All I Want Is You (album)

All I Want Is You
An off-center image of the artist wearing oversized red sunglasses and a leather jacket whose outsized popped collar brushes the tips of his ears; the foreground bears his name and the album title, while the background depicts three layers of color: blue, white, and red
Studio album by
Miguel
ReleasedNovember 30, 2010
Genre
Length42:47
Label
Producer
Miguel chronology
All I Want Is You
(2010) 		Kaleidoscope Dream
(2012)
Singles from All I Want Is You
  1. "All I Want Is You"
    Released: May 25, 2010
  2. "Sure Thing"
    Released: November 26, 2010
  3. "Quickie"
    Released: August 2, 2011
  4. "Girls Like You"
    Released: November 8, 2011

All I Want Is You is the debut studio album by American R&B singer Miguel. It was released on November 30, 2010, by Black Ice Records, ByStorm Entertainment and Jive Records.

After signing to ByStorm in 2007, Miguel recorded the album with producers Dre & Vidal, Fisticuffs, Happy Perez, State of Emergency, and Salaam Remi. It was shelved by Jive for two years after legal issues with the singer's former production company. Selling poorly upon its release, it became sleeper hit on the Billboard 200 with the help of singles such as the title track and "Sure Thing". By September 2012, it had sold 404,000 copies.

All I Want Is You received positive reviews; critics found some of the music inconsistent but praised Miguel's singing and songwriting abilities while drawing comparisons to Prince. Miguel toured in promotion of the album as a supporting act for fellow R&B singers Usher and Trey Songz.

Background

[edit]

As a burgeoning songwriter, Miguel had written the R&B song "Sure Thing", which was pitched to music executive Mark Pitts as a candidate for the singer Usher's tentative album. Pitts was impressed by both "Sure Thing" and "Quickie", as well as Miguel's performance in-person, and signed him to a recording contract instead of offering the songs to Usher. "He came and performed and just had no fear. I loved him," Pitts later said of Miguel. "He was like Elvis. He was all over the place at the time, but it was just different. With a little tweaking, this could be special."[1]

After signing in 2007 to Pitts' Jive Records-imprint label, ByStorm Entertainment,[2] Miguel began recording his first album, All I Want Is You.[2] Recording sessions took place at Black Mango Studios in Van Nuys, California, Germano Studios in New York City, Glenwood Studios and Instrument Zoo in Miami, Florida, Studio 609 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and The Gym in Los Angeles, California.[3]

Music and lyrics

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According to Jason Newman from MTV Buzzworthy, All I Want Is You is "a diverse album rooted in R&B and hip-hop, thoughtfully laced with elements of classic rock, funk and electro".[4] Marc Hogan from Spin said it featured neo soul music,[5] while AllMusic critic David Jeffries described it as a "slick" and "sexy" synthesis of influences from Prince, Kanye West, and electro.[6] "Girls Like You" and "Hard Way" feature aggressive hip hop beats, while "Pay Me" and "To the Moon" explore European electronic music and EDM, respectively.[7]

According to Tom Hull, the album is an attempt at R&B's "love man" archetype, set against "slinky, marginally funky rhythm[s]".[8] The album's first half features two romantic songs, an interlude, a song about a prostitute, and another about a quickie. The closing track "My Piece" uses a "piece"-"peace" homonym.[9] Jeffries said the album featured Miguel's "sly sense of humor".[6] On "Sure Thing", Miguel sang about loyalty in a passionate committed relationship.[7] "Girl with the Tattoo Enter.lewd" is an ethereal a cappella interlude, and was named one of the best album interludes in a list by Billboard.[10]

Marketing and sales

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Though its poor initial showing on the charts seemed to affirm [Jive]'s lack of faith in it, the record gradually discovered an audience over the next year thanks to a trickle of ingratiating singles that established Miguel as one of radio’s rarest commodities: a new R&B star. With its splatters of off-kilter funk and mesmeric electro, All I Want Is You teased a unique vision without coloring too far outside the boundaries of popular R&B.

