''Red Flag'' 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-Canadian girl group
All Saints. It was released on 8 April 2016, 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 ...
, which relaunched especially for the project. It serves as the group's comeback album, their first in nearly a decade, following the release of 2006's ''
Studio 1'', which resulted in them being dropped by
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...
. A string of live performances and touring with the
Backstreet Boys
Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida.
The gr ...
in 2014 sparked interest within the group to reform and record ''Red Flag''. All Saints collaborated with producers
K-Gee
Karl Clive Gordon, known by the stage name K-Gee, is a British DJ, producer, rapper and songwriter and former member of the Outlaw Posse.
Gordon was brought up listening to reggae by his father and was inspired to become a DJ after listenin ...
, Hutch,
The Invisible Men
The Invisible Men is a songwriting and music production trio consisting of Jason Pebworth, George Astasio and Jon Shave. Invisible Men's songs have so far achieved over 7 billion Spotify streams, 30 million record sales worldwide and the trio ...
and Utters for the album.
''Red Flag'' was preceded by the release of "
One Strike" as its
lead single
A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date.
Release s ...
on 23 February 2016. The album received positive reviews from music critics with some even considering it their best work yet. The album was a success in the UK where it debuted at number three on the album chart. To promote ''Red Flag'', All Saints played a headlining gig at London's
KOKO on 4 April 2016 and embarked on their first headlining tour in 15 years, the
Red Flag Tour
The Red Flag Tour was the second headlining concert tour by British girl group All Saints. Supporting their fourth studio album '' Red Flag'' (2016), the tour ran from 6 October 2016 to 18 October 2016. It marked the group's first headlining t ...
, in October 2016.
Background
In 2007, All Saints were dropped by
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...
following lacklustre sales of their third studio album, ''
Studio 1''. Two years later, group member
Melanie Blatt
Melanie Ruth Blatt (born 25 March 1975) is an English singer. She rose to fame in 1997 as a member of the girl group All Saints. The group have gained five number one singles, two multi-platinum albums, two BRIT Awards and have sold over 10 mil ...
declared that All Saints would be "never ever getting back together again".
A limited release of the group's third compilation album, ''
Pure Shores: The Very Best of All Saints'', was commissioned by Music Club Deluxe in September 2010. The group were approached to star in
the second series of ''
The Big Reunion
''The Big Reunion'' is a British reality-documentary series that began airing on ITV2 on 31 January 2013. The show featured chart-topping bands who were big in the UK pop music scene between the 1990s and early 2000s, and the programme followed ...
'', but promptly declined the offer in April 2013. Unexpectedly the following year, All Saints were invited to perform as special guests for five dates of the
Backstreet Boys
Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida.
The gr ...
'
In a World Like This Tour
The In a World Like This Tour (also known as the 20th Anniversary Tour) was the ninth concert tour by American boy band, the Backstreet Boys. Supporting their eighth studio album, ''In a World Like This (2013)'', the tour consisted of over 150 ...
in Ireland and the UK.
Their tour dates ran from 26 March to 5 April 2014. Although All Saints made no money from the tour and funded their sets themselves, they saw it as an opportunity to do what they enjoyed the most and did the least, describing the experience as "refreshing" and "money well spent".
It ultimately sparked interest within the group to pursue a new studio album and full-scale comeback; group member
Natalie Appleton
Natalie Jane Appleton Howlett (born 14 May 1973) is a Canadian singer. She is a member of the British girl group All Saints and the duo Appleton with her younger sister Nicole Appleton.
Appleton joined All Saints in 1996, becoming the fourth ...
explained: "We thought we'd just do it for a laugh, but then we just didn't want it to end. We liked being together. We wanted to be together. I mean we hang out anyway, but we wanted to be together in ''this'' world."
All Saints went on to perform additional gigs 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 ...
,
Manchester Pride
Manchester Pride is a leading charity that campaigns for LGBTQ+ equality across the United Kingdom, predominantly in Greater Manchester. The Charity offers dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, advocacy and outreach activities focus ...
and the
V Festival that year.
The string of live performances were viewed as a triumphant return for the group and prompted much reunion speculation.
A promotional video was shared by All Saints on
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
in June 2015, suggesting an upcoming project and tour.
Similarly, on 1 January 2016, the group posted a promotional image of themselves looking upwards in front of a grey background with the text "2016".
Writing and recording
Writing and recording of ''Red Flag'' began in April 2014 after the In a World Like This Tour.
