Brave World

Brave World is the fourth album by American artist, Jake Tracey. The album was released on November 23, 2011 by Columbia Records after a three-year musical hiatus after his previous album. This marks a return album for Tracey, and develops a lighter tone. The album uses more pop and rock elements, and it touches on topics facing Tracey's struggle with his nervous breakdown, lost romances, and a new look on life.

The album spawned three successful singles, "Try to Take Me Away", "Have You Ever", and "Video", and it placed #1 on the Billboard 200, making it his second album to do so since ''Highlighted. The album recieved universal acclaim from critics in comparison to The Disturbia Chronicles, ''to those who compliment his mature and strong vocals and most stripped down performances. Critics and fans also consider this album his best. He recieved a Grammy for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album in 2013.

Singles:
 * Have You Ever - September 12, 2011
 * Try To Take Me Away - October 19, 2011
 * Video - January 20, 2012
 * In Love With Someone Else - February 4, 2012

Background
Due to the downfall of Tracey's previous album, The Disturbia Chronicles, the outcome of the album's negative reception and commercial performance, Tracey had majorly suffered from a nervous breakdown. His nervous breakdown was based off the album's performance and his personal life after his break up with singer Sharee Johnasson. As a result of this, he became physically and emotionally distraught. With his family concerned about his volatile and dramatic behavior, Jake had voluntarily decided to threaten to leave the music business and check into rehab. On May 15, 2009, Tracey had checked into the rehabilitation center to recover from his mental and emotional breakdown.

When fans have realized this, people were extremely sadddened by his departure from music, to which people attempted to make a petition for him to return, but he already checked into rehab by then. Tracey had stayed into rehab for a span of 9 months, but refused to work on any solo music after leaving rehab. However, he had been featured in many collaborations during the time, featured in songs such as "Running Away From Here" from the band he mentored, Lov's album, Here We Are. Also he was featured in Kelli Love's album, Colorblind.

However, on June 12, 2010, it was rumored that Tracey had returned back to the studio, which there was not any exact proof. But on August 12, 2010, Tracey had unexpectedly released a new single, "Have You Ever" on YouTube, which received viral acclaim, fans were pleased and considered this a returning point for Jake Tracey. It was confirmed officially that Tracey would be working on his new album, which would be called Brave World.

Recording
When Tracey had began recording for Brave World, he had began working with more varieties of producers, but had wanted to set a new and different tone for his album by making his songs sound much stripped down and intriguing. Meanwhile, Tracey had revealed that he had began working with Ryan Tedder on production and song writing for his album, claiming that Tedder had influenced him to create a new style within his music in comparison to The Disturbia Chronicles.

Lyrics and composition
While deciding to change his style from his past albums, he had decided to contribute to writing songs through topics such as the struggle he faced with his nervous breakdown, lost romance, loneliness and breaking free from hostage. Jake had admitted to wanting to make the album different from his last three album to get fans on his perspective of his troubled life.

Critical reception
The album was met with rave reviews from critics, with a score of 92 out of 100 on Metacritic. Allmusic's Andy Kellman extremely compromised "Tracey's lyrical content and stripped down vocals, and his growth as an artist determines that he has made a major comeback."