Here I Am (Marion Raven album)

Here I Am is the debut solo album by M2M member, Marion Raven, released in mid-2005. Raven co-wrote all of the songs, with several well-known musicians. She played both acoustic and electric guitars as well as the piano and provided background vocals on a number of songs. The album showed her transition from her past M2M pop sound to a dark hard-rock sound. Her musical transition was well received by critics internationally.

Here I Am
Studio album by Marion Raven
Released	June 6, 2005 June 8, 2005 10 August 2005
Recorded	2004-05
Genre	Pop rock Modern rock Post-grunge Hard rock Alternative rock
Length	56:56
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Max Martin Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald Rami
Marion Raven chronology
Here I Am (2005) Heads Will Roll EP (2006)

The album debuted at No. 6 in her native Norway, and No. 1 in Japan and was highly successful in countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Raven went on a tour of Southeast Asian countries to promote the album in late 2005. However, lack of promotion on Atlantic Records part and delays in releasing the album in the U.S. prompted Raven to leave the music company.

The album was released in the United States in 2007, with a different track listing and title, Set Me Free, incorporating new and old songs, including an acoustic version of "Let Me Introduce Myself" and the re-recorded version of "Heads Will Roll," which preceded the album in October 2006, as part of the Heads Will Roll EP.

Raven talked about "13 Days" and other songs on Here I Am in an interview in 2005,

13 Days is about a Danish boy I met. He came and visited me in Norway, at my parent's house; before I got to know him well. He was there for thirteen days. It didn't go well. We had nothing to talk about. He was really boring and I felt as if I was trapped in my own house. And on the day he was going home he wrecked my car. My dad had to come and pick us up. Then he almost missed his flight and since then I haven't heard a word from him. No calls, no emails. I've written three songs about those thirteen days. Three songs about the same guy. I get really pissed when I sing them. I hope he buys my record.

Singles

• "End of Me" was the first single from the album to be released exclusively in Southeast Asia. It peaked at No. 4 on MTV Asia's video hitlist and was a top 10 song in Malaysia and Singapore.
• "Break You" was released in Mexico, Japan, Sweden and Norway. It went No. 1 in Japan and Indonesia and claimed the No. 9 spot in Norway.
• "Here I Am" was the album's title track, and third single, that was only officially released in Norway, around the same time "Break You" was released. It peaked at No. 20 on the official Norwegian charts and reached No. 3 on the TV2 Music Chart. Raven performed the song live in the Nordic Music Awards. The music video of "Here I Am" featured pictures of Raven's grandfather when he was a young man.
• "Little by Little", the fifth track of the album, was released as a radio-only single in Asia.

Track listing

Japan and Scandinavia release track listing

Main track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Get Me Out Of Here"	Marion Raven, Greg Kurstin, Richie Andruska, John Deley, Jamie Siegel	3:30
2.	"Break You"	Max Martin, Dr. Luke	3:11
3.	"Crawl"	Marion Raven, Danielle Brisebois, Jimmy Harry	3:48
4.	"Here I Am"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub	3:49
5.	"Little By Little"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Peter Svensson	4:00
6.	"End of Me"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub	4:29
7.	"13 Days"	Marion Raven, Chantal Kreviazuk, Raine Maida	3:08
8.	"For You I'll Die"	Marion Raven	4:50
9.	"Let Me Introduce Myself"	Marion Raven	3:42
10.	"Heads Will Roll (EP)"	Marion Raven, Nikki Sixx, James Michael	3:16
11.	"At The End Of The Day" (featuring Art Alexakis of Everclear)	Marion Raven, Art Alexakis	4:00
12.	"Six Feet Under"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub	3:26
13.	"Gotta Be Kidding"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Camela Leivert	3:47
14.	"In Spite Of Me"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Alexandra Talomaa	4:16

Bonus Tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
15.	"Surfing The Sun"	Marion Raven, Nikki Sixx, James Michael,	3:51
16.	"There I Said It"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub	3:46

The Japanese release also has a bonus DVD with 'Break You' and 'Here I Am' music videos.

Southeast Asia and Taiwan releases track listing

Main track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"End of Me"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami	4:29
2.	"Here I Am"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub	3:49
3.	"Break You"	Max Martin, Dr. Luke	3:11
4.	"Crawl"	Marion Raven, Danielle Brisebois, Jimmy Harry	3:48
5.	"Little By Little"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Peter Svensson	4:00
6.	"Get Me Out Of Here"	Marion Raven, Greg Kurstin, Richie Andruska, John Deley, Jamie Siegel	3:30
7.	"13 Days"	Marion Raven, Chantal Kreviazuk, Raine Maida	3:08
8.	"For You I'll Die"	Marion Raven	4:50
9.	"Let Me Introduce Myself"	Marion Raven	3:42
10.	"Heads Will Roll (EP)"	Marion Raven, Nikki Sixx, James Michael	3:16
11.	"At The End Of The Day" (featuring Art Alexakis of Everclear)	Marion Raven, Art Alexakis	4:00
12.	"Six Feet Under"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub	3:26
13.	"Gotta Be Kidding"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Camela Leivert	3:47
14.	"In Spite Of Me"	Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Alexandra Talomaa	4:16

• The Here I Am DVD Limited Edition for Taiwan was released in 2006 only. It featured the making of "End Of Me" and the "End Of Me" music video.

