''Down to Earth'' is the second
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by Welsh musician
Jem, the follow-up to ''
Finally Woken
''Finally Woken'' is the debut studio album by Welsh singer-songwriter Jem, released initially in the United States on 23 March 2004, with ATO Records.
Critical reception
Announced as America's biggest British female debut artist of 2004. ''R ...
''. The first single, "
It's Amazing", was featured on the soundtrack to the ''
Sex and the City'' movie. The album spawned four singles.
The press release states that Jem co-wrote the album with a variety of people including
Jeff Bass,
Lester Mendez and
Greg Kurstin and sings in Japanese on the track, "Aciiid!". The album also includes a collaboration with South African singer-songwriter and poet-activist
Vusi Mahlasela
Vusi Sidney Mahlasela Ka Zwane (born 1965 in Pretoria, South Africa) is a Sotho South African singer-songwriter.
His music is generally described as "African folk" and he is often dubbed as "The Voice" of South Africa. His work was an inspir ...
on the track "You Will Make It" which was dedicated to the memory of
D12
D12 (an initialism for The Dirty Dozen) was an American hip hop collective from Detroit, Michigan. Formed in 1996, the group achieved mainstream success with its lineup of ''de facto'' leader Eminem, Proof, Bizarre, Mr. Porter, Kuniva and Swift ...
member
Proof
Proof most often refers to:
* Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition
* Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength
Proof may also refer to:
Mathematics and formal logic
* Formal proof, a con ...
. Although the collaboration never happened, Jem wanted to work with Eminem for the song, saying "The track is about losing someone and I wrote it the day after his friend Proof was murdered. I was in Detroit with Eminem's friends, who I happened to be recording with, when it happened".
Critical reception
''Down to Earth'' was met with "mixed or average" reviews from 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 weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release 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 54 based on 7 reviews.
In a review for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, critic reviewer Andrew Leahey wrote: "''Down to Earths title depicts Jem as a grounded musician, but its wide-ranging sound suggests something different, as the singer has yet to find a style that fully suits her capabilities."
Track listing
Personnel
*Hiroko Aoyagi – vocals
*Jeff Atmajian – piano, string arrangements, piano arrangement
*Jeff Bass – bass, guitar, keyboards, producer, drum programming, tracked by
*Kevin Beber – drum programming
*Brian Berryman – engineer, fader engineer
*Mick Bolger – trombone, trumpet, euphonium, mellophonium, E flat cornet
*
Mike Bradford
Michael Bradford (born 1961) is an American musician. A native of Detroit, Michigan he is known mainly as a bass guitarist but also plays guitar and keyboards, and has done extensive work in music production and engineering. Among others, Brad ...
– producer, string arrangements, instrumentation
*Del Casher – sounds
*Bryan Cook – engineer
*Nick Cuchinella – trombone
*
Nabil Elderkin – photography
*Johnny Evans – saxophone
*Serban Ghenea – mixing
*Jem Griffiths – vocals, producer, vocal engineer, poetry reading
*Justin Griffiths – acoustic guitar
*John Hanes – mixing
*Mark Aaron James – design
*Ted Jensen – mastering
*Shinobu Lee – vocals
*David Levita – acoustic guitar, guitar
*Lester Mendez – piano, producer, string arrangements, brass arrangement, instrumentation
*Monica Mendez – sound design
*Milan, Derrick & The Krew – chorus
*Eddie Miller – vocal engineer
*Rafael Padilla – percussion
*Phillip Ramos – studio assistant
*Tim Roberts – mixing assistant
*Ken Robinson – trumpet
*Sonus – strings
*Welsh Choir of Southern California – chorus
*Joe Wohlmuth – engineer
Charts
Release history
Notes
References
{{Authority control
2008 albums
Albums produced by Greg Kurstin
Albums produced by Michael Bradford
ATO Records albums
Jem (singer) albums