Light Up the World (Steps album)
| Light Up the World | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Steps | ||||
| Released | 12 November 2012 | |||
| Recorded | August–October 2012 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 34:41 | |||
| Label | Steps Recordings/Warner Music | |||
| Steps chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Light Up the World | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Entertainment Focus | |
| Impact | |
| The Independent | |
| So So Gay | |
| The Yorkshire Times |  |
Light Up the World is the fourth studio album by British pop group Steps. The album was released on 12 November 2012 after it was announced on 24 September 2012. It is the band's first studio album since 2000's Buzz. It is also the first release on Steps' own label, Steps Recordings. Recording sessions began in August 2012, and took place over a period of two months, concluding in October 2012.
The album's promotion included a lead single release, "Light Up the World", an original song, as well as many performances of the single on TV shows including This Morning and QVC; the music video for the song was the performance from This Morning. The album was also supported by album signings across the UK and a 6-date UK tour entitled Christmas with Steps, which was a Christmas themed small theatre tour that used a real band to play many of their hits that they performed as well as songs that the band didn't perform on their Ultimate Tour.
The album has received mixed reviews, with most of the criticism to do with the album's departure from Steps' previous work and how it could alienate the group's fan base. Despite it not being particularly groundbreaking, the album has been highly praised for being technically proficient. The decision to include mostly covers has been questioned, and some of the individual song choices (which are depressing in nature) have baffled some critics, who criticised the new sound as neither reminiscent of Steps nor Christmas. The work is seen by some to mark a new era of the band, i.e. a form of reinvention.
Max Palmer-Geaves of The Courier Online gave the album a positive review, saying: "Steps' Christmas effort evokes classic fireside imagery associated with the festive period, moving away from the neo-disco clichés of their nineties records, the album has a choral feel, more akin to that of latter day Bublé". Palmer-Geaves remarked that the female harmonies left him "overjoyed" and "weak at the knees", and felt the album's "unexpected turn" toward "One Less Bell to Answer" "makes it clear [Steps] are a group with many strings to their bow". He said the title track "harks back to the...[group's] original sound, though it is a more mature take on their powerful ballads" but argued that "When She Loved Me" is "a poorly placed cover as the listener is instantly removed from the winter wonderland that they have been placed in and transported into Toy Story 2". Palmer-Geaves finished the review by saying: "Christmas album or not, Steps are still as relevant as they ever were".
...
Wikipedia