Calling All Hearts
Encyclopedia
Calling All Hearts is the fourth studio album
by American R&B singer Keyshia Cole
, released December 21, 2010 in the United States by Geffen Records
. Appearances on the album include Nicki Minaj
, Tank
, Faith Evans
, Timbaland
and Yvonne Cole.
on December 16, 2010. To promote the album, Cole has been interviewed and performed on several shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
, The Mo'Nique Show
, and The Wendy Williams Show
. On December 20, 2010, Cole made an appearance on 106 and Park for an album release celebration and did a special 30-minute performance.
" is the lead single from Calling All Hearts. It was released in the United States for digital download on December 7, 2010. It peaked on the US R&B/Hip-Hop songs at 54. The music video debuted on November 23, 2010 on 106 and Park.
"Long Way Down
" was released as a promo single. The video was released alongside I Ain't Thru and went on to peak at #91 on the Billboard US R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
"Take Me Away
" is the third single. It went for adds at U.S. radio on February 1, 2011. Cole performed the song on Conan on January 19, 2011. It peaked on the US R&B/Hip-Hop songs at 27, and has also peaked at #75 on Canada's Hot 100, still gaining airplay. The music video premiered on April 18, 2011 on 106 and Park.
chart, with first-week sales of 128,000 copies. It also entered at number five on Billboard
s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at number fourteen on its Digital Albums chart. In its second week, the album dropped to number ten on the Billboard 200 and sold 36,600 copies. As of June 2011, the album had sold 300,000 copies in the United States.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 66, based on 4 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Allmusic writer Andy Kellman gave it a gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and commented that the album "drags in spots, due in part to an absence of a "Let It Go"-type track to break up all the introspection and pain", but it is the kind of album "for those who want to hear a moody, emotional outpouring".
Jon Pareles
of The New York Times
viewed that the album had a standard mix of featured artists and producers, but "after an initial bit of competitive posturing... the songs slip into the background". Rolling Stone
s Jonah Weiner gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote that "Cole is at her best when she's slugging". Steve Jones of USA Today
gave the album three out of four stars and commented that "Her passionate vocals still pack a wallop, even though they are no longer fueled by angst".
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American R&B singer Keyshia Cole
Keyshia Cole
Keyshia Myeshia Cole Gibson born October 15, 1981) is an American singer–songwriter and actress. She gained nationwide acclaim when her 2005 debut album, The Way It Is went platinum. Her sophomore album Just Like You went into production shortly after that and was released in September 2007...
, released December 21, 2010 in the United States by Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
. Appearances on the album include Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj , better known by her stage name Nicki Minaj; ), is a Trinidadian-born American recording artist...
, Tank
Tank (singer)
Tank is an American R&B singer, songwriter and producer.-Career:Tank was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and moved with his family as a child to the Washington, D.C. suburb of Clinton, Maryland. He was a multi-sport athlete at Crossland High School and was offered the opportunity to play college...
, Faith Evans
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career with the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B...
, Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
and Yvonne Cole.
Release and promotion
The album was released on December 21, 2010. It was released in two separate editions; the standard edition and the deluxe edition. The deluxe edition has three additional tracks, which are mixed in with the standard edition tracklisting. The standard edition became available to preview on Myspace MusicMyspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
on December 16, 2010. To promote the album, Cole has been interviewed and performed on several shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that initially aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, and resumed production on March 1, 2010. The fourth incarnation of the Tonight Show franchise made its debut on May 25, 1992, three days following Johnny...
, The Mo'Nique Show
The Mo'Nique Show
The Mo'Nique Show is an American talk show hosted by comedienne actress Mo'Nique. Aired on BET, the series began October 5, 2009. She is the first African American woman to host her own late night show. The show's second and final season premiered on Monday, October 4, 2010.On July 18, 2011, BET...
, and The Wendy Williams Show
The Wendy Williams Show
The Wendy Williams Show is a syndicated talk show hosted by Wendy Williams that premiered on July 14, 2008, as six-week sneak peek, in Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York City. The test run was picked up for a full season that began its run on July 13, 2009 in over 70% of the country in...
. On December 20, 2010, Cole made an appearance on 106 and Park for an album release celebration and did a special 30-minute performance.
Singles
"I Ain't ThruI Ain't Thru
"I Ain't Thru" is a song by American singer Keyshia Cole. It features Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj rapping the second verse of the song. Written by Cole, Minaj and Russell Gonzalez, the up-tempo hip hop/R&B song is the lead single taken from Cole's fourth studio album Calling All Hearts...
" is the lead single from Calling All Hearts. It was released in the United States for digital download on December 7, 2010. It peaked on the US R&B/Hip-Hop songs at 54. The music video debuted on November 23, 2010 on 106 and Park.
"Long Way Down
Long Way Down (Keyshia Cole song)
Long Way Down is a promo single by R&B artist Keyshia Cole from her fourth studio album "Calling All Hearts". This single was produced J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. -Song Information:...