All Saints decided that they would not pursue a studio album had they not believed in the music they recorded. This was especially important for Blatt who considered the ''Studio 1'' era and Parlophone contract fraudulent.
In an interview for ''
i-D'', group member
Shaznay Lewis
Tricia Marie "Shaznay" Lewis (born 14 October 1975) is an English singer, songwriter and a member of the girl group All Saints. She has co-written most of the group's songs, including number one singles: "Bootie Call", "Pure Shores" and internat ...
said the comeback was about the group's relationship with each other and "nothing to do with the industry, or making money, or selling records".
Unlike with the group's previous albums, ''Red Flag''s recording happened casually and on good terms; Lewis stated it would have been completed "a lot quicker if
he group
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
spent less time joking around while making it".
''Red Flag'' was the first album to be entirely arranged by the group with no record label input.
Prior to its development, Lewis had taken notice of a new producer, Hutch, whose work she loved and saw the album as the ideal opportunity for a collaboration with him. The group also approached other producers including, Utters and
The Invisible Men
The Invisible Men is a songwriting and music production trio consisting of Jason Pebworth, George Astasio and Jon Shave. Invisible Men's songs have so far achieved over 7 billion Spotify streams, 30 million record sales worldwide and the trio ...
, and
K-Gee
Karl Clive Gordon, known by the stage name K-Gee, is a British DJ, producer, rapper and songwriter and former member of the Outlaw Posse.
Gordon was brought up listening to reggae by his father and was inspired to become a DJ after listenin ...
who had produced much of their back catalogue. K-Gee insisted that All Saints worked with other producers before working with him and consequently became the record's executive producer.
The track listing was ordered from the first track the group recorded for the album to the last. A total of 20 songs were recorded with eight later recordings not making the cut.
The group became so involved during the recording and development process that they kept returning for additional sessions and further fine-tuning. Only when the album was complete did they seek investors and a label for the project.
Most tracks on ''Red Flag'' were written by Lewis with themes very personal to the group.
They were written with a significantly more mature perspective than that of the group's previous releases. In an interview for ''
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 w ...
'', Lewis explained: "Because we're old enough to know that hey, life's not perfect, and it's not like: 'I'm in love and nothing bad will ever happen to me …' No. Shit happens."
"
One Strike" was inspired by the breakdown of group member
Nicole Appleton
Nicole Marie Appleton (born 7 December 1974) is a Canadian singer and television presenter. She is a member of the British girl group All Saints and Canadian duo Appleton with her elder sister Natalie Appleton.
Early life
Appleton was born ...
's highly publicised marriage to
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.”
The location of oases has been of critical imp ...
and
Beady Eye
Beady Eye were an English rock band formed in London in 2009 by former Oasis members Liam Gallagher (vocals), Gem Archer (guitar), Andy Bell (guitar), and Chris Sharrock (drums). In 2013, former Kasabian guitarist Jay Mehler joined the band as ...
band member
Liam Gallagher
William John Paul Gallagher (born 21 September 1972) is an English singer and songwriter. He achieved fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis from 1991 to 2009, and later fronted the rock band Beady Eye from 2009 to 2014, before starti ...
. It details Nicole's emotions when it was revealed to her that Gallagher had an affair and was expecting a child with American journalist Liza Ghorbani.
Blatt cited ''Red Flag'' as the group's best output
and her favourite All Saints album and the one she "always wanted
hem
A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...
to make",
while Lewis said it "couldn't feel any more right".
Release
All Saints initially planned to start up their own record label for the release of ''Red Flag'', however, their former label
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 ...
decided to relaunch especially for the project.
On 27 January 2016, the group announced that ''Red Flag'' would be released on 8 April 2016.
Each member took to Twitter the same day to post red flag
emoji
An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversat ...
s. The album was made available for
pre-order
A pre-order is an order placed for an item that has not yet been released. The idea for pre-orders came because people found it hard to get popular items in stores because of their popularity. Companies then had the idea to allow customers to r ...
on 23 February 2016. Signed CDs were made available for pre-order exclusively to
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
.
Promotion
To promote ''Red Flag'', All Saints appeared on ''
Alan Carr: Chatty Man'' for an interview and a performance of "One Strike" on 17 March 2016. The group then played their first headlining show in over a decade at London's
KOKO on 4 April 2016. The show was a critical and commercial success; it received praise from reviewers for ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' and ''
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 ...
'', and tickets sold out in one minute.
