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 (magazine)|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.