''Footprints'' is the debut studio album by Australian singer

Holly Valance Holly Rachel Candy (; born 11 May 1983), known professionally as Holly Valance, is an Australian actress and singer. Valance began her acting career on the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours'', as Felicity Scully (1999–2002, 2005, 2022). Sh ...

. It was released by

London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...

on 14 October 2002 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Valance worked with a variety of producers on the album, including

Cutfather & Joe Mich Hedin Hansen (born 9 April 1968), known professionally as Cutfather, is a Danish music producer, songwriter, remixer and DJ based in Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, ...

, Julian Gallagher,

Jem Godfrey Jeremy "Jem" Godfrey (born 6 October 1971) is a British music producer, keyboardist and songwriter. In the early 1990s he was a producer at BBC Radio 1, working with many talented producers, before going back to Virgin Radio (where he had had ...

Nellee Hooper Nellee Hooper (born Paul Andrew Hooper on 15 March 1963) is a British record producer, remixer and songwriter known for his work with many major recording artists beginning in the late 1980s. He also debuted as a motion picture music composer w ...

Bill Padley Bill Padley (born March 1961) is a Scottish award-winning record producer and songwriter. He, along with Jem Godfrey, won an Ivor Novello Award on 25 May 2006, for the Christmas number 1 record and best selling single of 2005, "That's My Goal ...

, Richard Stannard, and

Phil Thornalley Philip Thornalley (born 5 January 1960) is an English songwriter-producer who has worked in the music industry since 1978. He is perhaps best known for co-writing (with Scott Cutler and Anne Preven) the song " Torn" (made famous by Natalie Imbr ...

. The album was a success in the

, where the first single "

Kiss Kiss Kiss Kiss may refer to: Books * ''Kiss Kiss'' (book), a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl Music * Kiss Kiss (band), an American indie rock band * "Kiss Kiss" (Chris Brown song) * "Kiss Kiss" (Kim Hyun-joong song) * "Kiss Kiss" (Ladies' ...

" reached the top position on the singles chart. ''Footprints'' peaked at number nine on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, selling over 100,000 copies and being

certified Gold Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. In Valance's home country of Australia, success was similar. ''Footprints'' reached the top fifteen, sold over 35,000 copies, and was later certified Gold. All three of its singles also reached the top 3 on the singles chart. ''Footprints'' was also successful in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, where the album reached number nineteen on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

albums chart and sold 159,606 copies. It was later certified Gold.

Critical reception

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 ...

rated the album three and a half stars out of five. Caroline Sullivan from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' found that Valance's " Kylie impersonation lacks the self-deprecating charm of the original, without which this "project" feels like an ambitious soap starlet chancing her arm. Despite producer

affixing a bit of acoustic gravitas to the likes of "Down Boy," ''Footprints'' quickly comes up against Valance's breathy mediocrity. That said, the burbling "Naughty Girl" makes it clear that Valance's primary purpose is to disturb impressionable men, making the album a triumph in that respect."

Singles

"Kiss Kiss" was the first single released by Valance. The single was released in April 2002 and went straight to No. 1 on the UK and Australian charts. "Down Boy" was the second single. "Naughty Girl" was the third and final single from the album, becoming a Top 3 hit in Australia and Top 20 single in the UK. A fourth and final single, "Tuck Your Shirt In", was scheduled for release in the UK on 10 March 2003; however, the single was cancelled.

Track listing

Notes * signifies additional producer

Personnel

Josh Abrahams Josh Abrahams (born 1968 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian musician who emerged from the underground dance music scene in the early 1990s. He has performed and recorded under the stage name Puretone, and is also known as The ...

– vocal producer, vocal recording *James Banbury – programming *Joe Belmaati –

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

s, programming *

Yak Bondy Yak Bondy (born 8 July 1962 as Jerk Bondy in Goslar, Germany) is a London-based music producer, composer and visual artist. Bondy has been professionally involved in the music industry since the 1980s. After moving from Hannover (Germany) to Lon ...

– programming *

Helen Boulding Helen Boulding (born 1 December 1978) is an English, London-based singer-songwriter, originally from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Her first album, ''New Red Dress'', was released in February 2008. Biography Boulding grew up in Sheffiel ...

– background vocals *

Paul Brady Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland. His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age. Initially popular for playing ...

– mixing assistant *Pete Craigie – mixing * Rob Davis –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Matthew Donaldson – photography *Niklas Flyckt – mixing *Marc Fox –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Julian Gallagher – programming, multi instruments, producer *

– arranger, programming, multi instruments, producer, mixing *

– producer, mixing *Mark Jaimes – guitar *Henrik Jonback – guitar *Anders Kallmark – producer *

Katrina Leskanich Katrina Elizabeth Leskanich ( ; born April 10, 1960) is an American musician and the former lead singer of the pop rock band Katrina and the Waves. Their song " Walking on Sunshine" was an international hit in 1985. In 1997, the band won the ...

– background vocals *David Munday – guitar, keyboards *Sharon Murphy – background vocals *Jonas Ostman – mixing assistant *

– arranger, programming, multi instruments, producer, mixing *Martin Phillipps – keyboards, programming *Karen Ann Poole – background vocals *Johnny Rockstar – beats *Ian Rossiter – assistant engineer * Richard Stannard –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, producer,

beatboxing Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

Fredro Starr Fred Lee Scruggs Jr. (born April 18, 1971), better known by his stage name Fredro Starr, is an American rapper and actor best known as a member of the hardcore rap group Onyx. Fredro Starr was discovered by the late hip hop star Jam Master Jay of ...

– arranger, keyboards, producer *Alvin Sweeney – programming, engineer, mixing *

– guitar, producer *Justin Tresidder – vocal producer *Steve Welton-Jaimes – producer *Nina Woodford – background vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Footprints (Album) 2002 debut albums London Records albums Holly Valance albums Albums produced by Nellee Hooper