The High Road (JoJo)

The High Road is JoJo's second studio album that was released on October 17, 2006 by by Da Family Entertainment, Blackground Records, and Universal Motown Records. 
==Tracklisting==
#The Way You Do Me	3:15
#Anything	3:49
#This Time	3:30
#Too Little Too Late	3:39
#Let It Rain	3:56
#The High Road	3:51
#Like That	3:48
#Good Ol'	4:08
#Coming For You	3:31
#Exceptional	3:43
#How To Touch A Girl	4:27
#Note To God	4:27
==Album Background==
After the success of her debut album, JoJo quickly went back in the studio to work on new tracks. While recording her follow-up album, she worked with producers such as Josh Alexander, Beau Dozier, Ryan Leslie, J.R. Rotem, Matthew Gerrard, Soulshock & Karlin, Stargate, Billy Steinberg, Peter Stengaard, Scott Storch, Swizz Beatz, Justin Trugman, and Focus... 
It was reported that over 30 songs were written and recorded for the album, before being narrowed down to the twelve that made the final track listing. 
During an interview, JoJo compared "The High Road" to her previous album by stating: "I recorded my first album when I was 12, and now I'm 15. From age 12 to age 15 is a big jump in a young girl's life. I think with the new album, you can hear the maturity and confidence in my vocals. I'm coming into myself and being more comfortable. All of the songs on the album came out well - the music style is mostly urban like the my first album, but there are some rock elements too."
When asked about the recording process, JoJo stated: "I had finished promoting my first album, then I went to Australia to film Aquamarine", she recalled. "It was a busy time – while I was in Australia, I auditioned via satellite for RV. When I finished with Aquamarine, I came home and started working on the new album. It was mainly recorded in New York, Miami and L.A. We recorded over 30 songs with a lot of different people. [...] I feel that doing 30 songs was fine for the album. Some people would say that's too many to do, and it's costly to record that many songs. But Chris Brown recorded 50 songs for his album, and then he whittled it down and made a great record. When you record a lot of songs, you come up with different styles and ideas."
On the album, JoJo got to work with Diane Warren, whom she had idolised. She recalled the process by saying, "I was very excited to get together with Diane Warren. I love Diane – she's one of my favorite people. We recorded four or five songs together, two of which made the album, 'Exceptional' and 'Note to God.' She's so cool."
==Chart Performance==
"The High Road debuted at #3 the Billboard 200, selling 108,000 copies in its first week. On November 28, 2006 (nearly a month after its release in the U.S.), it was certified Gold by the RIAA. It had also sold 538,000 copies in the U.S. by March of 2007.
The album debuted at #12 on the Canadian Albums Chart, becoming JoJo's first album to enter the top 20 in that country. It was certified gold by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) on January 17, 2007, denoting shipments in excess of 50,000 units.
In the United Kingdom, The High Road debuted at #59 on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number 24 in its third week on the chart.
On June 8, 2007, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it gold for shipping over 100,000 copies.
Elsewhere, the album reached #45 in Japan, #94 in Belgium and #96 in Switzerland.
As of August 2015, "The High Road" had sold three million copies worldwide.
==Critical Reception==
"The High Road" received generally positive reviews from music critics.
Alex Macpherson of The Guardian gave the album a positive 4/5 stars stated that: "Hotshot R&B producers have been roped in: Swizz Beatz' fiery The Way You Do Me, which continues in the vein of his sterling work on the more red-blooded moments of Beyoncé's latest album, is a particular highlight, with JoJo herself proving surprisingly adept at frenzied, sexually possessed hollering. At heart, though, she's an earnest sort of girl, most evident on the supremely melodramatic Note to God, a Diane Warren-penned state-of-the-nation ballad that starts off with JoJo emoting over a solo Wurlitzer and inevitably ends up caught in a storm of crashing chorales. JoJo is, however, at her best when compulsively dissecting emotional situations straight out of high-school movies via the medium of big, heartfelt choruses: the country-tinged Good Ol' is gently, dreamily optimistic, and the wonderfully weepy pinnacle comes with the bleak resignation of Too Little Too Late."
Matt Collar of AllMusic gave the album a positive 4/5 stars stated that: "These are well-written, catchy pop songs with a healthy dose of hip-hop rhythm that serve as solid launching pads for Jojo's superb vocal abilities. It also helps that she's matured just enough so that her somewhat sexy persona makes a bit more sense now than it did in 2004, and she easily sells the cheeky and raw dance-funk of such tracks as "This Time" and "The Way You Do Me." However, it's the blissfully melodic ballads and mid-tempo anthems that make the biggest impression here. Cuts such as the gorgeous and dreamy "Like That" and "Anything," with its unexpectedly hip sampling of Toto's "Africa," make for gleefully enjoyable guilty pleasures. Similarly, "Good Ol'" is the best summer anthem ever to see release in the fall, and "'Comin' for You" smartly borrows some of Kelly Clarkson's rock energy. While Jojo may not be taking a career road less traveled, The High Road does make time for some surprising and memorable pit stops along the way."
In a mixed review, Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times felt that "[n]othing else on The High Road [...] is as great as ['Too Little Too Late']", adding that "JoJo is a teen-pop star with an R&B singer's voice: that means she can outsing much of the competition, but it also means more ballads (the album's second half is infested with them) and more not-quite-credible lovesick lyrics. Still, she knows exactly what to do with a good beat. In 'The Way You Do Me,' she sounds as hyped-up as Swizz Beatz's track. And in 'Anything,' she sings a lovely little song over a sample of the 1982 Toto hit 'Africa.' That's classic rock, if you're a singer of a certain age."
==Promotion==
On September 20, 2006, fans were able to buy from the iTunes Store snippets of three of JoJo's songs from the album, including the songs: "The Way You Do Me", "Let It Rain" and "This Time". 
The three promotional singles were released to raise hype for the album, after the success of the lead single. 
On September 27, 2006, JoJo performed "Too Little Too Late" and "This Time" on MTV's TRL. 
On September 28, 2006, AOL released Sessions@AOL, an exclusive performance from JoJo. During the performance, she performed the singles "Too Little Too Late" and "How to Touch a Girl", as well as two of JoJo's personal favorites, "This Time" and "The Way You Do Me", which had both been released as promotional singles before the album's release.
Though there has not been an official tour, JoJo performed with a live band as part of the Six Flags Starburst Thursday Night Concert series during the summer of 2007. 
During some of these shows she has included medleys of her favorite popular songs from Beyoncé ("Déjà Vu"), Kelly Clarkson ("Since U Been Gone"), SWV, Gnarls Barkley, Jackson 5, Justin Timberlake ("My Love"), Maroon 5, Usher, Carlos Santana, Jill Scott, Michael Jackson, George Benson, Musiq Soulchild, and Amy Winehouse ("Rehab", replacing the title with "Boston").
In November of 2007, JoJo toured in Brasil at the Live Pop Rock Brasil.
Category:2000s albums
Category:Pop
Category:R&B
Category:JoJo albums