# Drastic Fantastic

Drastic Fantastic is the second studio album by Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall. It features some unreleased tracks she wrote before Eye to the Telescope such as new tracks she wrote in 2003. The record was released by Relentless Records on 10 September 2007 in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, on 15 September in Australia, and 18 September 2007 in the United States and Canada. However, the album was leaked on P2P networks on 3 September 2007.
The album spawned three internationally released singles – "Hold On", "Saving My Face" and "If Only". The album track "Little Favours" was released in Brazil only. "Hold On" marked an international return to the singles charts for Tunstall, peaking at number one on the US Adult Alternative Airplay charts, number four on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100, the top twenty in her native Scotland and Norway, as well as the top thirty in the United Kingdom, Italy and Switzerland.

## Background and release

Some additional tracks features other unreleased songs such as "Mothgirl", "Bad Day" and "Journey", and during the Drastic Fantastic Tour, Tunstall covered "La Vie En Rose", which is on the U.K Bonus tracks, "My Sharona", The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" and Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" which features on the DVD. Also, three singles were taken from Drastic Fantastic: "Hold On", the lead single, "Saving My Face" and "If Only", which all charted in the UK Top 100.
The album was reissued on 15 January 2021 in vinyl, triple-disc, and digital formats as Drastic Fantastic: Ultimate Edition, consisting of previously unreleased songs and remixes.
According to Tunstall, the album cover is based on Suzi Quatro.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 68/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Robert Christgau | |
| Entertainment.ie | |
| The Guardian | |
| The Observer | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Times | |
| Uncut | |
The album received warm, though conservative, praise by most critics. Music critics from The Observer gave Drastic Fantastic five stars, stating the album was "bursting with so many hits that Tunstall's comic-book life is about to go stratospheric". Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone gave the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, and said that the album's sound was a "flashback" to 1997 by noting similarities between the songs on Drastic Fantastic and songs written 10 years earlier. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album four out of five, calling Drastic Fantastic "a rare beast: a pop album with a songwriter's heart".
However, some critics were less impressed, stating that the album was overproduced and lacked the "folksy" touch of her previous album Eye to the Telescope. The Guardian gave it three stars, stating "Tunstall could do better".

## Commercial performance

It debuted atop to the albums charts in her native Scotland, remaining within the Top 100 Albums on the Scottish charts for a combined total of thirty weeks. On the US Billboard 200 chart, Drastic Fantastic debuted at number nine, selling about 50,000 copies in its first week, and sold around 225,000 copies in 2007. Drastic Fantastic also debuted atop the US Billboard Alternative Albums and US Billboard Rock Albums.
In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart, remaining within the Top 100 in the United Kingdom for a combined total of twenty six weeks. Elsewhere, it reached the top ten in both Canada and the Republic of Ireland, the top twenty in Argentina, the top thirty in the Netherlands, France New Zealand, and the top forty in Italy, Germany and Japan.
It sold over 290,000 copies in the United Kingdom, later being awarded a Gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in July 2013.

## Track listing

All tracks produced by Steve Osbourne.
All tracks are written by KT Tunstall except where noted
In addition with the Deluxe edition, a documentary DVD with the album.
Most songs on Drastic Fantastic are not new songs. An acoustic version of "Little Favours" and "Paper Aeroplane" appeared on the 2000 demo album Tracks in July. "Little Favours" also appeared as the B-side to "Under the Weather". "If Only", "Funnyman", and "Saving My Face" appeared on the demo album Toons March '03. Finally, Tunstall mentioned writing two new songs, "Hopeless" and "White Bird", in a blog entry from 2003.
The bonus track "Journey" appeared on KT Tunstall's early band Red Light Stylus' album Roughworks, under the title "The Journey's the Thing".
The original studio version "Suddenly I See", which appeared on Tunstall's first album Eye to the Telescope in 2004, was included as a bonus track on the Australian release due to the song's popularity in the country.

## Singles

* "Hold On" was released as the album's lead single on 16 July 2007 in the United States, and on 27 August in the United Kingdom.
* "Saving My Face" was chosen as the second single; it was released on 12 November 2007.
* "If Only" was released on 3 March 2008.
* A video for the song "Little Favours" was released in many music channels of Brazil (such as MTV Brasil & Multishow). The video is directed by Chris Bran, did not feature KT and only shows a KT Tunstall fan and ex-teacher Mr. Fritte with a puppet with strings, that he calls The Tunstallator.
The song is featured on the Brazilian soap opera Três Irmãs.
"Someday Soon" is available as a single on Internet music stores such as iTunes and Rhapsody. It was featured in the film The Women in a montage featuring Annette Bening and Meg Ryan.

## Personnel

* KT Tunstall – vocals, guitar, piano
* Luke Bullen – drums, percussion
* Sam Lewis – backing guitar
* Steve Osborne – bass, backing guitar, keyboards
* Arnulf Lindner – bass, double bass
* Kenny Dickenson – piano, keyboards
* Cat Sforza – backing vocals
* Gita Harcourt – backing vocals

## Release history

| Region | Date |
| Europe | 10 September 2007 (2007-9-10) |
| Australia | 15 September 2007 (2007-9-15) |
| Canada | 18 September 2007 (2007-9-18) |
| United States | 18 September 2007 (2007-9-18) |