Gypsy Heart (Colbie Caillat album)

Gypsy Heart is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat. It was released on September 30, 2014 by Republic Records. It was produced by American record producer Babyface. It features songwriting collaborations with past co-writer, Jason Reeves, as well as new co-writers and producers Max Martin, Julian Bunetta, and Johan Carlsson. "Try" was released as the first and only single on June 9 to the 16.

Background
Caillat wrote a full-length album in 2013, only to be told by her record company that she needed to find a new sound for her next album. She wrote over 60 songs for the album. In November 2013, she released the song "Hold On" as the intended lead single for the then-upcoming album. However, the song failed to connect with fans as well as hoped, and was ultimately left off the standard release of Gypsy Heart. To change the musical direction of the album, "Try" was selected instead to serve as the lead single for the Gypsy Heart (Side A) EP preceding the full album's release. Caillat describes the single "Try" as a "venting experience" after being told what she could and couldn't do for her own music. "To be told that your work isn't good enough – to do better, to be more like those pop artists out there that dress sexy and use Auto-tune on their voices – to be compared to someone so different, it hurt," she told Billboard. On June 9, she released Gypsy Heart (Side A), which contains the first five songs of the album. She stated to Billboard that she had wanted to release only a few songs because she thought "12 songs [were] too much to listen to at once".

Music and songs
Sonically, the EP is a musical departure from Caillat's previous releases, with a more produced sound. She stated in an interview with Fuse TV that working with new producers helped her "get out of [her] comfort zone". All of the songs on Gypsy Heart (Side A) are more produced than her usual releases, except for "Try". She describes the EP as "a fun new way to put out music", and as a blend of pop, folk, and R&B music. Of her collaboration with Babyface, Caillat says that "he just knows how to make the sound so crisp, and real, and current."

Promotion
Caillat embarked on the "Gypsy Heart Tour" to promote the album in the summer of 2014. The first stop was on July 17, 2014 in Saratoga, California.

Singles
"Hold On" was released originally as lead single on November 19, 2013, though the song was later omitted from the standard version of the album for uncertain reasons and was replaced by "Try" as Gypsy Heart''s lead single. "Hold On" was however included in European versions of the album. "Try" was released as the album's second single worldwide and lead single in the United States on the day of the release of the EP, and a lyric video was released the following day featuring fans, as well as female celebrities such as Hoda Kotb, Miranda Lambert, Sara Bareilles, Katharine McPhee and the members of Fifth Harmony without makeup. "Just Like That" was released as promotional single on September 9.

Critical reception
Gypsy Heart received generally mixed to positive reviews from music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic wrote that Caillat "radiates good vibes so strongly, none of her calculated commercial considerations feels cold. And, as the sleekly modern Gypsy Heart proves, her charms are beguiling no matter her setting," giving the album 3.5 out of 5 stars and highlighted the tracks: "Live It Up", "Blaze", "Try", and "Bigger Love". Serena Weiss from The Ithacan stated that Gypsy Heart "can best be described as charming, with its hints of varying style in each song," and said that "the California singer has rendered a delightful album that will consistently intrigue listeners," while giving the album 3 out of 4 stars. Digital Journal editor Markos Papadatos gave the album even more positive review, said that "Colbie Caillat delivers on her latest album Gypsy Heart. Her songwriting is warm and sincere, and her vocals are gentle and heartfelt," and awarded the album 4.5 out 5 stars.

Kasmin Fernandes, writing for The Times of India, found that "while all the songs grow on you, they lack originality.Colbie has tremendous potential but plays it safe with this. She hasn’t managed to go beyond the usual route that new pop stars are taking. A little more experimentation would have made Gypsy Heart truly something that touches the soul. The production and finish of every song is good, making the album worth hearing... in small doses. On a less positive note, Jamie Parmenter from Renowned for Sound gave a mixed review and said that "despite the often predictable big choruses in most of the songs, the tracks are well thought out and work in their own right, it's just there’s too much unoriginality," and called it a "safe album" in which "Colbie almost seems scared to try something new and different." Magnus Hesse from laut.de summed the album as "soulless, ironed out and purely commercial."

Commercial performance
Gypsy Heart debuted at number 17 on the US Billboard 200 chart in the week of October 18, 2014, with first week sales of 16,000 copies. By October 2016, the album had sold 91,000 copies in the United States.