Take Me Home (One Direction album) Take Me Home is the second studio album by English-Irish boy band One

Direction, released globally in November 2012 by Sony Music Entertainment. After extensive promotional appearances and touring in North America and Oceania in support of their debut album, One Direction began recording the album in May 2012. As a follow-up to One Direction's internationally successful debut album Up All Night (2011), several writers and producers were enlisted, including Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha, Ed Sheeran, Jake Gosling, and Tom Fletcher. The record topped the charts in more than thirty-five countries, sold over one million copies in its first week worldwide, and was the fourth best-selling album of 2012 globally, selling 4.4 million units. The album's number-one debut on the US Billboard 200 chart made One Direction the first group to bow atop the Billboard 200 with their first two albums since Danity Kane entered with Welcome to the Dollhouse in 2008 and their self-titled debut in 2006, the second act in 2012 to achieve two number-one albums within a 12month period, and the first boy band in US chart history to land two numberone albums in a calendar year. Their debut album and Take Me Home were the fourth and fifth best-selling albums of 2012 in the United States, respectively, making the band the first act to place two albums in the yearend top five in the Nielsen SoundScan era. The lead single, "Live While We're Young", released on 28 September 2012, peaked inside the top ten in almost every country it charted and recorded the highest one-week opening sales figure for a song by a non-American artist. Subsequent singles, "Little Things" and "Kiss You", were less successful, although the former topped the UK Singles Chart. Staged in support of the record, One Direction performed the album's songs on several television programs. The album's accompanying seven-month concert tour commenced in February 2013. Production In early 2012, One Direction revealed that a follow-up release to their debut album, Up All Night (2011), was in development. "In the summer, we're going to get back and start a new record. We want to bring out a record nearly every year, every year and a half," Niall Horan said, revealing they were arranging "meetings and stuff with different writers and producers."[1] In March 2012, McFly frontman Tom Fletcher confirmed that he would be writing a song for the album.[2] In February 2012, One Direction stated interest in working with Ed Sheeran,[3] and in April 2012, Sheeran confirmed that they were in contact: "I've got two songs that their manager emailed me for old songs that were meant to go on my last album a big stadium

anthem."[4] In April 2012, The Independent reported that Simon Cowell had challenged music's "most successful" songwriters to compete for space on One Direction's second album.[5] Dee Demirbag, responsible for repertoire at music publisher, BMG Rights Management in Scandinavia, said: "Breaking a boy band in the U.S. is about as big as it gets in the music industry, so you can imagine the competition to get cuts on the next One Direction album is immense." [5] In addition, the article reported that Syco Records was working on candidates with Max Martin and Kristian Lundin.[5] By August 2012, it was confirmed that album would feature work from veterans such as Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Dr. Luke, Cirkut, and Shellback.[6] After extensive promotional appearances in North America and Oceania in support of their debut album, One Direction began recording the album in May 2012, in Stockholm, Sweden.[7][8] In June 2012, the group continued recording the album in the United States, whilst touring on the final leg of their Up All Night Tour, which ended on 1 July 2012.[9] Horan, in a June interview with MTV News, disclosed that the group were intending to spend their time in July and August "getting the album done Critical response Take Me Home received generally mixed reviews from contemporary music critics.[11] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 69, which indicates "generally favourable reviews".[11] Al Fox of BBC Music expressed that despite its "boardroom-defined objectives", the music itself is of "notable quality", considering it "Polished and dependable, despite its safety there are some show-stopping pop anthems present."[13] Matt Collar from AllMusic described it as an "immediately catchy mix of dancey pop that maximizes the group's shared lead-vocal approach and peppy, upbeat image."[12] The Boston Globe editor Sarah Rodman quipped that while the album is "uniformly sleek and upbeat", "a few tunes hew too closely to the generic template". Rodman, however, acknowledged "as boy bands go, fans and their wary parents could do much worse."[14] Kate Wills from The Independent praised the uptempo tracks while defining the ballads as "too saccharine for anyone who doesn't practice kissing on the back of their hand."[18] John Dolan of Rolling Stone opined that the album's uptempo material rivals the best of boy bands the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, however, for the ballads: "a certain amount of douchiness creeps in".[19] Entertainment Weekly writer Adam Markovitz asserted that the album was rushed, resulting in an album with "barely enough zip to keep the kids up past dinner."[16]

