FanMail
| FanMail | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by TLC | ||||
| Released | February 23, 1999 | |||
| Recorded | April–December 1998 | |||
| Studio |
Various
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| Genre | ||||
| Length | 63:31 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
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| TLC chronology | ||||
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| Singles from FanMail | ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Entertainment Weekly | B− |
| Robert Christgau |  |
| Muzik | |
| NME | 8/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone |  |
| Spin | 6/10 |
FanMail is the third studio album by American girl group TLC, released on February 23, 1999 by LaFace Records and Arista Records. The title of the album is a tribute to their fans who sent them fan mail during their hiatus. FanMail debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling approximately 318,000 copies in its first week of release, and spent five weeks at number one.
The album received eight nominations at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, including one for Album of the Year, and won three. As of 2000, the album has been certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. FanMail is TLC's second best-selling album after 1994's CrazySexyCool.
After a hiatus following the members of TLC filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 3, 1995, TLC eventually entered recording studios in April 1998 to start work on their then-untitled third album with producer Dallas Austin. While Austin contributed most to the album and served as its executive producer, TLC also worked with long-term producers Babyface and L.A. Reid, as well as Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The album was scheduled for release on November 10, 1998 but was pushed back to February 23, 1999.
The album took on a new world, futuristic style, which was highly popular throughout the late 1990s to early 2000s. This style was effectively portrayed in the album's most popular song "No Scrubs", along with the music video, which embraces a modern emphasis on female strength and independence. The album also featured a custom font design, cover art with decode-able binary code, along with pictures of the group members in metallic skin tones. The album's CD insert folds out to form a large poster featuring a picture of TLC and the names of thousands of people who sent them fan mail along their career. A limited edition of the album was released, and had an insert with a lenticular version of the cover placed in front of the original booklet in the jewel case. The album contained several tracks featuring vocals by the computer modulated voice Vic-E (Vikki), a talking android later featured in the FanMail Tour.
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