All I Want Is You (album)
All I Want Is You | ||||
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Studio album by Miguel | ||||
Released | November 30, 2010 | |||
Genre | R&B, hip hop, neo soul | |||
Length | 42:47 | |||
Label | ByStorm, Jive | |||
Producer | Dre & Vidal, Fisticuffs, Happy Perez, Salaam Remi, State of Emergency | |||
Miguel chronology | ||||
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Singles from All I Want Is You | ||||
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All I Want Is You is the debut studio album by American R&B recording artist Miguel. After signing a record deal with the Jive Records label ByStorm Entertainment in 2007, Miguel recorded the album with producers Dre & Vidal, Fisticuffs, Happy Perez, State of Emergency, and Salaam Remi. It was shelved by Jive for two years after legal issues with Miguel's former production company.
All I Want Is You was eventually released on November 30, 2010, selling poorly at first. With the help of its subsequent singles, the album became sleeper hit on the Billboard 200 and sold 404,000 copies by September 2012. It also received positive reviews; critics found some of the music inconsistent but praised Miguel's singing/songwriting abilities while drawing comparisons to American recording artist Prince. Miguel toured in promotion of the album as a supporting act for the singers Usher and Trey Songz.
Background and music
In 2007, Miguel was signed Jive Records-imprint label ByStorm Entertainment.[1] He subsequently recorded All I Want Is You, but legal issues with his former production company prevented the album from being released for two years.[1] Miguel continued working with various underground acts and writing songs for mainstream recording artists, including Johnson&Jonson, Asher Roth, Jaheim, and Usher.[2] Recording sessions for the album took place at Black Mango Studios in Van Nuys, California, Germano Studios in New York City, Glenwood Studios and Instrument Zoo in Miami, Florida, Studio 609 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and The Gym in Los Angeles, California.[3]
According to Jason Newman from MTV Buzzworthy, All I Want Is You is "a diverse album rooted in R&B and hip-hop, thoughtfully laced with elements of classic rock, funk and electro".[4] Marc Hogan from Spin said it featured neo soul music,[5] while AllMusic critic David Jeffries described it as a "slick" and "sexy" synthesis of influences from Prince, Kanye West, and electro.[6] "Girl Like You" and "Hard Way" feature aggressive hip hop beats, while "Pay Me" and "To the Moon" explore European electronic music and EDM, respectively.[7] The album's first half features two romantic songs, an interlude, a song about a prostitute, and another about a quickie. The closing track "My Piece" uses a "piece"-"peace" homonym.[8] Jeffries said the album featured Miguel's "sly sense of humor".[6] On "Sure Thing", Miguel sang about loyalty in a passionate committed relationship.[7]
Release and reception
"Though its poor initial showing on the charts seemed to affirm [Jive]'s lack of faith in it, the record gradually discovered an audience over the next year thanks to a trickle of ingratiating singles that established Miguel as one of radio’s rarest commodities: a new R&B star. With its splatters of off-kilter funk and mesmeric electro, All I Want Is You teased a unique vision without coloring too far outside the boundaries of popular R&B."
—Evan Rytlewski, The A.V. Club[9]
All I Want Is You was released by Bystorm Entertainment and Jive,[10] on November 30, 2010.[11] It sold poorly at first;[9] in its first week, the album charted at number 109 on the Billboard 200 and sold 11,000 copies in the United States.[12] After falling off the chart for three weeks, it re-entered and climbed the chart for 22 weeks, before peaking at number 37 on May 14, 2011.[13] The album became a sleeper hit,[14] and by September 2012, it had sold 404,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[1]
According to Miguel, Jive marketed him as a "typical R&B artist" during their promotion of All I Want Is You: "That album was a huge learning experience. I left the marketing of my album and me as an artist up to the discretion of the label ... I can't really blame them for [that], because that's what they know. But that's not what my lifestyle was."[1] Four singles were released from the album: the title track "All I Want Is You",[15] "Sure Thing",[10] "Quickie", and "Girls Like You".[16] As the title track gradually received radio airplay, Miguel began touring as a supporting act for Usher and Trey Songz.[1] By May 2011, "All I Want Is You" and "Sure Thing" had reached a combined digital/mobile sales of over 825,000 units.[10]
In a review for About.com, Mark Edward Nero gave All I Want Is You three-and-a-half out of five stars and said Miguel "somehow managed to vocally glide across each" of the different styles he explored in music that was nonetheless rooted in R&B. He deemed the record imperfect but devoid of a poor song.[7] B. Wright from Vibe found the music inconsistent and "schizophrenic" but praised Miguel's singing and songwriting abilities while determining the record was "worth the purchase price".[17] In a three-and-a-half star review, Slant Magazine's Matthew Cole said the second half of songs was "less stimulating" on an album that "blends slick, radio-friendly R&B with Prince-aping theatrics, both refracted around a sense of humor that, surreal and sexually unsubtle, would have to make [Prince] proud". Cole also compared Miguel to singer Kelis, "whose work has an undeniably commercial cunning to it, but who never fails to imbue her pop confections with real personality".[18]
