Come and Get It (Rachel Stevens album)
Come and Get It is the second solo studio album by English singer Rachel Stevens, released on 17 October 2005 by 19 Recordings and Polydor Records. It spawned three singles, two of which reached the top 10, while the album itself reached number 28 on the UK Albums Chart. The album received almost universally positive reviews; two years after the album's release, The Guardian placed it on their "1000 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" list.[11]
Come and Get It | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 17 October 2005 | |||
Recorded | December 2004 – June 2005 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 45:11 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
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Rachel Stevens chronology | ||||
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Singles from Come and Get It | ||||
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Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
BBC.co.uk | |
Londonist | (positive)[3] |
MusicOMH | (positive)[4] |
Stylus Magazine | A-[5] |
Teentoday.co.uk | |
The Daily Telegraph | (negative)[7] |
The Guardian | |
Times Online | |
Yahoo! Music |
Overview
Three singles were released from Come and Get It during 2005; "Negotiate With Love", "So Good" and "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)" as well as an earlier hit, "Some Girls" being included as a late addition. The first two of these charted in the UK at number 10, with the third at number 12. With a television advertising campaign, the album was released by Polydor Records on 17 October 2005, two weeks after the album's final single. Track "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" was announced as the next single in early 2006, with a single mix prepared and promo copies made, but these plans were scrapped.[12]
The album was produced by a number of top record producers, including Xenomania, Richard X, Pascal Gabriel and Jewels and Stone. It reached number 28 in the United Kingdom, remaining of the charts for just two weeks. Come and Get It was not released in many territories outside the UK; in the United States, it was released on 26 June 2007 on iTunes.
The final two tracks, "Every Little Thing" and "Dumb Dumb" are listed on the album as 'bonus tracks', but appear on all versions of the album. "It's All About Me" features a sample from "Lullaby" by The Cure. Stevens herself co-wrote one song from the album; "Funny How".
Critical reception
The album received critical acclaim from the music press. Writing for BBC Music, Talia Kraines wrote that it was "Bold, swaggering and accomplished...Quite simply, it's the pop album of the year." Mention was also made of the credibility of the music, stating that had the songs been done by another artist, they would be "lauded by critics".[13] Allmusic made mention of the album's lack of success saying, "This utterly mediocre [chart] performance (in terms of its genre, at least) is astonishing when you consider that the album was masterminded by the finest songwriters and producers in the game...but its failure becomes utterly mind-boggling when you actually listen to the thing." Of the singles the review said they were "tremendous" and summed up the album as "a collection of 13 thoroughly excellent electronic dance-pop songs".[14] Like many of the reviewers, Ben Hogwood of Music OMH said that almost every song on the album could be a single, but also made mention of the obvious low-involvement of Stevens herself in the making of the music.[15]
Other negative comments included that Stevens' vocals were rather lacklustre and emotionless, while David Cheal of The Telegraph said that "its 13 tracks drift by in a haze of nothingness; it is a masterpiece of insubstantiality."[16] Yahoo Music, like a number of others, claimed the album as "one of the best albums of the year".[17] The Guardian, while two years later lauding the album as an ignored classic, at the time said that it "deserves to be a hit. It is packed with brilliant, cutting-edge pop music".[18] In 2007 they said that its lack of success was "the public's loss". Many reviews commented that the album was a big improvement on her debut, including Londonist who added that it was "a brilliant collection of sophisticated dancefloor songs and quite frankly, one of the most stunning albums of the year."[19] As a summing up, the BBC music review concluded: "Come and Get It is quite simply a pop tour-de-force that deserves to sell a billion copies. Please, don't let this end up as a forgotten classic."
