter James Taylor's fourteenth studio album. Taylor's first studio album in six years was released in 1997 to glowing notices. It built upon the success of his previous effort, New Moon Shine. Hourglass was an introspective album that earned Taylor his best critical reviews in almost twenty years. The album's lyrics focused largely on Taylor's troubled past and family. "Jump Up Behind Me" paid tribute to his father's rescue of him after The Flying Machine days, and the long drive from New York City back to his home in Chapel Hill. "Enough to Be On Your Way" was inspired by the alcoholism-related death of his brother Alex earlier in the decade. The themes were also inspired by Taylor's divorce from actress Kathryn Walker, which took place in 1996. Rolling Stone found that "one of the themes of this record is disbelief", while Taylor told the magazine that it was "spirituals for agnostics." Critics embraced the dark themes on the album, and Hourglass was a huge commercial success, reaching #9 on the Billboard 200 (Taylor's first Top 10 album in sixteen years) and also provided a big adult contemporary hit on "Little More Time With You". The album also gave Taylor his first Grammy since JT, when he was honored with Best Pop Album in 1998. The album also won producer/engineer Frank Filipetti a Grammy that year for Best Engineered Album. The majority of the album was recorded using Yamaha O2R and Tascam DA-88 machines, which were early digital devices not typically used by top level artists, as most major label records were still being recorded to analog tape at that time. There is an enhanced CD version of the album containing interviews, photos, and videos.