Likewise, Robert Copsey from Digital Spy wrote, "The result [of Take Me Home] may see them progressing at a snail's pace, but when you've got it so good, what's the rush anyway?"[22] In a mixed review, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times criticised the album's lyricism as narrow and uninspired, and Sheeran's contributions as jarring "in the hands of such a polished group". Caramanica characterised the members' vocals as "fundamentally interchangeable", and opined that only Zayn Malik "breaks free from the pack vocally with any regularity."[20] While Alexis Petridis for The Guardian commended the album for its "variable quality", he felt the record would not be able to transcend its target market, a core audience aged approximately 8 to 12 and female, writing that "To anyone else, the mystery of One Direction's success or at least the sheer scale of it remains as opaque as ever."[17] The latter view was shared by Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star: "Unless youre in the target demographic or are, perhaps, a mom who lived through the same thing in her youth, theres no point in even going near this record, of course, but the rest of us were never meant to in the first place."[23] Despite dubbing it "actually pretty great certainly better than it needs to be," Sam Lansky for Idolator thought the album is predictably generic, and interpreted it as "a little cynical, even as it excels in making some of the purest pop of the year."[24] Writing for HitFix, Melinda Newman maintained that the album "masterfully hits its target", and concluded as follows: "Im so far out of the One Dimension demographic, I practically need a GPS to find it."[25] [edit]Commercial performance

Globally, Take Me Home topped the charts in more than thirty-five countries, and was the fourth best-selling album of 2012, selling 4.4 million units.[26] [27] In the United Kingdom, the album sold over 94,000 copies in its first two days of sale, and became the group's first album to top the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 155,000 copies, making it the second fastest selling album of 2012.[28][29] The album and its second single "Little Things" both debuted simultaneously at number one in the UK on 18 November 2012, making One Direction the youngest act in British chart history to achieve the feat.[30] The album became the fifth best-selling album in the UK of 2012, having sold 616,000 copies by the end of 2012.[31] It was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 15 February 2013, denoting shipments of 600,000 copies.[32] In Ireland, Take Me Home also became the fastest-selling album of 2012,[33] lodged six consecutive weeks atop the Irish Albums Chart, and was certified triple platinum by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA).[34][35]

The collection became their second Italian chart-topper, and Italy's seventh best-selling album of 2012.[36][37] It has been certified platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry (FIMI), indicating sales of 30.000 copies.[38] In the Netherlands, the album debuted at number-one on 17 November 2012, and shipped 25,000 copies in its first day of release.[39][40] It was certified platinum by 18 December 2012, denoting shipments of 50,000 copies in the region.[40] After a month of its release, it was certified platinum in Poland for shipments of 30.000 copies,[41] while it became the seventh best-selling album of 2012 in Denmark, having sold 28.875 copies by year end in that country.[42] In Sweden, the album was the ninth best-selling album of 2012, and has been certified platinum by the Swedish Recording Industry Association (GLF), signifying shipments of 40.000 units.[43] The album debuted at number one on the Australian ARIA Chart dated 25 November 2012, a position it held for a second week.[44] Take Me Home was certified platinum in Australia in its first week by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and has since been certified double platinum for a shipment of 140,000 copies.[45] The record became the band's second number-one album in the United States in the week of 18 November 2012, recording the biggest first-week sales tally for an album by a boy band since N'Sync's Celebrity (2001), and the third-largest debut sales week of 2012, behind Taylor Swift's Red and Babel by Mumford & Sons, with 540,000 copies sold.[46][47] One Direction became the first group to bow atop the Billboard 200 with their first two albums since Danity Kane entered with Welcome to the Dollhouse in 2008 and their self-titled debut in 2006, the second act in 2012 to achieve two number-one albums within a 12-month period alongside Justin Bieber, and the first boy band in US chart history to land two number-one albums in a calendar year.[46][47] The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 5 December 2012, denoting shipments of one million copies.[48] It became their second album in 2012 to top the one million mark in US sales in the week of 16 December 2012, making them the first act to sell one million copies of two different albums in a calendar year since 2009, and the first group or duo to achieve this feat since Rascal Flatts in 2007.[49] Their debut album and Take Me Home were the fourth and fifth best-selling albums of 2012 in the United States, respectively, making the band the first act to place two albums in the yearend top five in the Nielsen SoundScan era. Promotion Take Me Home has yielded three singles, including two US singles. The lead single "Live While We're Young" was released by Syco Records on 28 September 2012. The song rocketed to worldwide success, peaking at number one in Ireland and New Zealand and the top ten in almost every

