Light After Dark
| Light After Dark | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Clare Maguire | ||||
| Released | 28 February 2011 | |||
| Recorded | 2008 – 2010 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 45:15 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer |
|
|||
| Clare Maguire chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Light After Dark | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| BBC Music | (negative) |
| The Daily Telegraph |   |
| Drowned in Sound | (3/10) |
| Evening Standard | |
| The Guardian | |
| The Independent | |
| The Irish Times | |
| NME | (2/10) |
| The Observer | (mixed) |
| Q Magazine | |
| So So Gay | |
| Yahoo! Music | (5/10) |
Light After Dark is the debut album by British singer-songwriter Clare Maguire which went in at number 7 in the UK Albums Chart. "Ain't Nobody" was released as the first single from the album on 18 October 2010, followed by "The Last Dance", which was released on 20 February 2011. "The Shield and the Sword" was released as the third and final single to be released from the album on 9 May 2011. All three of the released singles have accompanying music videos, featured on Maguire's YouTube VEVO account, each produced and directed by their own respected creators.
For Light After Dark, Maguire wrote all the tracks in collaboration with Fraser T Smith, who also produced all tracks on the album, with the exception of "Freedom", which was produced by German producer Crada and songwriting team Paralle, and the iTunes pre-order track "Burn", which was produced by Starsmith. Maguire has stated in interviews that she felt it was extremely important that the strings and drums in her songs were all recorded live, and this was a big element of her first album.
The artwork premiered on Maguire's Facebook page on 7 February 2011. She announced the artwork was shot by photographer Aitken Jolly. It features a facial shot of Maguire, looking into the camera while placing her hair behind her ear. The title of the album is laid in white text on Maguire's hair, giving a contrast of the jet black hair and the white font.
Light After Dark received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic the album received an average score of 50 out of 100 based on 12 critical reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews", while Aggregating website AnyDecentMusic? reports a score of 4.7 based on fifteen professional reviews. John Aizlewood, writing for Q magazine, compliments Clare's vocals on the album, believing them to be "a rich, deep, anguished rumble, hewn from the very depths of her stomach", and notes the album is "not short of songs" either. Bryan Boyd of The Irish Times noticed that Maguire "eschews r’n’b tics and hip-hop inflections to marry a classic 1960s Dusty-style vocal with modern studio trimmings" and felt that the album "is coming down with elegance, style and promise". Andrew Perry, of The Daily Telegraph wrote that "contrary to the advance hype, Maguire [...] is hardly the new Kate Bush, rather a flat-out belter of the Adele/Florence school, surrounded variously by daft orchestral sturm-und-drang and flimsy ProTools disco/house", and awarded the album three out of five stars. David Smyth of the Evening Standard wrote that Maguire's "sound is grandiose, ever-so-slightly Gothic and frequently overwrought" and noticed that "she's in possession of a few fine pop tunes", but "the spectre of Susan Boyle rears its head when she tones down the backdrop". Ally Carnwath from The Observer praised her voice but felt that "the songs themselves – a box-checking collection of commercial belters – do her few favours" and criticized the "over-egged production". Jaime Gill of Yahoo! Music called the album "blustering and oddly emotionally lacking", however he felt that it "has some redeeming features" such as "Maguire's blowy, showy voice". Leo Kristofferson of So So Gay said "There are moments in the album where you can not fail to hear faint echoes of the amazing female talent that has gone before her. However, to claim that she is simply imitating the style of others would be to underestimate the sheer power of the songwriting, production and vocal talent on display here.".
...
Wikipedia