Bonus tracks and B-Sides:

1. "Surfing the Sun" (Marion Raven, Nikki Sixx, James Michael) 3:53 *Japanese Bonus Track
2. "There I Said It" (Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami) 3:48 *Single B-Side for Swedish "Break You" and Norwegian "Here I Am" singles

Tracks that did not make it into the final cut of the album were,"Forgot His Name", "Brand New Me", "Disconnected", "Have Mercy", "Bittersweet" and "Gutter". Little is known about these songs, but a track called 'Get Over Me' leaked to the web in 2006.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
ABCNYHETER.no	[2]
The New Paper online	[3]
Melodic.Net	[4]
Play.com	[5]

• The album sold over 135,000 copies in Asia in its first three months.[6]
• On the online version of the Singapore newspaper, The New Paper, music reviewer Seto Nu-Wen wrote, "Her (Raven's) music is more heartfelt than contrived, thus avoiding the commercial trappings of your average teenage punk-rock debut."[7]
• On her "Here I Am" tour across Asia, Japan and Scandinavia, MTV Asia praised Raven on shedding the cuteness of M2M and sporting an assertive voice of vengeful yet positive tunes backed with a strong radio-friendly pop-rock vibe.[8]
• At the end of 2005, Raven's singles "End Of Me" and "Break You" were at No. 54 and No. 69 respectively on MTV Asia's year end top 100 countdown, with "End Of Me" beating songs like "Ghost Of You" (No. 57) and "Misunderstood" (No. 58), by My Chemical Romance and Robbie Williams respectively.[9]

Chart performance

Charts

Chart (2005)	Peak position
Japanese Oricon International Album Chart	1
Singapore Album Chart	3
Malaysia Album Chart	4
Norway Top 40 Albums	6

Credits

• Marion Raven — Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric) , Writer, Piano, Vocals, Vocals (background)
• Allen Kovac — Management
• Max Martin — Guitar, Writer, Producer, Programming, Vocals (background), Engineer, Instrumentation
• Steve Thompson — Arranger, Producer, String Arrangements, Mixing
• Lukasz "Doctor Luke" - Gottwald Instrumentation
• Hans Akeson, Ulrika Frankmar, Elisabeth Arnberg Ranmo, Håkan Roos — Viola
• Art Alexakis — Guitar, Vocals
• Andreas Andersson, Mikael Sjogren, Bo Soderstrom, Martin Stensson, Torbjorn Bernhardsson, Hanna Göran, Svein H. Martinsen — Violin
• Monica Jönsson, Astrid Lindell, Kati Raitinen — Cello
• Tomas Andersson — Guitar, Violin
• Kenny Aronoff — Percussion, Drums
• Richard Nettermalm, Johan Reivén — Drums
• John Degrazio — Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)
• John Deley — Piano, Strings, Keyboards, Programming
• Peter Svensson — Guitar
• Liz Barrett — Art Direction
• P.R. Brown — Design, Photography
• Dana Marasca — Stylist
• Andrew Feigenbaum, Craig Kallman, Craig Rosen — A&R
• Janne Hansson — String Engineer
• Michael Ilbert — Engineer, Digital Editing, Mixing
• Henrik, Ulf — Janson String Arrangements
• Jesse Levy — String Arrangements
• George Marino — Mastering
• Mike Plotnikoff — Engineer, Mixing
• Bryan Russell — Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant
• Jamie Siegel — Programming, Engineer, Pre-Production

References

1. http://marionravenonline.tripod.com/news.html (2004). "June 8th 2004 blog post". http://marionravenonline.tripod.com/news.html. Retrieved 2007-03-31. External link in |publisher= (help)
2. ABCNYHETER.no review
3. "The New Paper online review". Archived from the original on 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
4. Melodic.Net review
5. Play.com review
6. last.fm (2005). ""Here I Am" sold 135,000 copies in 3 months". 3am Music. Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
7. Seto Nu-Wen (2005). "As strange as they seem". newpaper.asia1. Archived from the original on 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
8. MTV Asia (2005). "Marion Raven video showcase". MTV Asia. Archived from the original on 2006-11-25. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
9. MTV Asia (2005). "2005's Top 100 countdown". MTV Pop Inc. Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-04-05.