—Evan Rytlewski (The A.V. Club, 2012)[11]

After the recording's completion, legal issues with Miguel's former production company prevented the album from being released for two years.[2] During this period, Miguel continued working with various underground acts and writing songs for mainstream recording artists, including Johnson&Jonson, Asher Roth, Jaheim, and Usher.[12]

ByStorm Entertainment and Jive[13] eventually released the album on November 30, 2010.[14] It sold poorly at first,[11] with first-week sales of 11,000 copies and a chart debut of number 109 on the Billboard 200.[15] After falling off the chart for three weeks, it re-entered and climbed the Billboard 200 for 22 weeks, before peaking at number 37 on May 14, 2011.[16] The album became a sleeper hit,[17] and by September 2012, it had sold 404,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[2] The album has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[18]

According to Miguel, Jive marketed him as a "typical R&B artist" during their promotion of All I Want Is You: "That album was a huge learning experience. I left the marketing of my album and me as an artist up to the discretion of the label ... I can't really blame them for [that], because that's what they know. But that's not what my lifestyle was."[2] Four singles were released from the album: the title track "All I Want Is You",[19] "Sure Thing",[13] "Quickie", and "Girls Like You".[20] As the title track gradually received radio airplay, Miguel began touring as a supporting act for Usher and Trey Songz.[2] By May 2011, "All I Want Is You" and "Sure Thing" had reached a combined digital/mobile sales of over 825,000 units.[13]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[7]
MSN Music (Expert Witness)B+[9]
Slant Magazine[21]
Tom Hull – on the WebB+ ((2-star Honorable Mention)(2-star Honorable Mention))[8]

Reviewing for About.com in November 2010, Mark Edward Nero said Miguel "somehow managed to vocally glide across each" of the different styles he explored on All I Want Is You, which was nonetheless rooted in R&B. He deemed the record imperfect but devoid of a poor song.[7] B. Wright from Vibe found the music inconsistent and "schizophrenic" but praised Miguel's singing and songwriting abilities while determining the record was "worth the purchase price".[22] Slant Magazine's Matthew Cole said the second half of songs was "less stimulating" on an album that "blends slick, radio-friendly R&B with Prince-aping theatrics, both refracted around a sense of humor that, surreal and sexually unsubtle, would have to make [Prince] proud". Cole also compared Miguel to singer Kelis, "whose work has an undeniably commercial cunning to it, but who never fails to imbue her pop confections with real personality".[21]

Writing in MSN Music a few years later, Robert Christgau said Miguel "front-loaded his Prince-channeling debut" with "five hooky tracks" that were "followed by six pleasant tracks and capped by two hooky novelties". He viewed the song "Teach Me" as "a treasure hidden in the middle" and "supplicant's" song, "unprecedented" in "a genre that makes its nut promising untold pleasures". He credited Miguel for "laying out the truth that, as Norman Mailer put it in one of the few useful sex tips in his orgasm-mad canon, 'the man as lover is dependent upon the bounty of the woman.' Who knows what pleases her? She does, she alone, and Miguel craves to be let in on that shifting and enthralling secret." He nonetheless critiqued that the song lacked a first-rate hook that would have made it an R&B classic in the vein of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" and "Use Me" by Bill Withers.[9]

Track listing

[edit]

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[23]

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Sure Thing"
Happy Perez3:14
2."All I Want Is You" (featuring J. Cole)
Remi4:55
3."Girl with the Tattoo Enter.lewd"Pimentel 1:42
4."Pay Me"
  • Pimentel
  • Mac Robinson
  • Brian Warfield
Fisticuffs2:57
5."Quickie"
  • Pimentel
  • Robinson
  • Warfield
Fisticuffs3:46
6."Girls Like You"
  • Pimentel
  • Robinson
  • Warfield
Fisticuffs3:23
7."Overload Enter.lewd"Pimentel 0:31
8."Hard Way"
  • Remi
  • Pimentel
Remi3:49
9."Teach Me"
  • Pimentel
  • Darnley Scantlebury
State of Emergency5:22
10."Hero"
  • Harris
  • Davis
3:47
11."Vixen"
  • Pimentel
  • Robinson
  • Warfield
Fisticuffs3:01
12."To the Moon"
  • Pimentel
  • Harry Zelnick
  • Alex Chiegger
  • Harris
  • Davis
  • Harris
  • Davis
3:23
13."My Piece"
  • Pimentel
  • Perez
Perez2:55
Total length:42:47

