''The Constant'' is the debut studio album by English band

I Blame Coco Eliot Paulina Sumner (born 30 July 1990) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. Career I Blame Coco Sumner began writing songs at the age of 15, and signed a multi-record deal with Island Records at age 17. They spent six months writin ...

, released on 1 October 2010 by Island Records. The album spawned four singles: "

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

" (which features Swedish singer

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (born 12 June 1979), known as Robyn (), is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. She arrived on the music scene with her 1995 debut album, ''Robyn Is Here'', which produced two ''Billboard'' Hot 100 t ...

), " Selfmachine", "Quicker" and "In Spirit Golden"; the latter was released digitally on 31 October 2010, one week before the album's UK release date.

Critical reception

''The Constant'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

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, 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 63, based on 11 reviews. Joe Vogel 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 ...

'' praised the album as "a worthy and promising debut", dubbing it "a young album that avoids certain risks .. but there is a vitality and ambition to it that is rare and refreshing for pop music." ''

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 f ...

''s Lucy Jones referred to the album as "a well-crafted and impressive debut" and wrote, "Although the album doesn't quite ignite, Sumner's innate talent shines through." Heather Phares of

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 databa ...

concluded that the album "has enough strong moments to make it a promising debut from a group with plenty of confidence, personality and potential." Ian Gittins of

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found that Sumner "has spectacularly inherited her father's idiosyncratic musicality, with her husky, masculine tones and mannered whoops and yowls illustrating that she has paid close attention to her dad's vocal repertoire." Louisa Emery of '' The Wharf'' expressed that "Coco has created an album that shows she is more than a over privileged kid playing popstar, even if it will do little to shake off her Sumner stigma." Ben Weisz of '' musicOMH'' noted that "''The Constant'' isn't exceptional, but it does demonstrate a sophistication which sets her apart from the

twee pop Twee pop is a subgenre of indie pop that originates from the 1986 '' NME'' compilation '' C86''. Characterised by its simplicity and perceived innocence, some of its defining features are boy–girl harmonies, catchy melodies, and lyrics about lo ...

of some of her rivals." ''

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''s Caroline Sullivan viewed the album as "essentially a mildly promising debut by an artist who can write a tune but not yet with any great distinction." At ''

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 ...

'', Alex Denney described "Caesar" as a "good-ass pop tune", but stated that "for the most part ''The Constant'' boils down to a thin chart gruel, too lumpenly pitched between the Carling Academies and the cattle-grid nightclubs to leave a mark." Neil Condron of '' Clash'' characterised the album as " edictably pristine, ultimately inessential". ''

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 ...

''s Killian Fox argued that "the album ends up feeling oddly flat. We are left with a sense of excitement unfulfilled."

Track listing

Charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Constant, The 2010 debut albums Albums produced by Klas Åhlund Albums produced by Dan Carey (record producer) Albums produced by Samuel Dixon Eliot Sumner albums Island Records albums