Reviewing All I Want Is You for MSN Music in 2012, Christgau gave it a "B+" and believed Miguel "front-loaded his Prince-channeling debut" with "five hooky tracks" that were "followed by six pleasant tracks and capped by two hooky novelties". He viewed the song "Teach Me" as "a treasure hidden in the middle" and "supplicant's" song, "unprecedented" in "a genre that makes its nut promising untold pleasures". He credited Miguel for "laying out the truth that, as Norman Mailer put it in one of the few useful sex tips in his orgasm-mad canon, 'the man as lover is dependent upon the bounty of the woman.' Who knows what pleases her? She does, she alone, and Miguel craves to be let in on that shifting and enthralling secret." He nonetheless critiqued that the song lacked a first-rate hook that would have made it an R&B classic in the vein of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" and "Use Me" by Bill Withers.[8]
Track listing
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[19]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Sure Thing" | Miguel Pimentel, Jawan Pimentel | Happy Perez | 3:14 |
2. | "All I Want Is You" (featuring J. Cole) | Salaam Remi, Miguel Pimentel, Jermaine Cole | Salaam Remi | 4:55 |
3. | "Girl with the Tattoo (Enter.Lewd)" | Miguel Pimentel | 1:42 | |
4. | "Pay Me" | Miguel Pimentel, Mac Robinson, Brian Warfield | Fisticuffs | 2:57 |
5. | "Quickie" | Miguel Pimentel, Mac Robinson, Brian Warfield | Fisticuffs | 3:46 |
6. | "Girls Like You" | Miguel Pimentel, Mac Robinson, Brian Warfield | Fisticuffs | 3:23 |
7. | "Overload (Enter.Lewd)" | Miguel Pimentel | 0:31 | |
8. | "Hard Way" | Salaam Remi, Miguel Pimentel | Salaam Remi | 3:49 |
9. | "Teach Me" | Miguel Pimentel, Darnley Scantlebury | State Of Emergency | 5:22 |
10. | "Hero" | Miguel Pimentel, Andre Harris, Vidal Davis | Dre & Vidal | 3:47 |
11. | "Vixen" | Miguel Pimentel, Mac Robinson, Brian Warfield | Fisticuffs | 3:01 |
12. | "To the Moon" | Miguel Pimentel, Harry Zelnick, Alex Chiegger, Andre Harris, Vidal Davis | Dre & Vidal | 3:23 |
13. | "My Piece" | Miguel Pimentel, Nathan Perez | Happy Perez | 2:55 |
Personnel
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Charts
Chart (2011) | Peak position |
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U.S. Billboard 200[20] | 37 |
U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums[21] | 9 |
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Lipshutz, Jason (September 21, 2012). "Miguel's 'Kaleidoscope Dream': Inside The R&B Dynamo's Fresh Start". Billboard. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ↑ Jeffries, David. "Miguel". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
- ↑ Miguel - All I Want Is You CD Album. Muze. CD Universe. Retrieved on June 8, 2011.
- ↑ Newman, Jason (May 16, 2011). "MTV PUSH Artist Of The Week: Miguel". MTV Buzzworthy Blog. MTV Networks. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
- ↑ Hogan, Marc (July 26, 2012). "Stream Miguel's Three-Song 'Kaleidoscope Dream: Water Preview'". Spin. New York. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
- 1 2 Jeffries, David. "All I Want Is You - Miguel". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
- 1 2 3 Nero, Mark Edward (November 30, 2010). Miguel - All I Want Is You. About.com. Retrieved on March 17, 2011.
- 1 2 Christgau, Robert (December 28, 2012). "Miguel". MSN Music. Microsoft. Archived from the original on December 28, 2012. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
- 1 2 Rytlewski, Evan (October 9, 2012). "Miguel: Kaleidoscope Dream". The A.V. Club. Chicago. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
- 1 2 3 Jive Label Group (May 9, 2011). Singer/Songwriter Miguel's Hit Single "Sure Thing" No. 1 on the R&B Singles Chart. Press release. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
- ↑ Album Cover + Tracklisting: Miguel – ‘All I Want Is You’. Rap-Up. November 8, 2010. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
- ↑ Concepcion, Mariel (December 8, 2010). Soulja Boy, Flo Rida Flop On Billboard Album Chart. Billboard. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
- ↑ Ramirez, Erika (June 10, 2011). "Chart Juice: Miguel Describes His Sound & Announces Next Singles". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
- ↑ "Q&A: Miguel". Soul Train. March 24, 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
- ↑ All I Want Is You: Miguel featuring J.Cole: MP3 Downloads. Amazon.com. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
- ↑ Muhammad, Latifah (July 1, 2011). Miguel to Release Two New Singles Simultaneously. TheBoombox. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
- ↑ Wright, B. (December 7, 2010). Review: Miguel's 'All I Want Is You'. Vibe. Retrieved on March 17, 2011.
- ↑ Cole, Matthew (December 3, 2010). Miguel: All I Want Is You | Music Review. Slant Magazine. Retrieved on March 17, 2011.
- ↑ Anon. (2010). All I Want Is You (CD liner notes). Miguel. Jive Records, ByStorm Entertainment. 88697-75487-2.
- ↑ Miguel Album & Song Chart History – Billboard 200. Billboard. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
- ↑ Miguel Album & Song Chart History – R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Billboard. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.