Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
BBC Music	Mixed
Digital Spy
The Independent	Negative
The Irish Times
London Evening Standard
musicOMH
NME	5/10
The Observer	Fairly negative
Virgin Media
Yahoo! Music

Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree is the debut studio album by English singer and songwriter Diana Vickers. Originally set for a November 2009 release, the album was postponed due to Vickers' leading role in the West End play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and it was finally released on 3 May 2010 in the United Kingdom.

Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree debuted atop the UK Albums Chart, selling 35,951 copies in its first week of release. In August 2010, the album was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). "Once" was released on 19 April 2010 as the lead single from the album, peaking at number one on the UK Singles Chart.

Shortly after being eliminated from The X Factor in 2008, it was announced that Vickers had been signed to RCA Records and that she had begun working on her debut album. Recorded between April 2009 to January 2010, a five-track album sampler was leaked in January 2010. The track "Jumping Into Rivers" had previously been leaked in July 2009. The track listing and artwork was changed a number of times, causing delays. The album title came from a track written by Chris Braide and Vickers called "The Boy Who Murdered Love", about which she later stated:

Basically, I co-wrote a song with Chris Braide called "The Boy Who Murdered Love" and there's a line in there about a tainted cherry tree and I found it very poetic. It painted imagery of the forbidden fruit and Adam and Eve and this boy that's absolutely beautiful and so tempting but so wrong for you!

Braide also collaborated with Vickers on three other tracks, "Me & You", "Four Leaf Clover" and "N.U.M.B", which were recorded at the songwriter-producer's London studio. The debut album saw Vickers work with an array of other writers and producers including Nerina Pallot, Andy Chatterley, Ellie Goulding, Cass Lowe, Savan Kotecha, Alexis Strum, Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion, Guy Sigsworth and Starsmith. Vickers's debut single, "Once", was co-penned by Cathy Dennis and Eg White, and produced and mixed by Mike Spencer. Vickers also collaborated with Gary Lightbody, the frontman of the alternative rock band Snow Patrol. The album contains a cover version of The Sugarcubes' 1992 song "Hit".

...
Wikipedia