Shadow Lovers (album)

## Shadow Lovers

Standard editon cover

***Shadow Lovers*** is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Millie Reynolds, released on January 8, 1990, by Bad Bitch Records. Its music incorporates a range of contemporary genres with a mix of slow ballads and up-tempo tracks. In April 1988, Allison Mary Tanner signed Reynolds a contract to newborn record label Bad Bitch Records which was founded by Daniel Tanner, Allison Mary Tanner's husband. Reynolds, with the help of Arnaldo Carlsson and Andreas Antunes, began writing for her debut album on late 1988. Carlsson, together with Ali Payami and Boi-1da produced the tracks of the album with multiple variations and remixes.

*Shadow Lovers* has an upbeat synthetic disco sound, using new technology of the time, including the Linn drum machine, Moog bass and Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. The album generally received positive reviews, with critics praising the song themes and relevant issues addressed, but were ambivalent towards Reynolds' voice quality. To further promote the album, Reynolds went on to perform on television shows her debut single "Slave" which was released on December 1989. The song's lyrics were considered very dark to sing for a young teenager but that didn't stop Reynolds from performing the song all over again. The single gained massive popularity following various television performances and earned Reynolds her first number one hit. The album's four singles "Slave", "Bang Bang", "No More Arguing", and "Shadow Lovers" all peaked inside the top two, with three of them hitting number one.

*Shadow Lovers* peaked at number two on the *Billboard* 200, and was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of ten million copies across the United States. It became a sleeper hit worldwide as it reached the top ten on Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil, and sold more than 17 million copies worldwide. It was included in "The 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time" by *Rolling Stone* in 2013 saying that "it succeed in introducing the most important female voice in the history of modern music". The album has been credited for setting the standard of the fusion of R&B and dance-pop for decades afterward, and for pointing the direction for numerous R&B and pop collaborations in the future.

## Background

In 1984, Reynolds auditioned for acting roles in TV shows and was casted as Gellicle Winehouse on the hit sitcom TV show The Winehouse Trademark. She plays the middle child of the family who struggles on academics and desperate in approval from her family. The show ran from 1985-89, spanning four seasons and was cancelled despite huge television ratings after a controversy happened between her two co-stars. On the show's season three, episode eighteen titled *Winehouse Goes Broadway*, aired on March 4, 1988, television viewers and critics praised Reynolds' charismatic musical performances and some said that Reynolds carried the whole episode of the show and she was just 12. In April 1988, during the wrapping of the show's third season, the show's director, Allison Mary Tanner signed Reynolds a contract to newborn record label Bad Bitch Records which was founded by Daniel Tanner, Allison Mary Tanner's husband. Mary Tanner stated that she "discovered the kid's inner potential and wanted to expand it to a bigger space".

Reynolds, with the help of Arnaldo Carlsson and Andreas Antunes, began writing for her debut album on late 1988. At the same time, Reynolds played her cult-classic TV character Gellicle Winehouse on the show's final season.

## Development and production

Reynolds' inspirations on making her debut album were 1970s and 80s popstars -- Whitney Houston, Madonna, Cher, and Cyndi Lauper. The album was primarily recorded at Abbey Road in London. In early 1989, Carlsson and Antunes produced a few beats and tracks and wrote a few lyrics for Reynolds to sing and record in which she didn't accept because of them being very "similar to the nursery rhymes we hear in kindergarten." She later complained and said "I might be a young teenager who's about to start on the industry, but I should be given more freedom on what I should sing and what I don't want." Reynolds began writing her own lyrics, a process on what Carlsson described as "a short fieldtrip or middle school recollection". Before the recording sessions, Reynolds took vocal lessons to reach the range her label and producers wanted her to reach.

Reynolds often complained about herself being forced to overwork to achieve what everyone wanted for the new record but stated that at the end the efforts were paid off. A few years later, she looked back at the process of making her debut album and told *Vogue* that it was a great learning experience for an emerging popstar like her.

## Music and lyrics

*Shadow Lovers* has an upbeat synthetic disco sound, using new technology of the time, including the Linn drum machine, Moog bass and Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. The lyrics and themes contain mostly about teenage angst, unrequited love, show character hatred, jealousy, political issues, and many more topics that the general public thought it was very heavy for 14-year old Millie Reynolds to sing because she's so young to rant but let her be. Reynolds told *Variety* in 2016 that during the writing process of *Shadow Lovers*, she wrote about what many things that would directly make her angry.

