''Never Been Better'' is the fourth

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 English recording artist

Olly Murs Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television presenter. He was runner-up on the sixth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2009 and was subsequently signed to RCA Records and Sony Music in the United Kingdom, ...

. It was released through

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

on 21 November 2014 in Ireland and 24 November in the United Kingdom. ''Never Been Better'' peaked at number one 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 ...

making it his third consecutive number one album on the chart. The album has been certified platinum 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 th ...

. The album reached the top-ten in Ireland, the top-twenty in Switzerland, and top-forty positions in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway. ''Never Been Better'' received generally mixed reviews from music critics, some praising Murs' more serious tone, while others felt that the album was unspectacular and safe. On 2 October 2015, Murs announced on his Twitter account that he would release a special edition of ''Never Been Better'' on 20 November 2015 and the first single would be called "Kiss Me". Like ''Right Place Right Time: Special Edition'', this album will feature extra tracks and a tour DVD.

Background

In July 2013, Murs revealed that he had been back in the studio writing and recording new material for his fourth album, due to be released in Summer 2014. In February 2014, it was revealed that work had begun on his fourth studio album. He has been working with

Wayne Hector Wayne Anthony Hector is a British songwriter who is best known for his work with pop artists such as Nicki Minaj, One Direction, the Wanted, Toše Proeski and Olly Murs. He co-wrote seven of Westlife's number one singles, including "World of O ...

Claude Kelly Claude Kelly (born December 27, 1980)Shirley Halperin and Bob Love"THR Names Music's 35 Top Hitmakers,"''The Hollywood Reporter'', February 6, 2013. is an American singer, songwriter and music producer. He is a four-time Grammy Award nominee, a ...

Steve Robson Steve Robson is an English songwriter and record producer who has sold in excess of 138 million records around the world. He has written and produced 12 no 1 UK/US singles, 38 no 1 UK/US albums and a further 41 top 5 UK/US albums and singles. H ...

and

Demi Lovato Demetria Devonne Lovato ( ; born August 20, 1992), known as Demi Lovato, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. After appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), Lovato rose to prominence for pl ...

. On 28 September, Murs announced that the title of the album will be called ''Never Been Better'' and also announced the track list alongside it. The album was released on 24 November 2014.

Singles

" Wrapped Up" was released as the lead single from the album on 16 November 2014. The song peaked at #3 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, which earned Murs another top five single. " Up", which features vocals from

was released as the second single from the album on 4 January 2015. The single peaked at #4 on the UK Singles Chart and has since gone Platinum in the United Kingdom. "

Seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...

" was released as the third single on 27 March 2015. The single made it to the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. " Beautiful to Me" was released as fourth single on 28 May 2015. The song peaked at number 93 in the UK Singles Chart. " Kiss Me" was released as the first single from the reissued special edition of the album on 9 October 2015. "Stevie Knows" was released as the promotional single on 11 December 2015 from the album reissued special edition.

Critical reception

Reviews for ''Never Been Better'' were mixed. Writing for

4music 4Music is a British music television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. The original incarnation was launched on 15 August 2008, and until 29 June 2022, showed a mix of music and entertainment programming. It ...

.com, Jessica Lever gave the album a 4/5 score, while writing for ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', in a 2 out of 5 stars review,

Neil McCormick Neil McCormick (born 31 March 1961) is a British music journalist, author and broadcaster. He has been Chief Music Critic for ''The Daily Telegraph'' since 1996, and presented a music interview show for Vintage TV in the UK, Neil McCormick's Nee ...

wrote: "Unexpected collaborations only expose how ordinary the X Factor runner-up is." Dave Simpson of ''

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 ...

'' was more charitable, and in a 3 of 5 stars review suggested "the acoustic ballad Let Me In (co-written with

Paul Weller Paul John Weller (born John William Weller; 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/ new wave/mod revival band the Jam (1972–1982). He had further success with the blue-eyed soul m ...

) is, by some distance, the best thing here." Less complimentary overall was Shaun Connors in ''Trucking''s regular music reviews, writing (in a 1 of 5 stars review), "Yet another album by yet another X-Factor also-ran... And one that came second to the most forgettable winner of all... I realise it's risking social ostracisation by anybody under 13 for expressing these views, but this is without doubt the most uninspired, tedious collective of pop pap I've heard all year".

Commercial performance

''Never Been Better'' debuted at number one on the

, selling 92,597 copies in its first week. It is Murs's third number one album after ''

In Case You Didn't Know ''In Case You Didn't Know'' is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Olly Murs, released on 25 November 2011, through Epic Records. The album's release was preceded by the number-one singles " Heart Skips a Beat" on 19 August 201 ...

'' in 2011 and '' Right Place Right Time'' in 2012. As of March 2015, the album sold 886,000 copies.

Track listing

Notes

* signifies an additional producer * signifies a vocal producer * signifies Demi Lovato vocal producer * signifies strings producer

''Unwrapped'' EP

''Unwrapped'' is a free live EP exclusive to

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...

. It was released on 12 December 2014.

Personnel

Credits for the album adapted from

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 ...

