''If You Wait'' is the debut studio album by English

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...

band

London Grammar London Grammar are an English indie pop band formed in Nottingham in 2009. The band consists of Hannah Reid, Dan Rothman and Dominic “Dot” Major. Their debut extended play, '' Metal & Dust'', was released in February 2013 by Metal & Dust R ...

, released on 6 September 2013 by Metal & Dust Recordings and Ministry of Sound. Seven singles were released from the album: " Metal & Dust", " Wasting My Young Years", " Strong", " Nightcall", " Hey Now", "Sights" and "If You Wait". The album debuted at number two 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 ...

with first-week sales of 33,130 copies.

Background

After signing with Ministry of Sound and Big Life Management, the band began the first sessions of the album in early 2012 with

Cam Blackwood Cameron "Cam" Blackwood is a British record producer, songwriter and musician. He has previously been employed in various London recording studios including Roundhouse Studios in Farringdon, Miloco Studios, and Townhouse Studios in Chiswick, a ...

. Later that year he was replaced by

Tim Bran Dreadzone are a British electronic music group. They have released eight studio albums, two live albums, and two compilations. Career Dreadzone were formed in London, England in 1993 when ex-Big Audio Dynamite drummer Greg Roberts teamed up ...

and

Roy Kerr Roy Patrick Kerr (; born 16 May 1934) is a New Zealand mathematician who discovered the Kerr geometry, an exact solution to the Einstein field equation of general relativity. His solution models the gravitational field outside an uncharged ...

. Hannah Reid commented on the collaboration, saying, "Tim is amazing at recording, of finding the best way of recording a guitar or my vocal. Roy had the strongest relationship with Dot and they worked on production together."
Russell Dean Stone, London Grammar', BEAT Magazine, 16 October 2013 The album's lyrics are mainly based upon vocalist Hannah Reid's personal life, in particular her troubled teenage years, prompting ''

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 ...

'' to suggest that this was "the first quarter-life-crisis album."

Critical reception

''If You Wait'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, 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 75, based on 19 reviews. Andy Gill of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' summarised the album's production and instrumentation as "all beautifully sketched to evoke the crepuscular intimacies of the songs." A large quantity of praise went to the vocal ability of Reid, whose husky

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...

vocals have been described as "defining and soulful" by '' Clash'' magazine and "emotive" and "folky" by '' Drowned in Sound''. Her voice has been compared to artists like

Florence Welch Florence Leontine Mary Welch (born 28 August 1986) is an English singer, the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the indie rock band Florence and the Machine. The band's debut studio album, ''Lungs'' (2009), topped the UK Albums Chart and wo ...

of Florence and the Machine, Annie Lennox, and

Julee Cruise Julee Ann Cruise (December 1, 1956 – June 9, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress, known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and film director David Lynch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She released fo ...

. Benji Taylor of Pretty Much Amazing wrote a favourable review of the album, calling it "an enthralling, stunning, deeply emotive album that perfectly marries understated electronica to sublime vocals and melodies." Vocalist Hannah Reid's voice was particularly praised: "underscored by an enduring brittle beauty and an underlying otherworldliness, as if she honed her craft singing amidst the gardens of Lothlorien, or some far-flung corner of Westeros."

Commercial performance

''If You Wait'' entered the

at number two, selling 33,130 copies in its first week. As of June 2017, it had sold 642,301 copies in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the album debuted at number 91 on the ''Billboard'' 200 with 4,000 copies sold.

Track listing

All tracks produced by

and

, except where noted.

Notes

* signifies a co-producer

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''If You Wait''.

London Grammar

* Hannah Reid * Daniel Rothman * Dot Major

Additional musicians

– additional programming ; additional keyboards *

– additional programming * Dot Major – additional programming *

Wil Malone Wil Malone (born 1952, in Hornsey, North London) is a British music producer and arranger, who has worked with artists including Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Todd Rundgren, The Verve, Massive Attack, Depeche Mode and Italian rocker Gianna Nannini ...

– string arrangements, string conducting * Tony Stanton – strings preparation *

City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech: ''Filharmonici města Prahy'') is a classical orchestra, predominantly composed of Czech classical, jazz and guest musicians. The history of the orchestra goes back to the Film Symphony Orchestr ...

– strings

Technical

* Tim Bran – production * Roy Kerr – production *

– production * Manon Grandjean – engineering * Ben Siegal – engineering ; vocal recording, piano recording * Jan Holzner – string recording * James Fitzpatrick – orchestra contractor * Kevin "KD" Davis – mixing * Tom Coyne – mastering

Artwork

* Mat Maitland – art direction * Markus Karlsson – art direction * Lee Kirby – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2013 debut albums Albums produced by Emile Haynie Albums produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo Columbia Records albums London Grammar albums Ministry of Sound albums