## Release and promotion

After the polishing of the album, her debut single "Slave" was released on December 1989. To further promote the album, Reynolds went on to perform on television shows her debut single. The song's lyrics were considered very dark to sing for a young teenager but that didn't stop Reynolds from performing the song all over again. The single gained massive popularity following various television performances and earned Reynolds her first number one hit. The album's four singles "Slave", "Bang Bang", "No More Arguing", and "Shadow Lovers" all peaked inside the top two, with three of them hitting number one. This made Reynolds the youngest solo artist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100, at age 14. Reynolds went on to travel outside the United States to promote the album in various shows, and even made a controversial choice when she agreed to perform on a morning news show in Spain with a quiet audience while performing "Shadow Lovers" and also revealed a black flag at her back. A few decades later, it became a living meme.

Reynolds also partnered with teenage modelling brands to endorse their products and also at the same time, promoting her music by featuring her songs on advertisement.

## Critical reception

**Review Scores**
 Exclaim.ca
 Sputnik Music
 The Quietus
 Mess+Noise
 Noisey
 NME
 Paste Magazine
 Rolling Stones
 Select

Aaliyah Jenkins from AllMusic wrote that the album "cleverly incorporated great pop songs with stylish, state-of-the-art beats, and it shrewdly walked a line between being a rush of sound and a showcase for a dynamic lead singer. This is music where all of the elements may not particularly impressive on their own — the arrangement, synth, and drum programming are fairly rudimentary — but taken together, it's utterly irresistible." In a contemporary review, *Entertainment Weekly* wrote that Reynolds possessed an "astonishing vocal range and high ideals" for a dance record, but criticized the album's lyrical content. Harry Gonzalez from *Blender* said that the album consisted of "quacking synths, overperky bass and state-of-the-art mechanical disco, with Reybolds strapped to the wing rather than holding the controls. It's a breathless, subtlety-free debut, with overtones of Soft Cell and Tom Tom Club." Reviewing the remastered version of the album, released in 2001, Alice Minnie from *Billboard* stated that "Nearly 20 years after the release of *Shadow Lovers*, such tracks as 'Slave', 'Slash Beat', 'No More Arguing' and 'Shadow Lovers' remain irresistible."

## Commercial performance

Reynolds' debut album *Shadow Lovers* was released on January 1990. Much to the label's big expectations because of Reynolds' big television audience popularity, the album debuted at number 104, which was deemed as very disappointing for a popular former child star. The big popularity of its singles eventually made their parent album slowly ascend to the chart, reaching a new peak of number three on the Billboard 200 in October 1990. The album spent most of 1991 inside the top ten, peaking at number two more than a year after its release. *Shadow Lovers* was the best-selling album of 1991, selling 5.3 million copies on the year alone. It was later certified diamond in by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and has sold over 17 million copies worldwide.

In Canada, the album was released on March 10, 1990, and debuted at number 15 on the *RPM* Albums Chart. After few weeks it re-entered the chart again. The album finally reached its peak position of number 3 in its 39th week. It is certified 6x Platinum by Music Canada (MC) for selling 600,000 copies in the country.

In the United Kingdom, the album was released on August 11, 1990, and charted on the UK Albums Chart, reaching a peak of four and present on the chart for one-twenty weeks. The album was certified double-platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipment of 600,000 copies of the album. In Europe, it also slowly rose to a peak of number five, almost a year after its release. As of 2000, it sold a total of 4,000,000 copies in the region and is certified 4x Platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

## Legacy and influence

Since its release, *Shadow Lovers* has been hailed as being a pop and R&B classic, with Trevor Anderson of Billboard describing it as jumpstarting "one of the most successful stories in pop music history". Commenting on the success of the album in the "particularly saturated female pop landscape in 1990", Anderson further states that the record helped Reynolds carve a place as the foremost musician of her generation. Allison Ray said that with the album, Reynolds began her career as a disco diva, in an era that did not have any such divas to speak of. In the beginning of the 90s, disco was an anathema to the mainstream pop, and according to him, Reynolds had a huge role in popularizing dance music as mainstream music, utilizing her charisma, chutzpah and sex appeal. Erlewine claimed that *Shadow Lovers* "launched dance-pop" and set the standard for the genre for the next two decades. The album also popularized the "happy tunes, sad meaning" songs.

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Millie Reynolds except where noted.

## Charts

### Weekly Charts

**Peak chart positions for *Shadow Lovers***

### Year-end charts

**Year-end chart positions for *Shadow Lovers***