''Colours'' is the fifth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by English boy band

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

. It was released on 6 March 2015 and marked the band's first release with

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

. The album features six original songs and four cover songs. The album's lead single "King of the World" premiered on 20 January 2015. ''Colours'' debuted at number 13 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

Background and production

Band member

Lee Ryan Lee Ryan (born 17 June 1983) is an English singer, songwriter, and voice actor. He is best known as the lead singer of the boy band Blue. Early life Lee Ryan was born in Chatham, Kent. His parents split up when he was six years old. Ryan most ...

stated that the album was initially set to be a concept album, consisting entirely of covers of songs by artistes who inspired the band during their childhoods and early years in the music industry, including the likes of

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...

. The idea for the album came about during a flight home from the European leg of their ''Roulette'' tour. The band were then contacted by producer

Brian Rawling Brian Rawling is a British record producer and songwriter. He is the managing director of publisher and production company Metrophonic. Rawling has produced singles and albums for artists such as Cher, with whom he won a Grammy in 1999 for his w ...

who invited them to his private studio in Surrey to record with him. Whilst recording some of the covers which the band had selected, Rawling offered the band the chance to write some original material with several of his well-known contacts, including the likes of

Paul Barry Paul James Barry (born 24 February 1952) is an English-born, Australia-based journalist, newsreader and television presenter, known to Australian and British audiences for his television reports and his semi-serious comments on current news, w ...

and Mark Taylor, whom Rawling had previously worked with on material for artists such as

Enrique Iglesias Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican label Fonovisa where he released three Spanish albums ''Enrique Iglesias (album), Enrique ...

. As a result of this, the band wrote seven original songs and thus it was decided that the album would become a combination of the original material as well as four carefully selected covers. The album was later trimmed to include six of the original songs, with "Oh Girl" (which was listed as track 11 on product listings for the album) being subsequently removed. Webbe stated that the track "Flashback" was one of the most poignant songs that the band had ever written, and that it was designed to be a song which everyone could relate to in some way or another. The song was written following a discussion in which the band reminisced about their former heights following the success of ''All Rise'' and ''One Love''. The band took to the road in March and April 2015 on their ''Colours of Blue'' tour, where they perform the entire album live aside from the final track, "Endless Love". They have also updated some of their back catalogue to include elements of the soul-pop genre which appears on ''Colours''.

Commercial performance

The album missed the top 10 in the UK, debuting and peaking at number 13, and subsequently the band were dropped by their record label Sony on 8 April 2015.

Track listing

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Blue (English band) albums Albums produced by Brian Rawling