''Alpha'' (stylized in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

) is the debut studio album by Canadian singer/songwriter

Charlotte Day Wilson Charlotte Day Wilson (born 1993) is a Canadian contemporary R&B singer-songwriter.

, released on July 9, 2021, via her

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

imprint Stone Woman Music. The album was preceded by three singles: "Take Care of You" featuring

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

singer/producer Syd was released August 13, 2020 with the non-album

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

"Summertime", while follow-up singles "If I Could" and "Keep Moving" were released May 20 and June 11, 2021, respectively.

Background

After a decade in the music industry, ''Alpha'' is Wilson's first full-length album. The album is preceded by three

EPs EPS, EPs or Eps may refer to: Commerce and finance * Earnings per share * Electronic Payment Services, in Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen, China * Express Payment System, in the Philippines Education * Edmonton Public Schools, in Edmonton, Al ...

, the latter two which are commercially available. Like her previous work, all of her tracks are written, produced, and released by Wilson and employ collaborations with fellow Toronto-based artists. This included frequent collaborators

BadBadNotGood BadBadNotGood (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian instrumental band and production team from Toronto, Canada. The group was founded in 2010 by bassist Chester Hansen, keyboardist Matthew Tavares, and drummer Alexander Sowinski. In 2016, they wer ...

and

Daniel Caesar Ashton Dumar Norwill Simmonds (born April 5, 1995), known professionally as Daniel Caesar, is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After independently building a following through the release of two critically acclaimed EPs, ''Praise Break'' (201 ...

as well as

Mustafa Mustafa ( ar, مصطفى , Muṣṭafā) is one of the names of Prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in the Muslim world. Given name Mou ...

and singer Merna Bishouty.

Release and reception

Announced in May 2021, the album was released on July 9, 2021, by Wilson and distributed by

The Orchard The Orchard may refer to: * The Orchard (company), American music and entertainment company * The Orchard (band), Canadian country music duo * ''The Orchard'' (Lizz Wright album), 2008 * ''The Orchard'' (Ra Ra Riot album), 2010 * The Orchard (t ...

. ''Alpha'' received favorable reviews from contemporary music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 79, based on 4 reviews. Reviewers were particularly complimentary of her voice on the album. At ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'', reviewer Dan Van Nguyen noted, "A sense of spiritual power defines much of ''Alpha''... the body of the artist with the bourbon-soaked lounge-singer shimmer now sounds inhabited by the spirit of a transcendent preacher... yet Day Wilson funnels the evangelism into a focus on the self, always looking inward." Chris Taylor at ''The'' ''Line of Best Fit'' said, "There’s no denying the talent on display across the album. Wilson’s voice is a singular one; all at once offering heartache, confusion, hope and growth... Wilson’s harmonies take on an almost choral quality where they had once been a whisper." The album was longlisted for the

2022 Polaris Music Prize The 2022 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 19, 2022. The longlist was announced on June 14, with the shortlist following on July 14. Shortlist Longlist Polaris Heritage Prize Nominees for the Slaigh ...

. The song "Adam Complex" was selected by the

Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian film industry and television industry professionals, most notably through the Canadian Scre ...

to soundtrack the "In Memoriam" segment at the

10th Canadian Screen Awards The 10th Canadian Screen Awards were held on April 10, 2022, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television and digital media production in 2021.Etan Vlessing"Maitreyi Ramakrishnan to Receive Canadian Screen Awards Special Honor" ''The Hollyw ...

in 2022.

Track listing

Adapted from

TIDAL Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * Tidal (album), ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * ...

. {{Track listing , headline = ''Alpha'' (Deluxe) , extra_column = Producer(s) , title12 = Even is the Lie , writer12 = {{hlist, Wilson, Rochon , extra12 = {{hlist, Wilson, Rochon , length12 = 4:06 , title13 = Take Care Of You - Remix , note13 = featuring

King Princess Mikaela Mullaney Straus (born December 19, 1998), known by her stage name King Princess, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician from Brooklyn, New York. She is signed to Mark Ronson's label Zelig Records, an imprint of Columbia Records. ...

Amaarae } Ama Serwah Genfi, known professionally as Amaarae, is a Ghanaian singer known for her work around representation of gender and race in music. After collaborating with local artists and putting out a few non-album singles, she released her debut ...

Meshell Ndegeocello Michelle Lynn Johnson, better known as Meshell Ndegeocello (; born August 29, 1968), is a German-born American singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on so ...

, writer13 = {{hlist, Wilson, Rochon, Bishouty, Ama Serwah Genfi, Meshell Ndegeocello, Mikaela Straus , extra13 = {{hlist, Wilson, Rochon , length13 = 3:34 , total_length = 40:53

References

External links

''Alpha'' on Bandcamp

''Alpha'' on Soundcloud
2021 debut albums Rhythm and blues albums by Canadian artists