Glassheart
Glassheart is the third studio album by English singer Leona Lewis, released on 12 October 2012 by Syco Music. Glassheart was conceived in 2010 shortly after the completion of Lewis' first headline tour, The Labyrinth. Recording and production took place in Denver, Los Angeles and London; originally the album was due for release in November 2011 but was pushed back several times to accommodate new [|recording sessions] and allow more creative time. The album was the first – and so far only – of Lewis' albums not released in North America.
On Glassheart, Lewis reunites with Ryan Tedder, record producer of her previous singles "Bleeding Love" and "Happy" and songwriter Andrea Martin who co-wrote "Better in Time", in addition to a number of new collaborators such as British duo Naughty Boy and Emeli Sandé, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and DJ Frank E. Producer Fraser T Smith executive produced the album after impressing Lewis with his work on Hurt: The EP, a cover song extended play that Lewis released to bridge the gap between Echo and Glassheart.
"Collide", a collaboration with house music DJ Avicii, was released on 2 September 2011. Originally a song by just Lewis, Avicii sued Sony Music claiming that the song plagiarised his own instrumental "Penguin". Through mutual agreement it was released as a collaboration, becoming a top-five hit in the UK and Lewis' first to top the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. The Afrojack remix of "Collide" is the only version to feature on Glassheart. Subsequent singles "Trouble" featuring American rapper Childish Gambino and "Lovebird" were less successful, the former reaching the top ten in the UK and top thirty in Ireland, while the latter sold fewer than 600 copies in the UK and failed to chart anywhere in Europe.
Glassheart received a mixed reception from critics, who praised the vocals and experimental use of dubstep and electronic music but were less impressed with the album's many ballads. In the UK, the album was Lewis' first album not to reach number one, debuting at number three with 27,000 copies in its first week. Elsewhere the album became Lewis' third top-five album in Ireland, and upon its international release in November 2012, reached the top thirty in some of continental Europe. Following a 2013 release for Austria and Germany, Glassheart peaked at number five and six respectively, outperforming previous album Echo. In April 2013, Lewis embarked on the Glassheart Tour, in support of the album, visiting Switzerland, Germany and the UK.
Background and release
Lewis completed her first headline tour The Labyrinth in July 2010 and soon after began making plans for her then-untitled third album. Recording and production officially began in late 2010 with a view to releasing the album in November 2011. Originally "Collide", a collaboration with Swedish DJ Avicii, was released in August 2011, with the album to follow in November. However, Lewis was inspired to continue making music and used her Facebook account to announce that the album was being pushed back into early 2012. 26 March 2012 was confirmed as the new release date for Glassheart. To bridge the gap between Echo and Glassheart, Lewis teamed with British producer Fraser T Smith to record Hurt: The EP, an extended play of cover songs that was released in December. In January 2012, Lewis announced that the album was being pushed back again, this time to November 2012. During an interview with Digital Spy, Lewis confirmed that she had recorded with Scottish DJ Calvin Harris and that Smith had been brought on board to help with production. In April 2012, in an interview at the Ariella Couture fashion show, Lewis stated, "I'm now planning to have the album out in the summer . Simon Cowell has heard some of the tracks and he loves it". Cowell would later publicly offer his support, declaring to Lewis that although there had been a wait of two years for new music, "I think this new album is sensational, you've never sounded better."On 21 June 2012, Smith spoke to Music Week about Glassheart being released on 26 November 2012. Scrapping many of the earlier recorded tracks, Smith said he was "taking a production role for the whole album as well as co-authoring about half its tracks". Lewis would later talk of the album's delay and Smith's involvement, describing the original release dates as rough guides. Following Lewis' performance at BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend, Smith revealed that the album was 80% complete, "We've got the key tracks and we're very close." Describing the process as a stark contrast to previous albums Spirit and Echo, Smith said that when you work with many producers "you end up with maybe two or three radio songs and not necessarily the album sales you want." Lewis spoke to reporters back stage after the performance, revealing that the album had been brought forward a month to October 2012. By the time July had come around, Smith updated fans to say that the album was now 97% complete.
At the end of August, Lewis began selecting the track listing and approving the final audio mixes and masters of the songs. On 5 September 2012, Lewis used Twitter to communicate with Smith and inform him that she was approaching the end of listening to all the final mixes. Lewis unveiled the final track listing for the standard edition on 9 September, naming twelve songs, but excluding the album's first single "Collide". Smith confirmed that the final decisions had been made and that the album was 100% complete on 10 September. A two-disc deluxe edition was to be released alongside the standard version as per a Lewis question and answer session with fans. Thirty-second snippets of each song were released on 5 October. The album itself was released on 12 October in Ireland and 15 October in the United Kingdom.
