''Funky Dory'' is the solo debut album by English singer

Rachel Stevens Rachel Lauren Stevens (born 9 April 1978) is an English singer, television personality, actress and businesswoman. She was a member of the pop group S Club 7 between 1999 and 2003. She released her solo debut studio album '' Funky Dory'' in Se ...

. It was released by

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

on 29 September 2003 in the United Kingdom. The album was produced by various record producers, including

Bloodshy & Avant Bloodshy & Avant are a Swedish songwriting and production duo consisting of Christian "Bloodshy" Karlsson and Pontus "Avant" Winnberg. They have worked with many prominent artists, including Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Ms. Dynamite, Madonna, ...

and

Richard X Richard Philips, better known by his stage name Richard X, is a British songwriter and music producer. Gaining attention as a pioneer of the bootleg craze, Richard X has earned success as a producer and remixer. He has helmed hit singles for arti ...

. ''Funky Dory'' received a positive reception from music critics who complimented its surprising diversity, charm and relative depth. It became Stevens' most successful album release, and reached number nine in the United Kingdom, where it was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. On 16 July 2004 the album was re-issued in the United Kingdom, including three new songs, and reached number thirteen 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 ...

Critical reception

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' critic Peter Robinson called ''Funky Dory'' "an excellent album. It's stylish, decadent and temperamental, and it's teeming with melodrama: like a

Geri Halliwell Geraldine Estelle Horner (née Halliwell; born 6 August 1972) is an English singer, songwriter, author, and actress. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls. With over 100 million records ...

album, but not crap. And there's a total absence of desperation. While Halliwell's first album was about killing off Ginger, Stevens is not lumbered with any such task since, despite having spent half a decade as one of pop's biggest names, Rachel had no personality ..Twelve-year-olds will rightly believe they're too old for S Club 8, but they won't be very impressed with the taut New Jill Swing of "I Got the Money", while the steely "Silk" (''

Erotica Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use ...

''-era Madonna with Britney's " I'm a Slave 4 U" verse melody and a sudden, magnificent

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

flourish in the middle eight) is cool and sassy but a massive

Hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the ...

overhaul away from prompting a "Reach"-style amyl nitrate moment down at

G-A-Y G-A-Y is a long-running gay nightclub, based at Heaven in Charing Cross, London. It started in 1976, and for many years was based at the London Astoria. History G-A-Y started in 1976 in the Sundown club in the basement of the London Astoria (l ...

Chart performance

''Funky Dory'' debuted and peaked at number nine on the

. The album was certified silver by the

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with ...

(BPI) after three days and reached gold status on 10 October 2003. It descended from the top-seventy-five after six weeks. The albums re-issue debuted at number thirteen on the UK Albums Chart in 2004, selling 14,600 copies in its first week, becoming the hundred and eightieth best-selling album of 2004 in the UK. Together, both editions have sold over 110,000 copies in the UK.

Track listing

Notes * denotes remixer * denotes additional producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2003 debut albums Rachel Stevens albums Albums produced by Stephen Lipson Albums produced by Bloodshy & Avant Albums produced by Mike Peden 19 Recordings albums Polydor Records albums