Wiki
-
Release Date
2009
-
Length
1 track
3 Words is the debut studio album by English singer Cheryl released on 23 October 2009 by Fascination Records. It is a dance-pop and R&B album that explores a variety of genres including modern pop with elements of '90s throwback music. The album's production is characterised as being "restrained" in its arrangements with heavy beats built over "light piano-style motifs and acoustic guitar elements", according to Mike Diver of the BBC.
Cheryl's first solo performance was on American rapper will.i.am's "Heartbreaker" (2008), on which she sang additional vocals. Following this, it was announced that her former group Girls Aloud would take a break from releasing material, having enjoyed five successful albums and twenty consecutive top-ten singles. In April 2009, the singer started working on solo material in Los Angeles and London, mainly collaborating with will.i.am, who served as executive producer of the album.
The album was released to commercial and critical success. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 125,271 copies in its first week. The album also made appearances on the Irish, Australian and Swiss charts. In the UK the album was certified three times Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry and has since sold 1,000,000 copies in the country alone.
Upon its release, 3 Words received positive reviews from music critics, who commended its production, lyrics and themes. The album spawned three singles—"Fight for This Love", "3 Words (feat. will.i.am) and "Parachute", with the former becoming the fastest-selling single of 2009 in the UK and peaking at number one there, in Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Hungary. 3 Words is Cheryl's most successful album to date.
Thematically 3 Words revolves around the complexities of relationships and love, with the singer singing about finding, winning, embracing and losing love. The album's lyrics follow an autobiographical subtext in which most of the songs deal with her overcoming her tribulations. Andy Gill of The Independent described the album's lyrics as showing that the "path to romantic fulfillment is pock-marked with treachery, uncertainty and secrecy." Lyrics on some of the songs have a "deeper undertow of paranoia" such as "Parachute", "Make Me Cry" and "Don't Talk About This Love", which Gill described as being "a fear that others are bent on destroying her relationship, so 'the less they know, the less they judge'."
Album descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
