When rock and The pop A-listers have been in need of a world-class country singer to sing their song for the past few years, which they usually call Chris Stapleton. From his latest album, 2020 Starting from scratch, the 45-year-old traditionalist has duetted with Taylor Swift and Adele, written songs with Santana and collaborated with Tom Morello and Pink. But that doesn't mean he's no longer a country centrist, having worked with everyone from Carly Pearce to Morgan Wallen to Willie Nelson.
Of all his recent celebrity collaborators, Adele feels like the most relevant model Higher, Stapleton's fifth studio album and perhaps the best showcase of the once-in-a-generation singer's voice to date. Like Adele, Stapleton is an R&B wildcard at heart, and like his British contemporary, he's found ways, as his career has progressed, to transcend simple soul bands and take his voice to new places with each successive album. .
There are a few subtle tweaks to the tried-and-true formula Stapleton has perfected with producer Dave Cobb over nearly a decade of record-making: Higher is the first album on which Stapleton has contributed to the writing of every song, and the record marks the co-production debut for his longtime secret weapon (and wife) Morgane Stapleton.
At times, Stapleton's latest feels like a more mature, seasoned sequel to his multi-platinum 2015 debut Traveler: 14 songs, many of them redemptive ballads and cool California country-rock. Stapleton even brought back “Whiskey and You” co-writer Lee Thomas Miller for “The Bottom,” the lament of a destructive alcoholic that found Stapleton back in his wheelhouse singing about Jim Beam's despair. Elsewhere, generous grown-up pronouncements like “The Day I Die” and “Trust” convey a hard-earned peace, full of the kind of middle-aged wisdom the protagonists seek. Traveler they were so desperately seeking.
If this album has its own “Tennessee Whiskey” moment, it comes on “Higher,” a slow-burning stunner that finds Stapleton's voice traversing planets and stars, going from low-pitched croon to roaring falsetto to growling vocals over the course of four minutes. Or there's “White Horse,” his first co-write with Semisonic frontman and (you guessed it) Adele co-writer Dan Wilson: Stapleton sings at full speed for the entire chorus, amplifying the relationship's urgent turmoil for which he sings.
But what Stapleton sings about (repentant drinking, enduring love) has never been more important than way she sings. His voice has always been his primary storytelling device, and it's never been more clear that it's on Higherthe best testament to how one man's voice has become synonymous with the very idea of a musical genre.