country it charted.[51][52][53] In the United States, "Live While We're Young" debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, sold 341,000 downloads in its first week, and bowed at number one on the Digital Songs chart. Its debut marks the highest bow by a British group and the secondhighest debut among all UK acts, outpaced only by Elton John's number one arrival with "Candle in the Wind 1997". Its opening sales denote the biggest opening sales figure for a single by a non-US artist and the third ever for a download by a group, surpassed by the arrivals of Maroon 5's 2012 single "Payphone" (493,000) and The Black Eyed Peas' 2009 single "Boom Boom Pow" (465,000).[54][55] "Little Things" was released in the UK and Ireland as the second single.[56][57] The track debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 18 November 2012, becoming One Direction's fifth top ten appearance and second number-one hit in the United Kingdom.[29] "Kiss You" was chosen as the second US single of Take Me Home, released digitally on 17 November 2012, according to MTV News.[58] The group and the album's lead single were featured in a Pepsi television commercial for the United States, which premiered on the Fox Broadcasting Company network on 10 October 2012.[59] Columbia Records allowed the record to stream in full on iTunes in the week leading up to its 13 November 2012 release.[60] In addition, One Direction promoted the album in a series of live appearances from October toward December, notably on television programs The X Factor USA,[61] The X Factor UK,[62] The Today Show, which drew a record crowd of 15.000 people to the Rockefeller Center,[63] and the BBC's Children in Need 2012 telethon.[64] Additional live appearances include at the Royal Variety Performance, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II,[65] the Bambi Awards,[66] and a headlining sold-out show at New York City's Madison Square Garden.[67] The album's accompanying concert tour, the Take Me Home Tour, commenced at London's O2 Arena on 23 February 2013.[68][69] The concert tour consists of over 100 shows in Australasia, Europe, and North America, and is set to visit arenas and stadiums from February through October 2013. Announced by member Liam Payne at the 2012 BRIT Awards in early 2012, the original concert tour was billed as the UK & Ireland Arena Tour.[70][71] In mid-2012, the concert tour expanded with legs in North America and Australasia following the band's international breakthrough.[72][73] In the UK and Ireland, ticket sales reached 300,000 within a day of release, which included a six-date sell out at the O2 Arena in London.[74] In Australian and New Zealand markets, tickets grossed US$15.7 million, with all 190,000 tickets being sold for eighteen shows to be held in Australia and New Zealand Track listing

No.

Title

Writer(s)

Producer(s) Length Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk, Savan

1. "Live While We're Young" Kotecha Yacoub, Falk 3:18

2. "Kiss You" Yacoub, Falk, Kotecha, Shellback, Kristian Lundin, Albin Nedler, Kristoffer Fogelmark Yacoub, Falk 3:03 3. 4. "Little Things" "C'mon, C'mon" Bunetta, Ryan Ed Sheeran, Fiona Bevan Jake Gosling 3:39 Jamie Scott, John Ryan, Julian C. Bunetta 2:45

5. "Last First Kiss" Yacoub, Falk, Kotecha, Nedler, Fogelmark, Payne, Malik, Tomlinson Yacoub, Falk, C.Patrick, Nedler 3:23 6. "Heart Attack" Yacoub, Falk, Kotecha, Shellback, Lundin Yacoub, Falk, Shellback 2:56

7. "Rock Me" Lukasz Gottwald, Henry Walter, Melin Shikder, Peter Svensson, Allan Grigg, Sam Hollander Dr. Luke, Cirkut, Kool Kojak, Melin Shikder 3:20 8. "Change My Mind" Yacoub, Falk, Kotecha Yacoub, Falk 3:32 Bunetta, 3:02

9. "I Would" Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter Sam Waters, Ryan 3:21 10. "Over Again" Sheeran, Robert Conlon Gosling

11. "Back for You" Fogelmark, Kotecha, Nedler, Yacoub, Payne, Styles, Tomlinson Yacoub, Falk, Nedler, C.Patrick 2:58 12. "They Don't Know About Us" Bunetta, Ryan 3:20 Tebey Ottoh, Tommy Lee James Ottoh,

13. "Summer Love" Guy Chambers, Lindy Robbins, Steve Robson, Payne, Styles, Malik, Tomlinson, Horan Robson 3:28