Oh Land (album)

Oh Land
Studio album by Oh Land
Released	14 March 2011
Recorded	2009–10; Mr. Dan's Streathem (United Kingdom) Premier Recording Studio (New York City) Secret Frequency Studio (Los Angeles)
Genre	Electropop[1]
Length	39:53
Label	Fake Diamond A:larm
Producer	Dan Carey Dave McCracken Lester Mendez
Oh Land chronology
Fauna (2008) Oh Land (2011) Wish Bone (2013)
Singles from Oh Land
"Sun of a Gun" Released: 4 October 2010 "Wolf & I" Released: 13 March 2011 "Voodoo" Released: 3 April 2011 "White Nights" Released: 22 May 2011 "Speak Out Now" Released: 28 November 2011

Oh Land is the second studio album and major-label debut album by Danish recording artist Oh Land. It was released on 14 March 2011 by Fake Diamond Records and A:larm Music. An extended play with the same name was released in advance on 19 October 2010, containing four tracks from the full-length album.^[2]

"Sun of a Gun" was released as the album's lead single on 4 October 2010.^[3] "Wolf & I", "Voodoo" and "White Nights" were released as singles on 13 March, 3 April and 22 May 2011, respectively.^[4][5][6] A deluxe edition of the album was released in Denmark on 5 December 2011, including the single "Speak Out Now", which was released on 28 November 2011.^[7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	62/100[8]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
BBC Music	mixed[9]
Berlingske	[10]
Billboard	positive[11]
Drowned in Sound	5/10[12]
Ekstra Bladet	[13]
Gaffa	[14]
Politiken	[15]
Slant Magazine	[16]
Spin	7/10[17]

Oh Land received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 62, based on seven reviews.^[8] Barry Walters of Spin wrote, "This stunning Dane's synths-plus-strings slant on singer-songwriter lovesickness offers refinement over innovation, yet Nanna Øland Fabricius beguiles with a gently insistent presence."^[17] Kerri Mason of Billboard opined that Oh Land "might have made the year's first great left-field pop album", praising the songs as "endlessly catchy" and concluding that "the tilting scales of light and dark give the collection a definite creep factor and a clever complexity."^[11] AllMusic's Andrew Leahey described the album as an "'anything goes' mix of club, dance, and nocturnal electro-pop", adding that Oh Land "doesn't rewrite the rule book as much as join the ranks of La Roux, Little Boots, and Janelle Monáe. But that doesn't keep her debut album from churning out a number of intelligent club anthems".^[1]

In a mixed review, Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani expressed that Oh Land's "cinematic arrangements bring Janelle Monáe's ambitious approach to pop music to mind, but tracks like 'Wolf & I' and 'Lean' draw a bit too heavily from the trip-hop playbook [...] and, however well-excecuted [sic] they may be, end up sounding derivative."^[16] Similarly, Fraser McAlpine of BBC Music felt that "there's a bit of an identity void at the heart of the thing, a lack of personality. It might just be that Oh Land is more skilled at getting songs to sound current than she is at expressing herself."^[9] Drowned in Sound's John Calvert called the album "hip, diverse and always vibrant", but also branded it "pretty forgettable". Calvert pointed out the production work of Dave McCracken and Dan Carey, noting the album "inhabits a tepid middle ground between the two extremes—offering neither gilded Scandi chart-pop (Robyn, Annie) or the artistic mettle of Scandi indie bands, most of whom are able to turn out sublime pop anyway."^[12]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer	Length
1.	"Perfection"	Nanna Øland Fabricius Dan Carey	Carey	4:59
2.	"Break the Chain"	Fabricius Dave McCracken	McCracken	3:17
3.	"Sun of a Gun"	Fabricius Jimmy Harry	McCracken	3:25
4.	"Voodoo"	Fabricius Carey	Carey	2:51
5.	"Lean"	Fabricius Carey	Carey	3:28
6.	"Wolf & I"	Fabricius Owen Beverly	Carey	4:37
7.	"Human"	Fabricius E. Kidd Bogart	Carey	4:08
8.	"White Nights"	Fabricius McCracken	McCracken	3:45
9.	"Helicopter"	Fabricius Lester Mendez	Mendez	3:31
10.	"We Turn It Up"	Fabricius McCracken Brian Fallon	McCracken	2:31
11.	"Rainbow"	Fabricius McCracken	McCracken	3:21

Digital edition bonus videos (except Nordic countries)[18][19]
No.	Title	Length
12.	"Sun of a Gun"	3:23
13.	"Sun of a Gun" (live)	3:20
14.	"White Nights" (live)	3:42
15.	"Wolf & I" (live)	5:04
16.	"Perfection" (live)	4:43

Danish deluxe edition bonus tracks[20][21]
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer	Length
12.	"Speak Out Now"	Fabricius Kristian Leth Fridolin Nordsø		3:28
13.	"Twist"	Fabricius Ryan Breen	Carey	2:52
14.	"En Linedanser"	Fabricius		3:38