. *Vern Asbury – bass *John August – assistant engineer, background vocals *Simon Baggs – violin *Tom Barnes – drums, background vocals *Paulette Bayley – violin *Mark Berrow – violin *Chris Bishop – vocal engineer *Duck Blackwell – drum programming *Rachel Bolt – viola *Natalia Bonner – violin *Dan Book – vocal producer *John Bradbury – violin *Sarah Brandwood-spencer – violin *Karl Brazil – drums *Chris Briggs – A&R *Ian Burdge – celli *Gillon Cameron – violin *Paul Cassidy – viola *Emil Chakalov – violin *Simon Clarke – brass arrangement, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone *Ben Collier – programming, string programming *Maegan Cottone – background vocals *Tom Coyne – mastering *Cutfather – producer *Rosie Danvers – cello, string arrangements *Daniel Davidsen – bass, drum programming, guitar, instrumentation, producer, programming *Alison Dods – violin *Ian Dowling – engineer *Jason Elliott – vocal engineer *Jason Evigan – engineer, horn arrangements, instrumentation, producer, programming, vocal producer *Fresh – beat box *Futurecut – additional production *Simon Gardner – brass, trumpet *Paul Gendler – guitar *Serban Ghenea – mixing *Susie Gillis – string contractor *Isobel Griffiths – string contractor *John Hanes – mixing *Mich Hansen – percussion *Peter Hanson – violin *Jacqueline Hartley – violin *Wayne Hector – background vocals *John Heley – celli *Richard Henry – trombone *George Hogg – trumpet *Kiris Houston – bass, guitar, organ, piano *Sally Jackson – violin *Bryony James – cello *Iain James – background vocals *Martin Johnson – engineer, guitars, instrumentation, percussion, piano, producer, programming, background vocals *Magnus Johnston – violin *Beverley Jones – double bass *Joe Kearns – engineer, vocal engineer *Paul Kegg – celli *Pete Kelleher – keyboards *Claude Kelly – background vocals *The Kick Horns – brass *Patrick Kiernan – strings, violin *Ben Kohn – guitar, percussion, background vocals *Boguslaw Kostecki – violin *Jan "Stan" Kybert – engineer *Peter Lale – viola *Oliver Langford – violin *Chris Laws – drums, engineer, mixing *Julian Leaper – violin *Fiona Legget – viola *Anthony Lewis – celli *Vicki Lewis – string contractor *David Liddell – trombone *Ryan Lipman – mixing assistant *Demi Lovato – featured artist *Martin Loveday – celli *Jacob Luttrell – background vocals *Steve Mac – brass arrangement, keyboards, producer, string arrangements *Wil Malone – string arrangements, string conductor *Travie McCoy – featured artist *Jim McLeod – violin *Sam Miller – engineer *Perry Montague-Mason – leader, strings, violin *Kyle Moorman – additional production, engineer, programming *Steve Morris – violin *Olly Murs – primary artist, lead vocals *Everton Nelson – violin *John Newman – background vocals *Serge Nudel – engineer *Emma Owens – viola *Brandon Paddock – additional production, bass, engineer, programming, background vocals *Kerenza Peacock – violin *Daniel Pierce – background vocals *Mike Posner – piano *Luke Potashnick – guitar *Dann Pursey – engineer, mixing assistant, percussion *David "DQ" Quinones – vocal producer *Charles Rees – engineer *Jonathan Rees – violin *Tom Rees-roberts – Brass *Alex Reeve – guitar *Rich Rich III – assistant engineer, vocal editing *Pierre-Luc Rioux – Guitar *Steve Robson – instrumentation, mixing, producer, string arrangements *Jenny Sacha – violin *Tim Sanders – brass arrangement, tenor saxophone *Frank Schaefer – celli *Jamie Scott – piano *Mary Scully – bass, double bass *Nick Seeley – horn arrangements, strings *Jackie Shave – violin *Emlyn Singleton – violin *Chris Stereo:Type – vocal engineer *Nick Taylor – engineer *Ryan Tedder – instrumentation, producer, programming, vocal engineer, background vocals *Issaiah Tejada – assistant engineer *TMS – producer *Christopher Tombling – violin *Tommy D. – producer *Matthew Tryba – assistant engineer *Nick Trygstad – cello *Yu Tsai – photography *Simon Turner – cello *David Venni – photography *Peter Wallevik – drum programming, instrumentation, keyboards, piano, producer, programming, background vocals *Allen Walley – bass, double bass *Leah Weller – background vocals *Paul Weller – guitar, piano, producer, background vocals *Jeremy Wheatley – mixing *Bruce White – viola *Pete Whitfield – transcription, violin *Deborah Widdup – violin *Josh Wilkinson – programming *The Wired Strings – strings *David Woodcock – violin *Chris Worsey – celli *Steve Wright – viola *Noel Zancanella – instrumentation, producer, programming *Joe Zook – mixing

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Never Been Better: Special Edition

''Never Been Better: (Special Edition)'' is a

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or Single (music), single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New aud ...

of the album. It was released on 20 November 2015, through Epic Records and Syco Music. ''Never Been Better'' (Special Edition) features seven new tracks and a DVD, ''Olly Murs: Never Been Better Tour''.

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Olly Murs albums Albums produced by Cutfather Albums produced by Ryan Tedder Syco Music albums Epic Records albums