" was released as a promo single. The video was released alongside I Ain't Thru and went on to peak at #91 on the Billboard US R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
"Take Me Away
Take Me Away (Keyshia Cole song)
"Take Me Away" is a song recorded by American singer Keyshia Cole. It was produced by Chink Santana and serves as the third single on her fourth studio album Calling All Hearts.-Music Video:The music video was shot and directed by Taj Stansberry...
" is the third single. It went for adds at U.S. radio on February 1, 2011. Cole performed the song on Conan on January 19, 2011. It peaked on the US R&B/Hip-Hop songs at 27, and has also peaked at #75 on Canada's Hot 100, still gaining airplay. The music video premiered on April 18, 2011 on 106 and Park.
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number nine on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, with first-week sales of 128,000 copies. It also entered at number five on Billboard
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at number fourteen on its Digital Albums chart. In its second week, the album dropped to number ten on the Billboard 200 and sold 36,600 copies. As of June 2011, the album had sold 300,000 copies in the United States.
Critical response
Calling All Hearts received mixed to positive reviews from most music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 66, based on 4 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Allmusic writer Andy Kellman gave it a gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and commented that the album "drags in spots, due in part to an absence of a "Let It Go"-type track to break up all the introspection and pain", but it is the kind of album "for those who want to hear a moody, emotional outpouring".
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
viewed that the album had a standard mix of featured artists and producers, but "after an initial bit of competitive posturing... the songs slip into the background". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s Jonah Weiner gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote that "Cole is at her best when she's slugging". Steve Jones of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave the album three out of four stars and commented that "Her passionate vocals still pack a wallop, even though they are no longer fueled by angst".
Track listing
Sample credits- "If I Fall in Love Again" contains samples from "WarningReady to DieReady to Die is the debut album of American rapper The Notorious B.I.G., released September 13, 1994 on Bad Boy Records. The first release on the label, it features production by record producer and Bad Boy founder Sean "Puffy" Combs, Easy Mo Bee, Chucky Thompson, DJ Premier, and Lord Finesse,...
" by The Notorious B.I.G.The Notorious B.I.G.Christopher George Latore Wallace , best known as The Notorious B.I.G., was an American rapper. He was also known as Biggie Smalls , Big Poppa, and The Black Frank White .Wallace was raised in the Brooklyn borough...
. - "Where Would We" contains elements of "Amber DreamsFreetime (album)Freetime is the fifth album by Spyro Gyra released in 1981 . The album hit number 1 on Billboard's jazz albums chart, 29 on the black albums chart, and 41 on the pop albums chart.- Track listing :...
" by Spyro GyraSpyro GyraSpyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band that was originally formed in the mid-1970s in Buffalo, New York, USA. With over 25 albums released and 10 million copies sold, they are among the most prolific as well as commercially successful groups of the genre...
.
Personnel
Credits for Calling All Hearts adapted from Allmusic.- Drew Adams - assistant
- The ARE - producer
- Burt Bacharach - composer
- Matt Bang - engineer
- Jim Beanz - vocal producer
- Big Wy - producer
- Carla Carter - vocals (background)
- Ariel Chobaz - engineer
- Cary Clark - engineer
- Kahron Clement - assistant
- Deron Cole - hair stylist
- Keyshia Cole - A&R, executive producer, vocal producer
- Hal David - composer
- Reginald Dowdley - make-up
- Ron Fair - additional production, executive producer, guitar, producer, string arrangements,
string conductor, vocal producer - Ashley Fox - marketing
- Chris Galland - assistant
- Chris Godbey - engineer, mixing
- Irv Gotti - producer
- Alicia Graham - A&R
- Justin "Justa Beast" Graham - producer
- Bernie Grundman - mastering
- Manny Halley - A&R, executive producer
- Renan Harrigan - keyboards
- Deshawn Hendrickson - keyboards
- Tal Herzberg - engineer, pro-tools
- Ghaz Horani - assistant
- Buffy Hubelbank - A&R
- Eddie Hustle - engineer, producer
- KC Hustle - producer
- Jimmy Jam - instrumentation, producer
- Tiffany Johnson - product manager
- Sly Jordan - vocal producer
- J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League - producer
- Chris Lecky "Lucky" - engineer
- Terry Lewis - producer
- Onika Maraj - composer
- Matt Marrin - mixing
- George McWilliams - art direction, design
- Peter Mokran - mixing
- James Musshorn - assistant
- N8 - producer
- David Nakaji - engineer
- Seanitta Parmer - stylist
- Dave Pensado - mixing
- Bill Pettaway - guitar
- Tresa Sanders - publicity
- Kam Sangha - producer
- Chink Santana - producer
- Allen Sides - engineer
- David Slijper - photography
- Song Dynasty - producer
- Eric Stenman - engineer
- Timbaland - producer
- Kyle Townsend - vocal producer
- Toxic - producer
- Tweek Beats - producer
- Van Nakari - assistant
- Diane Warren - composer
- Eric Weaver - assistant
- Tremaine Williams - drum programming, engineer
- Frank Wolf - engineer
Charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
9 |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
5 |