Heroes and Thieves
| Heroes & Thieves | ||||
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| Studio album by Vanessa Carlton | ||||
| Released | October 9, 2007 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Label | The Inc., Universal Motown | |||
| Producer | Irv Gotti, Linda Perry, Stephan Jenkins | |||
| Vanessa Carlton chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Heroes & Thieves | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 79/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Billboard | |
| Blender | |
| The Boston Globe | Positive |
| Entertainment Weekly | B |
| PopMatters | 8/10 |
| Slant Magazine | |
Heroes & Thieves is the third album by Vanessa Carlton, released by The Inc. Records on October 9, 2007. It is co-produced by Irv Gotti, Linda Perry and Third Eye Blind lead singer Stephan Jenkins, who produced Carlton's second album, Harmonium (2004), and Carlton co-wrote the tracks with Perry and Jenkins. It is Carlton's first album on The Inc. Records, after Irv Gotti signed her to a record deal there in late 2006, and Gotti has said that Heroes & Thieves is the first album on which he is acting as "co-pilot" rather than "dictator".
The album itself was a commercial failure, becoming her first not to enter the Top 40 of the Billboard 200, selling just over 18,000 copies in its first week of release. As of 2011, the album has sold approximately 75,000 copies in the United States. Due to its commercial failure, the album only spawned two singles. The first, Nolita Fairytale, was a minor success for Carlton, having some radio success in the United States. The follow-up single, "Hands On Me", was more successful, reaching the Top 40 in Australia, as well as becoming her first song in five years to chart in New Zealand. Although it was a commercial failure in the US, it did receive minimal airplay on mainstream radio.
Despite minimal chart success, the album was a critical success, becoming Carlton's highest rated album on Metacritic, with a 79% approval rate. Allmusic awarded the album three and a half stars, while PopMatters rated the album an eight out of a possible ten. USA Today also praised the album, awarding it three out of four stars. Slant Magazine awarded the album three out of five stars, and the Philadelphia Daily News rated the album at a "B".
In January 2005, two months after the release of Harmonium, Carlton co-wrote three songs with production team The Matrix: "It's Now", "Summer Child" (alternatively titled "Tuesday") and "Underneath". In May 2005, in a post on her official site's forum, Carlton said to her fans that she would be releasing a third album in 2006, although she added "most people will know it as my second!" because of a perceived lack of commitment to Harmonium at her then-current label, A&M Records. During her Harmonium tour, Carlton debuted three new songs in June 2005 at The Living Room in New York City: "Put Your Hands on Me", "This Time" (co-written with Linda Perry) and "The One". (For the release of the album, the title of "Put Your Hands on Me" was shortened to "Hands on Me" because Joss Stone has a song with the original title on her 2007 album, Introducing Joss Stone.) When on tour with rock singer Stevie Nicks in 2005 and 2006, Carlton premiered the songs "Best Behavior" and "All Is Well". (Nicks recorded backing vocals for the track "The One".)
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