| Bed of Stone | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Artist: | Aṣa |
| Cover: | Bed-of-Stone-album.jpg |
| Border: | yes |
| Recorded: | 2013 |
| Length: | 47:17 |
| Label: | Naive Records |
| Prev Title: | Beautiful Imperfection |
| Prev Year: | 2011 |
| Next Title: | Lucid |
| Next Year: | 2019 |
Bed of Stone is the third studio album by Nigerian-French recording artist Aṣa. It was released on 25 August 2014 through Naive Records. Recorded in the East-Sussex area in the UK, the album was co-written and produced by Blair MacKichan, a British producer that has already worked with Sia and Lily Allen. Bed of Stone is, according to the label company an album that goes "right to the heart". It features a folk sound similar to her previous albums Beautiful Imperfection and Aṣa.
Its lead single, "Dead Again" was released in May, 2014, while a clip video has broadcast the same day. The song is the opening track of the record, it is a piano ballad that deals with a bitter love. The album was acclaimed by critics upon release.
Bed of Stone received widespread critical acclaim upon release. Pop Magazine rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, and called it "a full and rounded musical experience," as well as a more "personal" album than Aṣa's previous releases. They also praised the album's musical style, calling it "smooth" and "graceful".[1] Festus Okubor Goziem of 360Submissions also praised Bed of Stone, and deemed it a "masterful, controlled, [and] confident album." They further applauded Aṣa for her vocal delivery, and compared her to Florence and the Machine, Alabama Shakes and The Civil Wars.[2] Bellanaija acclaimed the album, stating that the album was "one of the best albums you would hear this year"; they further praised it by calling it "Grammy-winning music".[3] Udochukwu Ikwuagwu of The Breaking Times gave Bed of Stone another acclaimed review. He rated the album an 8 out of 10, and called it a "near-masterpiece"; Aṣa's vocal delivery and songwriting, as well as the album's production, were particularly acclaimed.[4] Oscar Okeke of Lo Batan gave a positive, albeit more critical, review of the album. Rating the album a B on a scale of A to F, Okeke praised the album's production and its lyrical content, but was more critical of Aṣa's vocal delivery; "Intensified vocals and a surge of instrumentals is what the album needs. It’s called a musical frisson, and Asa could have given us more of it," Okeke said in his review.[5]
| Chart | Peak Position | |
|---|---|---|
| French Albums Chart[6] | 38 | |
| French Physical Albums Chart[7] | 44 | |
| French Digital Albums Chart[8] | 9 | |
| Swiss Albums Chart | 64 |