Personnel

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Charts

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Certifications

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Certifications for All I Want Is You
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[35] Gold 10,000‡
United States (RIAA)[36] Platinum 1,000,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ Fekadu, Mesfin (January 18, 2013). "Adorned by the Grammys: Miguel has breakthrough". Associated Press. Retrieved September 7, 2020 – via nwitimes.com.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lipshutz, Jason (September 21, 2012). "Miguel's 'Kaleidoscope Dream': Inside The R&B Dynamo's Fresh Start". Billboard. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  3. ^ Miguel - All I Want Is You CD Album. Muze. CD Universe. Retrieved on June 8, 2011.
  4. ^ Newman, Jason (May 16, 2011). "MTV PUSH Artist Of The Week: Miguel". MTV Buzzworthy Blog. MTV Networks. Archived from the original on May 18, 2011. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
  5. ^ Hogan, Marc (July 26, 2012). "Stream Miguel's Three-Song 'Kaleidoscope Dream: Water Preview'". Spin. New York. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
  6. ^ a b Jeffries, David. "All I Want Is You - Miguel". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  7. ^ a b c d Nero, Mark Edward (November 30, 2010). Miguel - All I Want Is You. About.com. Retrieved on March 17, 2011.
  8. ^ a b Hull, Tom (August 18, 2015). "Rhapsody Streamnotes". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  9. ^ a b c Christgau, Robert (December 28, 2012). "Miguel". MSN Music. Microsoft. Archived from the original on January 8, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
  10. ^ Billboard Staff (March 9, 2018). "The 50 Greatest Interludes of All Time: Staff Picks". Billboard. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Rytlewski, Evan (October 9, 2012). "Miguel: Kaleidoscope Dream". The A.V. Club. Chicago. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  12. ^ Jeffries, David. "Miguel". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  13. ^ a b c Jive Label Group (May 9, 2011). Singer/Songwriter Miguel's Hit Single "Sure Thing" No. 1 on the R&B Singles Chart Archived March 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Press release. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
  14. ^ Album Cover + Tracklisting: Miguel – ‘All I Want Is You’. Rap-Up. November 8, 2010. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
  15. ^ Concepcion, Mariel (December 8, 2010). Soulja Boy, Flo Rida Flop On Billboard Album Chart. Billboard. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
  16. ^ Ramirez, Erika (June 10, 2011). "Chart Juice: Miguel Describes His Sound & Announces Next Singles". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
  17. ^ "Q&A: Miguel". Soul Train. March 24, 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
  18. ^ "Gold & Platinum - RIAA". Recording Industry Association of America.
  19. ^ All I Want Is You: Miguel featuring J.Cole: MP3 Downloads. Amazon.com. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
  20. ^ Muhammad, Latifah (July 1, 2011). Miguel to Release Two New Singles Simultaneously. TheBoombox. Retrieved on July 22, 2011.
  21. ^ a b Cole, Matthew (December 3, 2010). Miguel: All I Want Is You | Music Review. Slant Magazine. Retrieved on March 17, 2011.
  22. ^ Wright, B. (December 7, 2010). Review: Miguel's 'All I Want Is You'. Vibe. Retrieved on March 17, 2011.
  23. ^ Anon. (2010). All I Want Is You (CD liner notes). Miguel. Jive Records, ByStorm Entertainment. 88697-75487-2.
  24. ^ "Miguel Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  25. ^ "Miguel Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  26. ^ "Miguel Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  27. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Miguel %5BUS%5D – All I Want Is You" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
  28. ^ "2023 3-os savaitės klausomiausi (Top 100)" (in Lithuanian). AGATA. January 20, 2023. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  29. ^ "Veckolista Album, vecka 3, 2023". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  30. ^ "Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2011". Billboard. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
  31. ^ "Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2011". Billboard. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
  32. ^ "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2012". Billboard. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  33. ^ "Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2023". Billboard. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  34. ^ "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2023". Billboard. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  35. ^ "Danish album certifications – Miguel – All I Want Is You". IFPI Danmark. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  36. ^ "American album certifications – Miguel – All I Want Is You". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
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