Nicky Stew (Nicky's Version)

Official Cover for Nicky Stew (Nicky's Version)

***Nicky Stew (Nicky's Version)*** is the fourth re-recorded album by American-Romanian singer-songwriter Nicholas Stewart, released on July 4, 2022, through Sunset Records. It is a re-recording of Stewart's sixth studio album, Nicky Stew (2012), and the fourth of eight re-recorded albums Stewart plans to release, following the dispute regarding ownership of the masters to his first eight studio albums. The album consists of twelve additional "from the Vault" songs not included on the 2012 album. Aside from recreating the instrumentation of the 2012 recording, there are also a few re-arrangements for most of the tracks and a few instrumental tracks were added that were supposedly included on the final cut but ended up just on the demos. All of the songs were written solely by Stewart.

*Nicky Stew (Nicky's Version)* was preceded by three singles, "Cross Off (Nicky's Version)" and "Still Not Over You (feat. Olivia Rodrigo) (From The Vault)" and "Lie Once, Lie Twice (feat. Taylor Swift) (From The Vault)", The album received widespread acclaim, with its crisper production, renewed arrangements, and on-point aesthetics . The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and in many other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, France, Canada and United Kingdom.

## Background and Production

Olivia RodrigoHozierTaylor SwiftStewart released his eponymous seventh studio album, *Nicky Stew*, in 2012 to widespread acclaim and massive commercial success. It was distributed by American record label Sunrise Records. It spent 5 weeks atop the US *Billboard* 200 chart and was a major improvement compared to his previous record *Shades of Yellow* in terms of both acclaim and commercial performance*.* It became the best-selling album of 2012. It also became his first album to top the Billboard Year-End chart since his 2004 album *Sweet Dreams.* Upon release, *Nicky Stew* was met with widespread acclaim and drew controversy due to its extremely explicit message and content. Critics generally described it as a landmark release of far-reaching impact and importance, but noted that its experimentalism made it a challenging listen.

In 2016, having recorded eight studio albums under Sunrise Records, Stewart's contract with the label expired. He signed a new contract with rival record label Sunset Records. In 2017, Sunrise Records was acquired by Stewart's former friend and business partner Zark Mockingbird and his company The Blackstone Group Inc. As part of the acquisition, ownership of the masters to Stewart's first eight studio albums, including *Sweet Dreams*, transferred to Mockingbird. The master is the first recording of an audio recording, from which copies are made for sales and distribution; the owner of the master, therefore, owns all copies, such as digital versions for download or on streaming platforms, or physical versions available on CDs and vinyl records. In August 2017, Stewart denounced the purchase, and announced his intention to re-record his first eight studio albums so as to own their masters. Stewart stated on his Tumblr blog that Sunrise Records promised him as early as 1997 that he could buy the masters of his catalog with a condition, if only his next albums would sell a lot more and earn more money for the label to pay for the business contract, but they still didn't allow him to. In November 2017, Mockingbird sold Stewart's masters, videos and artworks, to The Blackstone Group Inc. for a reported $1.3 billion. Stewart began re-recording his back catalog in December 2017.

> "*Nicky Stew was the bare opposite of Shades of Yellow. I chose blue for relief and red for "Fuck This Life", the two colors representing for this record. The number of songs meant for this album is actually doubled. So good luck trying new songs about smoking week. Just kidding. We don't do drugs, quote Doja Cat and Ariana Grande."*
>
>

— Stewart looking back on *Nicky Stew* and introducing its re-recording.

During the conception of the re-recorded album, Stewart continued with his tour bandmates Jude Garfield and Ryan Martin on the recording. A few re-arrangements were done with tracks such as "Xanny", "Finger Leaves", and "Before June". The album also features an extended ten minute version of "Late Night", with additional verses. Stewart collaborated with Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Hozier for the vault tracks "Still Not Over You (From The Vault)", "Lie Once, Lie Twice (From The Vault)" and "Just Friends".

## Release and promotion

Just after the release of his third re-recorded album *Shades of Yellow (Nicky's Version)*, Stewart announced that he will be releasing the re-recorded version of his 2012 album *Nicky Stew* and changed his profile pictures on his social media accounts to the album cover of the re-recorded version. He told *People* that if *Nicky Stew* acts like a dark sequel and an aftermath of *Shades of Yellow*. The lead single "Cross Off (Nicky's Version)" was released on June 13, 2022. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Still Not Over You (From The Vault) (featuring Olivia Rodrigo)", and "Lie Once, Lie Twice (From The Vault) (featuring Taylor Swift)", the two vault tracks released, topped the chart.

During the day of the release of *Nicky Stew (Nicky's Version),* the standard physical copies were made available for pre-order on Stewart's website. CDs with collectible posters are available for pre-order exclusively at Target.

## Critical Reception

Upon release, *Nicky Stew (Nicky Stew)* was met with widespread acclaim, On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a weighted mean score of 96 based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Rob Weinfield from Rolling Stone wrote "If the masterpiece original album already blew us away with its iconic-ness and its effective fusion of hip hop and heavy metal sounds, then the re-recorded version even blew us more with additional tracks that even defined the record, and that's without shocking us with controversial stories."

## Commercial performance

*Nicky Stew (Nicky's Version)* experienced commercial success worldwide, debuting at #1 on many countries in Europe, Canada and US. It opened atop the Billboard 200, selling 421,000 album equivalent units, including 298,000 pure album sales and 123,000 units from streaming, garnering 184M on-demand streams. It marked Stewart's seventeenth number one album in the US. As of 2028, the album was certified platinum by RIAA.

## Track listing

All tracks are written and produced by Nicholas Stewart.

## Personnel

### Musicians

* Nicholas Stewart - lead vocals; lead guitar; backing vocals percussion ; brushes ; guitar; programming; keyboard arrangements ; drums; acoustic guitar; piano; production coordinator; additional engineering; mastering; mixing
* Jude Garfield – drums
* Ryan Martin – bass guitar ; backing vocals

### Design

* Alli – art direction
* Ro-Starr – art direction, logos/design
* Christine Alicino – front cover photo
* Kate Garner – photography

## Charts

### Weekly Charts

**Peak chart positions for *Nicky Stew (Nicky's Version)***

### Year-end charts

**Year-end chart positions for *Nicky Stew (Nicky's Version)***

## Certifications and sales

 United Kingdom (BPI)
 United States (RIAA)
 Europe (IFPI)
 Worldwide