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Rolling Stone	Archived July 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
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Stylus	(C) link
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Harmonium is the second album by American pop singer-pianist Vanessa Carlton, released by A&M Records in the US on November 9, 2004. Carlton co-wrote some of the album with Stephan Jenkins, her then-boyfriend and the lead singer of Third Eye Blind, who produced the album. Harmonium debuted outside the top 20 on the US Billboard 200, and sales fell considerably short of those of Carlton's debut album, Be Not Nobody (2002). Its only single in the US, "White Houses", was not a top 40 hit; two other singles, "Private Radio" and "Who's to Say", were released only in Asia. The album was a commercial flop, which Carlton attributed to poor promotion, and led to her departure from A&M Records in mid-2005. She toured through the US during 2004 and '05 in support of the album.

Carlton and Jenkins met and began a relationship in mid-2002, when she and rock band Third Eye Blind, of which Jenkins is lead singer, were on tour together. After seeing Carlton perform live, Jenkins entered her dressing room and expressed interest in producing her music, and according to Carlton they "decided very quickly, that we had the same vision for the album". By January 2003, Carlton had written ten songs that she intended to include on the album. "You record more, you write more. I never put a stop to my writing process," she said. Recording of the album was originally scheduled to begin with producer Daniel Lanois after the conclusion of Carlton's 2003 European concert tour, which ended in February, and she wanted Jason Falkner and Nigel Godrich to co-produce the album; she said she believed collaborators would enable her to introduce into her music "tastes and sensibilities" to which she wouldn't normally be open. She originally envisioned the album as a "solo girl" version of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, explaining that it would involve choruses, flutes and trumpets, "and it's just real", she said. She also mentioned her desire "to establish my place with an album that's undeniably me".

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