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "So Good" |
| 3:14 | |
2. | "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)" |
|
| 3:26 |
3. | "Crazy Boys" |
| Richard X | 3:52 |
4. | "I Will Be There" |
| Gabriel | 4:03 |
5. | "Negotiate with Love" |
|
| 3:07 |
6. | "It's All About Me" |
| F. T Smith | 3:30 |
7. | "Secret Garden" |
| Douglas | 3:59 |
8. | "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" |
|
| 3:34 |
9. | "Some Girls" |
|
| 3:36 |
10. | "Je M'appelle" |
| LeGassick | 3:39 |
11. | "Funny How" |
|
| 4:14 |
12. | "Every Little Thing" |
|
| 3:45 |
13. | "Dumb Dumb" |
|
| 3:43 |
(*) denotes additional production
Mini-DVD
All bonus footage appears on the DVD edition of Come and Get It.
- "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex"
- "Funky Dory"
- "Some Girls"
- "More, More, More"
- "Negotiate with Love"
- "So Good"
- "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)"
Production credits
- Pascal Gabriel: "So Good", "I Will Be There"
- Jewels and Stone and Rob Davis: "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)", "Every Little Thing"
- Richard X: "Crazy Boys", "Some Girls"
- Anders Wollbeck and Mattias Lindblom: "Negotiate With Love"
- Fraser T Smith: "All About Me"
- Johnny Douglas: "Secret Garden"
- Xenomania: "Nothing Good About This Goodbye", "Funny How"
- Damian LeGassick: "Je M'apelle"
- Brian Higgins: "Funny How"
- David Eriksen: "Dumb Dumb"
- Hannah Robinson: additional production on "So Good"
- Jeremy Wheatley and Brio Taliaferro: additional production on "Nothing Good About This Goodbye"
- Pete Hoffmann: additional production on "Some Girls"
Personnel
- Guitar – Eivind Aarset, Nick Coler, Shawn Lee and James Nisbet
- Keyboards – David Eriksen, Julian Gingell, Brian Higgins, Eliott James, Damian LeGassick, Tim Powell, Paul Statham, Barry Stone and Anders Wollbeck
- Background vocals – David Eriksen, Priscilla Jones Campbell, Hannah Robinson, Barry Stone and Richard X
- Drum programming – David Eriksen and Paul Statham
- Mixing – Adrian Bushby, Tommy D., Pete Hofmann, Tim Powell, Fraser Smith, Jeremy Wheatley and Anders Wollbeck
- Engineering – Francesco Cameli, David Eriksen, Pete Hofmann and Fraser Smith
- Programming – Dave Clews, Julian Gingel, Eliott James, Tim "Rolf" Larcombe, Damian LeGassick, Tim Powell, Paul Statham, Barry Stone, Brio Taliaferro, Damian Taylor and Anders Wollbeck
- Mastering – Dick Beetham and Richard Dowling
- Art direction/design – Paul West
Release history
Region | Date | Label | Format |
---|---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 17 October 2005 | Polydor | CD |
Digital download | |||
United States | 26 June 2007 | Geffen | Digital download |
References
- Allmusic review
- BBC.co.uk review
- "Monday Music Review (On A Tuesday)". Londonist. 18 October 2005.
- http://www.musicomh.com/ MusicOMH review
- review Archived 8 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Teentoday.co.uk review
- "Pop CDs of the week: Dangerdoom, Rachel Stevens, The Cardigans and more". The Daily Telegraph. 15 October 2005.
- Alexis Petridis (14 October 2005). "CD: Rachel Stevens, Come And Get It". The Guardian.
- "Home Page – the TLS". The Times.
- "Yahoo Celebrity UK".
- "1,000 Albums To Hear Before You Die: Artists beginning with S (part 2)". The Guardian. 22 November 2007. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
- "Cancelled! Singles that were scrapped at the last minute". Retrieved 14 May 2018.
- "BBC – Music – Review of Rachel Stevens – Come and Get It". BBC.
- Allmusic – Come and get It review
- Music OMH – Review
- "Pop CDs of the week: Dangerdoom, Rachel Stevens, The Cardigans and more". The Daily Telegraph. 15 October 2005.
- "Yahoo Celebrity UK".
- Alexis Petridis (14 October 2005). "CD: Rachel Stevens, Come And Get It". The Guardian.
- "Monday Music Review (On A Tuesday)". Londonist. 18 October 2005.
- "Rachel Stevens | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 21 September 2016.