The group were scheduled to further promote the album with performances at G-A-Y on 18 April 2016, the
Chipping Norton
Chipping Norton is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the civil parish population as ...
Music Festival on 9 July 2016 and at the V Festival on 20 August 2016. They also embarked on their first headlining tour in 15 years, the
Red Flag Tour
The Red Flag Tour was the second headlining concert tour by British girl group All Saints. Supporting their fourth studio album '' Red Flag'' (2016), the tour ran from 6 October 2016 to 18 October 2016. It marked the group's first headlining t ...
, in support of the album.
Tickets for the tour were first made available on 16 March 2016 through an exclusive fan pre-sale on the group's website for its newsletter subscribers, and then later through Gigsandtours.com on 18 March 2016 at 09:00
BST.
The Red Flag Tour visited 10 British cities throughout October 2016, beginning in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
and ending in
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
.
Singles
"One Strike" was released as the
lead single
A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date.
Release s ...
from ''Red Flag'' mid-week on 23 February 2016.
It bowed at number 198 initially 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 ...
, and re-entered at number 115 after the release of ''Red Flag''. It also received rave reviews from critics.
"One Woman Man" was released as the first promotional single from the album on 18 March 2016, peaking at number 192 on the UK Singles Chart. "This Is a War" followed as the second and final promotional single on 1 April 2016.
Later, "This Is a War" was eventually announced as the album's second single.
On 13 May 2016, a remixes EP was released on the
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
, as well as on
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
.
The music video for the song was released on 8 June 2016.
Reception
Critical response
''Red Flag'' received generally positive reviews from music 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
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 68, based on 9 reviews.
Writing for ''
Q'' magazine,
David Quantick
David Quantick (born 14 May 1961) is an English novelist, comedy writer and critic, who has worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A former freelance writer for the music magazine ''NME'', his writing credits have included '' On the Hour'', '' ...
called it the best album of the group's career, writing, "Unlike previous efforts, which have relied on a standout moment
.. ''Red Flag'' is both consistent and memorable."
Yasmine Shemesh of ''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'' also regarded it as All Saints' best album, noting that it triumphed by being entirely contemporary while still having the group's trademark sound.
Similarly, John Murphy of ''
musicOMH
MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.
History
MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...
'' commended the group's ability to remain contemporary after a decade's absence and considered the album a more genuine follow-up to their 2000 album ''
Saints & Sinners'' than 2006's ''Studio 1''.
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 ...
's Neil Z. Yeung wrote that All Saints grew with confidence and prospered with their harmonizing.
Brennan Carley of ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' magazine deemed it "a mature but still totally floor-ready return",
while Michael Cragg of ''
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 w ...
'' felt it was "expertly judged" and "a sassy and soulful return to form".
Other reviewers were critical of the album's latter half. Leonie Cooper of the ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' noted a large drop in quality after the track "Summer Rain", ultimately calling ''Red Flag'' equally thrilling and disappointing.
While impressed by "One Strike" and "One Woman Man", Harriet Gibsone 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 ...
'' said the album was beset by "rogue energies" and "mellow ballads of varying degrees of schmaltz".
In his review for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'',
Will Hodgkinson
Will Hodgkinson is a journalist and author from London (born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne), England. He is the chief rock and pop critic for ''The Times'' newspaper and contributes to ''Mojo'' magazine. He has written for ''The Guardian'', ''The Indepen ...
wrote that ''Red Flag'' had "some awful filler", but appreciated its genuine musicianship and called it "a far from disgraceful return".
Richard Folland of ''
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
'' found the second half weaker, dismissing its R&B-influenced style as anonymity, but complimented the album's maturity and variety. He concluded that the group's complementary harmonies "can conjure an esoteric kind of pop magic" and that they "can still create a sound which few if any of their peers can match."
''
Digital Spy
Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...
'' placed ''Red Flag'' at number 19 in their list of the 20 best albums of 2016.
Chart performance
''Red Flag'' debuted at number three 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 ...
with first-week sales of 9,298 units, behind
The Lumineers
The Lumineers are an American alternative folk band based in Denver, Colorado. The founding members are Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion, piano). Schultz and Fraites began writing and performing toge ...
' ''
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...
'' and
Adele
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...
's ''
25''. It dropped to number 24 in its second week with sales of 3,056 units.
Track listing
;Notes
*
signifies an additional producer
*
signifies a co-producer
*
signifies a vocal producer
Charts
References
{{Authority control
2016 albums
All Saints (group) albums
London Records albums