Recording sessions
Among the first people to work with Lewis was her frequent collaborator Ryan Tedder who penned and produced multiple songs both on Spirit and Echo. The album is named after "Glassheart", a song recorded in sessions with Tedder in Denver, Colorado, when Lewis asked for a song that she could "dance and jump around ". The song's other co-writers were Noel Zancanella and OneRepublic guitarist Brent Kutzle. Kutzle, Zancanella and Tedder worked with Lewis on another song called "Burn". A snippet of "Burn" was used during an interview with Clive Davis which aired on 23 October 2011. Davis headed Lewis' former US label J Records before joining RCA Records when the former was folded. Davis had previously played a part in the A&R division for Lewis' albums. The CBS interview titled Clive "The Music Man" Davis – Interview showed Davis talking about Lewis branching out to work with American producers, and about previewing songs before they were presented to Lewis. However, when the track listing for the album was unveiled, "Burn" was omitted in favour of another Zancanlla/Lewis/Tedder track, recorded with Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, titled "Favourite Scar". "Burn" would later be recorded by British singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding for Halcyon Days, the re-release of her second album Halcyon.File:Tinie Tempah Toronto 2011.jpg|thumb|right|125px|British hip hop artist Tinie Tempah originally approached Lewis to record "Trouble".
British hip hop artist Tinie Tempah approached Lewis to record a duet with him called "Trouble", however after hearing the raw demo sung by Emeli Sandé, Lewis decided she wanted the song for her own album. Together with Sandé and Fraser T Smith, Lewis recorded the song. "Trouble" appears on the album in two versions; the first features just Lewis and is the opening track on the album, while the second version featuring a rap from Childish Gambino appears as track thirteen. As a result of recording "Trouble", Sandé and Lewis struck up a friendship which led to the duo writing several other songs for the album. "Mountains" was co-written by Lewis and Sandé with Shahid Khan, James Murray, Mustafa Omer and Luke Juby. The piano and strings-led ballad was supposed to feature on Glassheart however for unknown reasons the song was reclaimed by Sandé and instead features on her own debut album Our Version of Events. A small unfinished snippet of Lewis' version of "Mountains" leaked online on 15 August 2012 along with another song called "I Miss You Missing Me", which was written by Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren and originally sung by Chinese singer Bibi Zhou in 2010. A third Sandé and Lewis-penned song called "I to You" did make the album. In September 2011, Sylvia Patterson of The Guardian previewed several tracks including "Sugar" and "Trouble", both of which feature on the album, in addition to the song "Blank Page", which was written by Australian singer-songwriter Sia. The latter was described as "a soaring reverie over mournful piano and strings", but it did not make the album. "Blank Page" was later revealed to have been given to American singer Christina Aguilera, as it can be found on her 2012 album Lotus. During this same time period, fellow American producer Brian Kennedy Seals revealed that Lewis would record his song "Open Up".
File:Sandy Vee RETOUCHED IMG 9213 FINAL.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Sandy Vee produced the album's first single "Collide".
According to Yahoo! music, Lewis worked with Ammo and Steve Robson while a press release from Sony Music revealed that Lewis had branched out to work with a variety of international producers, including Swedish producer Jonas Quant, American producer Chuck Harmony and American songwriters Claude Kelly and Al Shux. During this same time, two other American record producers linked themselves to Glassheart. Whilst working as a mentor on American Idol, American music producer Christopher "Tricky" Stewart noted that he had been asked to submit material for Lewis' new album. Digital Spy and Popjustice confirmed that Lewis spent time in the studios with producer and writer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins", rapper will.i.am and Polow da Don. Lewis' sessions with Darkchild took place over the weekend of 18–19 May 2012 and produced the song "Shake You Up". Circle House Studios in Miami, Florida was the venue for recording sessions with American songwriter Rico Love.
MTV revealed that R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo was planning to pen some material for her. It would be their third collaboration, Ne-Yo having previous penned tracks for Spirit and produced tracks for Echo that did not make the final list. Ne-Yo wasn't Lewi's only returning collaborator. Andrea Martin, who co-wrote Lewis' 2008 single "Better in Time", worked with Lewis in the first half of 2011. On 1 January 2012 the leaking of a snippet of "Love Birds" revealed that according to Idolator, Lewis had worked with Bonnie McKee who is known for working with Kesha, Britney Spears and Katy Perry. Lewis also travelled to Nashville, Tennessee in January to record for a week and separately worked with Dallas Austin. McKee later joined studio sessions after Fraser T Smith co-wrote "Un Love Me" with Smith and Kelly Sheehan, a writer known for her work with Mariah Carey.
At the end of 2011, Lewis spoke about another of her collaborators – this time Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, "I've worked with Calvin on a song and want to do another – he's so talented. I'm planning an EP before the end of the year as I feel bad for everyone who was expecting the album this year. But the lead song won't be the track I've done with Emeli Sandé – that's for the album." Lewis revealed that she had recorded the song "We Found Love" but because she wanted to release "Trouble" as her first single, Harris subsequently offered the song to Rihanna while touring with her. Rihanna's version of "We Found Love" became a worldwide hit. Lewis released Hurt: The EP in December 2011. The EP consisted of cover songs that had been re-tooled by Smith. During the middle of March, Lewis posted a picture of herself in the studio with Jahlil Beats and Smith, confirming that Smith was now producing material for Glassheart. Later following Lewis' performance at the Radio 1 Hackney Weekend in June, it was confirmed that Smith was overseeing production for the remainder of the album and was the project's executive producer. Norwegian songwriter Ina Wroldsen joined some of Lewis and Smith's studio sessions, notably contributing to the song "Come Alive". Orchestral collective the Wired Strings joined Smith in the studio in June 2012, to record the strings section for the song "I to You". Smith produced the composition while Rosie Danvers handled the arrangement.