# Lift Your Spirit

Lift Your Spirit is the third studio album by American musician Aloe Blacc. The album was released on October 25, 2013, through Interscope Records. It was released in the United States on March 11, 2014, and April 7, 2014, in the United Kingdom. The album has charted in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It includes production and co-songwriting from DJ Khalil, Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Theron Feemster and Rock Mafia. Strings for the entire album were arranged and recorded by Daniel "Danny Keyz" Tannenbaum. The album received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 57th Grammy Awards in 2015.

## Background

In an interview with Billboard in the US, Blacc talked about his new album saying, "It's called 'Lift Your Spirit, and I've got production by Pharrell Williams, the Rock Mafia, DJ Khalil - and we're working on making a fantastic album that blends together a lot of different styles of music - sort of the same way we blended dance music and country on 'Wake Me Up!".

## Singles

"Wake Me Up" was released as the lead single from the album on September 30, 2013. The song has charted in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In an interview with Billboard's Keith Caulfield at Sunday's American Music Awards, he revealed that even though the song doesn't officially include him as a featured artist like many electronic music songs, he isn't craving the extra attention, instead hoping it becomes a pleasant surprise for some people down the road, he said, "It's one of those things where it's bittersweet for the fans' sake; I want my fans to know that I'm doing something new" He is credited as a co-writer on the song, having come up with the lyrics on an airplane, he said, "I was thinking to myself, 'My life is a dream. Wake me up when it's over, when I walked into the session with Mike Einziger on guitar and Avicii, Mike was playing his guitar chords and these words... the way I sang them just felt right. We ended up recording it that night and I drove home listening to this acoustic version that Avicii eventually made into a fantastic hit. It's a wonderful experience."
"The Man" was released as the second single from the album on January 21, 2014, in the United States and March 30, 2014, in the United Kingdom. The song peaked at number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the UK Singles Chart. "The Man" interpolates part of Elton John's "Your Song" in the chorus.
"Can You Do This" was released as a single in late 2014. The video features Kaley Cuoco and Kevin Hart.

### Promotional singles

"Lift Your Spirit" was released as the free iTunes Single of the Week for the week of March 11, 2014 in the United States.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 64/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Digital Spy | |
| Exclaim! | 7/10 |
| The Guardian | |
| The Independent | |
| HipHopDX | |
| New York Daily News | |
| The Observer | |
| Popmatters | 6/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
Upon the album's North American release, at Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 13 reviews.

## Commercial performance

On November 8, 2013, the album entered the Austrian Albums Chart at number 43. On November 10, 2013, the album entered the Swiss Albums Chart at number 22; it dropped to number 46 in its second week, number 71 in its third week, then dropped to number 90 in its fourth week. On December 15, 2013, the album re-entered the chart at number 86. The album peaked at number 16 on the German Albums Chart. On December 13, the album re-entered the Austrian Albums Chart at number 60. On March 31, 2014, the album entered the New Zealand Albums Chart at number 10, dropping to number 27 in its second week.

## Release history

| Region | Date | Format | Label |
| Austria | October 25, 2013 | Digital download, CD | Interscope Records |
| Germany | October 25, 2013 | Digital download, CD | Interscope Records |
| Switzerland | October 25, 2013 | Digital download, CD | Interscope Records |
| United States | March 11, 2014 | Digital download, CD | Interscope Records |
| United Kingdom | April 7, 2014 | Digital download, CD | Interscope Records |