Cry is the fifth studio album by American country music singer Faith Hill. It was released on October 15, 2002, via Warner Bros. Nashville. The album was Hill's attempt at expanding her crossover appeal that she had garnered with hits like "Breathe" and "The Way You Love Me". Hill co-produced the album along with Marti Frederiksen, Byron Gallimore, and Dann Huff. Despite this, the album went on break a record for the highest first week sales by a female country artist, debuting atop both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums chart with first week sales of 467,000 copies sold in its first week. It would go on to sell four million copies worldwide and was certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA, a moderate success compared to her previous album Breathe (1999), which was certified 8× Platinum.

Five singles in total were released. The title track, "Cry", was released in August 2002 and despite debuting at number 32 on the US Hot Country Songs, it only peaked at number 12, marking her lowest-peaking lead single to the format. Country radio was hesitant to play songs from the album and as such, follow-up singles released like "When the Lights Go Down" and "You're Still Here" failed to be successful. "One" was exclusively released to the adult contemporary format while "Baby You Belong" was released exclusively to Japan to promote the 2002 Disney film Lilo & Stitch. The album was negatively reviewed at country radio, with many programmers claiming Hill had "abandoned" the genre. Hill was heavily compared to Celine Dion in terms of the move of genres, which was also negatively reviewed.

At the Grammy Awards, the album received two nominations: Best Country Album and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the title track, winning the latter award. Cry would later be ranked at number 179 on Billboards Top 200 album of the 2000s decade. In a retrospective interview from 2005 while promoting her following album Fireflies (2005), Hill told Billboard that "it was definitely a different record," but that she is still "so proud of [the album]." The album, along with works by fellow female artists LeAnn Rimes (Twisted Angel), Shania Twain (Up!), and Lee Ann Womack (Something Worth Leaving Behind), were seen as albums that struggled the most at country radio due to how they tried to appeal to both pop and country, but failed to have major success in either genre. Hill, in particular, was questioned if she was "selling out".

Background

In 1999, Hill released her fourth studio album Breathe (1999). Commercially, the album was very successful, debuting atop both the <u>Billboard</u> 200 and Top Country Albums charts. It spawned crossover hits such as "Breathe", which satisfied both pop and country audiences, and "The Way You Love Me", with the former becoming the number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End list for 2000. This success was what led her to win the Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist award at the 2000 American Music Awards. She also garnered a hit song from the 2001 Michael Bay-directed film Pearl Harbor, "There You'll Be", which became her most successful song in Europe. This success swayed Hill to make a more pop-friendly album. While she still stuck with her previous producers Byron Gallimore and Dann Huff, she also brought in Marti Frederiksen, who is most well-known for his work with Aerosmith, to produce the title track. With this record, Hill dived into genres such as gospel and R&B.

Songs

The album opens up with the song "Free"; lyrically, Hill recalls having a "poor self-image as a child, and developing confidence thanks to faith and angelic comfort." The title track, "Cry", was to initially have featured Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. The Pink and Linda Perry penned song "If You're Gonna Fly Away" shows Hill singing about offering encouragement and prayer support; Hill's vocals in this song were compared to girl group En Vogue. It was officially released to the format on August 19, 2002, as the lead single to the album. It debuted at number 32 on the US Hot Country Songs chart with less than four days of airplay, becoming Hill's then-highest debut and the highest debuting single of the year; Internationally, the song peaked at number three in Canada while reaching the top twenty in Hungary, New Zealand, Spain, Norway, and Romania. The Mike Lipscombe-directed music video would garner Hill two nominations at the 2003 CMT Flameworthy Awards for Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year.

The second single, "When the Lights Go Down", was released on November 18, 2002, as the second single to the album. It debuted at number 53 the week of November 23, 2002, thanks in part to a performance at the 2002 CMA Awards. It peaked at number 26 on the Hot Country Songs chart, becoming Hill's first single since "But I Will" back in 1994 to miss the top-twenty of the chart. Exclusively released to German speaking Europe, it peaked at numbers 52 and 64 in Austria and Germany. The video would win the award for Hottest Female Video of the Year at the 2003 CMT Flameworthy Awards.

"Baby You Belong" was exclusively released to Japan on March 8, 2003. It was released in the country to promote the 2002 Disney film Lilo & Stitch; the song was included in the Japanese version's soundtrack. It failed to enter the charts there.

The fourth single, "One", was exclusively released to US adult and hot adult contemporary radio on April 7, 2003. The song performed moderately well, peaking at number seven on the Adult Contemporary chart.

"You're Still Here" was released on April 28, 2003, as the fifth and final song from the record. It peaked at number 28 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

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Cry received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 59, based on 8 reviews. the record was later broken just a few weeks later when fellow country singer Shania Twain would debuted at number one with over 874,000 copies sold first week for her 2002 album Up!. It would only spend one week at number one on the Billboard 200 and only spent 39 weeks total, Hill's second shortest chart run with a solo album. On the country charts, it would spend three non-consecutive weeks at number one and overall 63 weeks on the chart to date; Cry is one of only two of Hill's solo albums to not spend at least 100 weeks on the country charts.

Track listing

Personnel

;Performance credits

;Music credits

;Production credits

;Visual and imagery

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

|+Weekly chart performance for Cry by Faith Hill

! Chart (2002)

! Peak<br />position

|-

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Country Albums (ARIA)

| 2

|-

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"|European Top 100 Albums (Music & Media)

|align="center"|49

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|}

Year end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

|+Year-end chart performance for Cry by Faith Hill

! Chart (2002)

! Position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Country Albums (ARIA)

| 11

|-

! scope="row"|Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 37

|-

! scope="row"|Canadian Country Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 6

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 61

|-

! scope="row"| US Country Albums (Billboard)

| 9

|-

! scope="row"|Worldwide Albums (IFPI)

|27

|-

! Chart (2003)

! Position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Country Albums (ARIA)

| 15

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 36

|-

! scope="row"| US Country Albums (Billboard)

| 5

|-

|}

Decade end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

|+Decade-end chart performance for Cry

!scope="col"| Chart (2000–09)

!scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 179

|-

|}

Certifications and sales

Awards

Grammy Awards

{| class="wikitable" style="width:400px;"

|-

!Year

!Winner

!Category

|-

|rowspan="2"| 2002

|"Cry"

|Best Female Country Vocal Performance

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|}

References

  • Cry at AllMusic