Just Go (album)

{{Music ratings

|MC = (68/100)[http://www.metacritic.com/music/just-go/lionel-richie/critic-reviews Critic reviews at Metacritic]

|rev1 = Allmusic

|rev1score = {{Rating|3|5}}[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r1469184|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic review]

|rev2 = Billboard

|rev2score = (favorable){{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/reviews-album/just-go-1003977773.story |title=Billboard review |magazine=Billboard |accessdate=2013-01-13 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611162827/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/reviews-album/just-go-1003977773.story |archivedate=June 11, 2009 }}

|rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

|rev3score = C+[https://web.archive.org/web/20090515005429/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20278653,00.html Entertainment Weekly review]

|rev4 = The Guardian

|rev4score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite web |title=Lionel Richie: Just Go |date=2007-01-13 |website=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204105201/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jan/13/lionel-richie-just-go |archive-date=2022-02-04 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jan/13/lionel-richie-just-go}}

|rev5 = New York Times

|rev5score = (favorable){{cite news |title=New CDs (Published 2009) |work=The New York Times |date=17 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190301061731/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/arts/music/18choi.html?_r=1 |archive-date=2019-03-01 |url-status=live |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/arts/music/18choi.html?_r=1}}

|rev6 = The Observer

|rev6score = (unfavorable){{cite web |title=CD Review: Lionel Ritchie, Just Go |date=2009-03-15 |website=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328094626/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/mar/14/pop-lionel-ritchie |archive-date=2017-03-28 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/mar/14/pop-lionel-ritchie}}

|rev7 = People

|rev7score = {{Rating|2.5|4}}[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20282009,00.html People review]

|rev8 = The Times

|rev8score = {{Rating|1|5}}[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/cd_reviews/article5882239.ece The Times review] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617002424/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/cd_reviews/article5882239.ece |date=June 17, 2011 }}

|rev9 = Vibe

|rev9score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}

}}

Upon release, Just Go received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 68 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic editor Andy Kellman wrote that "introducing a 60-year-old artist to a younger audience with new material is asking for a lot, but Richie's devoted fanbase will find plenty to like. Just Go, slightly more so than [previous album] Coming Home, tends to be a happy (and comforting) medium between Richie's familiar approach and contemporary R&B." Caroline Sullivan, writing for The Guardian, remarked that Just Go "finds Richie in reliably smooth voice, ruminating placidly about love. Fair enough; that's what he's for, and he's game enough to couch it [...] He's rarely sounded so unruffled. What would it be like if he let go a bit?"

New York Times journalist Nate Chinen felt that while Just Go came across like "a textbook adult-contemporary album, it also lends credible emotional footing to the songs. It's one reason that Mr. Richie doesn't sound out of his element singing on tracks provided by contemporary R&B hit makers, complete with up-to-the-minute production." People critics Chuck Arnold and Joey Bartolomeo wrote that Akon, The-Dream and Stargate "put a fresh but familiar spin on Richie's sound. Still, the old guy falls into a bit of a midtempo rut." Similarly, Entertainment Weekly critic Leah Greenblatt found that Richie's collaborators "may be top dogs on their own territory, but they don't have much on the old tricks of the Commodore-turned-1980s solo star. On his ninth studio album, undifferentiated swaths of midtempo digital groove leave one longing for the (relative) analog authenticity of vintage Lionel."

In the United States, Just Go debuted at number 24 on the US Billboard 200 and number nine on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.{{cite web|first=Keith|last=Caulfield|url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/497329/madonna-debuts-at-no-1-on-billboard-200-lionel-richie-at-no-2|title=Madonna Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200, Lionel Richie at No. 2 |website=Billboard.com|accessdate=November 2, 2020}} It became Richie's fifth top ten entry on the latter chart and sold 95,000 copies in the US. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number 10 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), indicating sales in excess of 60,000 copies.

{{track listing

| extra_column = Producer(s)

| title1 = Forever

| writer1 = {{hlist|Phillip "Taj" Jackson|Mikkel S. Eriksen|Tor Erik Hermansen}}

| extra1 = Stargate

| length1 = 3:19

| title2 = Just Go

| note2 = featuring Akon

| writer2 = {{hlist|Aliaune Thiam|Giorgio Tuinfort}}

| extra2 = {{hlist|Akon|Tuinfort{{ref|a|[a]}}}}

| length2 = 4:11

| title3 = Nothing Left to Give

| note3 = featuring Akon

| writer3 = {{hlist|Thiam|Tuinfort}}

| extra3 = {{hlist|Akon|Tuinfort{{ref|a|[a]}}}}

| length3 = 3:32

| title4 = Forever and a Day

| writer4 = {{hlist|Christopher "Tricky" Stewart|Terius Nash}}

| extra4 = Stewart

| length4 = 4:04

| title5 = I'm Not Okay

| writer5 = {{hlist|Stewart|Nash}}

| extra5 = Stewart

| length5 = 3:28

| title6 = Good Morning

| writer6 = {{hlist|Stewart|Nash|James Button|Corron Cole}}

| extra6 = {{hlist|Stewart|JB & Corron}}

| length6 = 4:06

| title7 = Through My Eyes

| writer7 = {{hlist|Jackson|Eriksen|Hermansen}}

| extra7 = Stargate

| length7 = 4:06

| title8 = I'm in Love

| writer8 = {{hlist|Shaffer Smith|Eriksen|Hermansen}}

| extra8 = {{hlist|Stargate|Ne-Yo{{ref|a|[a]}}}}

| length8 = 4:05

| title9 = Think of You

| writer9 = {{hlist|Jackson|Eriksen|Hermansen}}

|extra9 = {{hlist|Stargate|Martin K.}}

| length9 = 4:12

| title10 = Into You Deep

| writer10 = {{hlist|Stewart|Nash|Sean Hall}}

| extra10 = {{hlist|Stewart|Sean K.}}

| length10 = 5:19

| title11 = Pastime

| writer11 = {{hlist|Johntá Austin|Eriksen|Hermansen|Espen Lind|Amund Bjørklund}}

| extra11 = Stargate

| length11 = 3:52

| title12 = Face in the Crowd

| note12 = with Trijntje Oosterhuis

| writer12 = John Ewbank

| extra12 = {{hlist|Ewbank|Nando Eweg|Clayton Haraba}}

| length12 = 4:21

| title13 = Somewhere in London

| writer13 = {{hlist|Stewart|Nash}}

| extra13 = Stewart

| length13 = 5:05

| title14 = Eternity

| writer14 = Lionel Richie

| extra14 = David Foster

| length14 = 4:37

}}

Notes

• ^{{{note|a|[a]}}} signifies an co-producer

{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United Kingdom|artist=Lionel Richie |title=Just Go|award=Silver|certyear=2009|relyear=2009|accessdate=2017-06-11|refname="bpi"|id=3562-3549-2}}

{{Certification Table Bottom | nosales=true}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Lionel Richie}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2009 albums

Category:Albums produced by Stargate

Category:Albums produced by Tricky Stewart

Category:Lionel Richie albums

Category:Island Records albums