''Sing to the Moon'' is the debut studio album by English singer Laura Mvula. It was released on 1 March 2013 by RCA Victor. The album includes the singles "She" and " Green Garden". The album debuted at number nine 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 ...

. It was nominated for the 2013 Mercury Prize. On 11 August 2014, Mvula released an orchestral version of the entire album 'Sing to the Moon' which she recorded at Abbey Road Studios accompanied by the Metropole Orkest.

Inspiration

Sing to the Moon (the inspiration behind the song): In 2013, during an interview with ''

Blues and Soul ''Blues & Soul'' is a British music magazine, established in 1967 by John Abbey. ''The Independent'' has noted ''Blues & Soul'' as being the equal of magazines such as '' NME'' and '' Q''. ''Billboard'' magazine has called ''Blues & Soul'' "a ...

'' magazine, Mvula revealed that the inspiration behind her song ''Sing to the Moon'' came from a biography of the American jazz singer Adelaide Hall titled ''Underneath a Harlem Moon: The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall'' written by Iain Cameron Williams. Quote: Mvula: "Well, the actual song ''Sing to the Moon'' came from a time when I was reading a book called 'Underneath a Harlem Moon', which is a biography of a jazz singer called Adelaide Hall, which is basically all about how she kind of was overlooked, or probably didn’t get the recognition she perhaps deserved. Plus it also talks about how she’d had a hard time growing up because her sister - who she was very close to - had died tragically of an illness... So anyway, there's a point in the story where she describes her close relationship with her father… which I think kind of resonated with me, where she talks about the conversations she had with him and how he used to say to her randomly 'Sing to the moon and the stars will shine'. Which kind of became her thing really that she just took with her everywhere. … And I don't know why, but for some reason it just struck some kind of chord with me - you know, it was just something I seemed to connect with at that time. And so because of that, it then became a saying that I liked to use myself. So yeah, because it's become something I personally like to express, I just thought ''Sing to the Moon'' would also make a good title for the album as a whole."

History

Singles

Several of the album's singles were released before the album came out in March 2013. "She" was released as the lead single from the album on 29 October 2012. It was released both as a standalone single and as part of the ''She'' EP which contained three other songs ("Like the Morning Dew", "Can't Live with the World" and "Jump Right Out"). "She" was re-released on 16 August 2013 as an EP containing a new "2013 Edit" of the song and five other remixes. " Green Garden" was released as the second single from the album on 22 February 2013. The song peaked at number thirty-one 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 ...

. It has also charted in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands. "That's Alright" was released as the third single in March 2013.

Release

''Sing to the Moon'' was released on 1 March 2013 by RCA Victor. The album debuted at number nine on the

with first-week sales of 18,954 copies. The individual song "Sing to the Moon" was sampled by rapper

XXXTentacion Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy (January 23, 1998 – June 18, 2018), known professionally as XXXTentacion, was an American rapper and singer-songwriter. Though a controversial figure due to his widely publicized legal troubles, XXXTentacion ga ...

and used in his song "Vice City".

National Album Day 2019

''Sing to the Moon'' was chosen by critic Lyle Bignon to represent Sounds of the Midlands for National Album Day, 2019, accompanied by an exhibition staged at various Railway stations across the UK. National Album Day – Sounds of the Midlands 2

National Album Day – Sounds of the Midlands 2

Reception

Critical

The album met with a largely positive reception, receiving a perfect score from ''

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 ...

'', and 3.5/5 from ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

''.

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 ...

stated the album is "rooted in decades-old forms of

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, R&B, and, most deeply,

orchestral pop Orchestral pop (sometimes called ork-pop for short) is pop music that has been arranged and performed by a symphonic orchestra. It may also be conflated with the terms symphonic pop or chamber pop. History During the 1960s, pop music on radio a ...

. Almost all of the material is as serious and as refined as it is majestic, with vocal showcases and hushed-belted-hushed-belted dynamics galore."

Commercial

The album debuted at number nine on the

with first-week sales of 18,954 copies. In the United States, the album first entered the R&B Albums chart at No. 19 for chart dated May 4, 2013, and it reached No. 8 on the chart a month later. It also peaked at No. 173 on the Billboard 200. The album has sold 32,000 copies in the US as of April 2016.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

Orchestral version

In March 2014, Mvula re-recorded an orchestral version of her debut album ''Sing to the Moon'' in collaboration with all 52 members of the

Metropole Orchestra The Metropole Orkest (Metropole Orchestra) is a jazz and pop orchestra based in the Netherlands, and is the largest full-time ensemble of its kind in the world. A hybrid orchestra, it is a combination of jazz, big band and symphony orchestra. Com ...

. Conducted by

Jules Buckley Jules Buckley (born 8 January 1980) is an English conductor, composer, and arranger. Personal Buckley was born and grew up in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in the UK. He is the son of Keith Buckley (a doctor) and Joan Buckley, and attended Ayle ...

, the orchestral version of ''Sing to the Moon'' was recorded over two days and saw its release on 23 June 2014 as a high quality download via Bowers & Wilkins' Society of Sound. The album was released to the public on 11 August 2014.

Track listing

Snarky Puppy version

"Sing to the Moon" was reworked and recorded with

Snarky Puppy Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalis ...

for the album '' Family Dinner - Volume 2'' released February 12, 2016.

References

{{Authority control 2013 debut albums Columbia Records albums RCA Records albums Laura Mvula albums Neo soul albums