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Oh Land.^[22]

Oh Land – vocals, choir, choir arrangement, vocal arrangement (all tracks); string arrangements (tracks 1, 5); instrumentation (tracks 2–8, 10, 11) Jonathan Adelman – booking Adam Ayan – mastering (track 4) Ben Baptie – mixing assistance (track 4) Angus Baskerville – booking Charlie Bisharat – violin (track 9) Dan Carey – engineering, production (tracks 1, 4–7); mixing (tracks 1, 5, 6); string arrangements (tracks 1, 5); instrumentation (tracks 4–7) Marty Diamond – booking Isabella Dunn – cello (tracks 1, 5, 7) Jason Edwards – booking Tom Elmhirst – mixing (track 4) Robbie Fimmano – photography Serban Ghenea – mixing (tracks 3, 7, 8, 10) John Hanes – mixing assistance (tracks 3, 7, 8, 10) Mikkel Hess – drum performance (tracks 2, 3, 8, 10, 11) Todd Interland – management

Eske Kath – artwork Jesper Kemp – booking Farra Mathews – A&R, management Dave McCracken – instrumentation, production (tracks 2, 3, 8, 10, 11) Lester Mendez – engineering, keyboards, piano, production, programming, string arrangements (track 9) NR2154 – art direction, design Joel Numa – engineering (track 9) John O'Mahony – mixing (tracks 2, 9, 11) Stella Page – violin (tracks 1, 5, 7) Antonia Pagulatos – violin (tracks 1, 5, 7) Mike Pagulatos – viola (tracks 1, 5, 7) Sophie Rivlin – cello (track 7) Andros Rodriguez – engineering (tracks 2, 3, 8, 10, 11) Alexis Smith – engineering (tracks 1, 4–7); mixing assistance (tracks 1, 5, 6) Cameron Stone – cello (track 9) Max de Wardener – string arrangements and conducting (track 7)

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2011) Peak position Danish Albums Chart[23] 5 US Billboard 200[24] 184 US Alternative Albums[25] 24 US Rock Albums[26] 43

Year-end charts Chart (2011) Position Danish Albums Chart[27] 31 Chart (2012) Position Danish Albums Chart[28] 50

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)[29]	Platinum	20,000
^^shipments figures based on certification alone

Release history

Region	Date	Format(s)	Edition	Label	Ref.
Denmark	14 March 2011	CD LP digital download	Standard	Fake Diamond A:larm	[30][31]
United States	15 March 2011	CD digital download		Epic	[18][32]
Canada		Digital download		Sony	[33]
	24 May 2011	CD			[34]
France	6 June 2011				[35]
	13 June 2011	Digital download			[19]
Poland		CD			[36]
United Kingdom		Digital download		Epic	[37]
Germany	5 August 2011	CD digital download		Sony	[38][39]
Italy	25 October 2011				[40][41]
United Kingdom	21 November 2011	CD		RCA	[42]
Denmark	5 December 2011	CD digital download	Deluxe	Fake Diamond A:larm	[20][21]

References

1. Leahey, Andrew. "Oh Land – Oh Land". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
2. "Oh Land – EP by Oh Land". iTunes Store (DK). Apple. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
3. "Sun of a Gun – Single by Oh Land". iTunes Store (DK). Apple. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
4. "Wolf & I: Oh Land: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
5. "Voodoo: Oh Land: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
6. "White Nights – EP by Oh Land". iTunes Store (DE). Apple. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
7. "Speak Out Now – Single by Oh Land". iTunes Store (DK). Apple. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
8. "Oh Land – Oh Land". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
9. McAlpine, Fraser (14 November 2011). "Review of Oh Land – Oh Land". BBC Music. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
10. Hansen, Thomas Søie (12 March 2011). "Hvilken vellyd!". Berlingske (in Danish). Berlingske Media. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
11. Mason, Kerri (25 March 2011). "Oh Land, "Oh Land"". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
12. Calvert, John (9 December 2011). "Oh Land – Oh Land". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
13. Queitsch, Henrik (13 March 2011). "Stjernerne kalder". Ekstra Bladet (in Danish). JP/Politikens Hus. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
14. Gonzalez, Michael Jose (14 March 2011). "Oh Land: Oh Land". Gaffa (in Danish). Retrieved 13 April 2012.
15. Skotte, Kim (12 March 2011). "Dansk musikkomet har ingen fejlskud i pop-bøssen". Politiken (in Danish). JP/Politikens Hus. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
16. Cinquemani, Sal (8 March 2011). "Oh Land: Oh Land". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
17. Walters, Barry (15 March 2011). "Oh Land, 'Oh Land' (Epic)". Spin. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
18. "Oh Land by Oh Land". iTunes Store (US). Apple. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
19. "Oh Land [+video]: Oh Land: Téléchargements MP3" (in French). Amazon.fr. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
20. "Oh Land (Deluxe) – Album – Oh Land" (select "Fakta" tab) (in Danish). CDON.dk. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
21. "Oh Land (Deluxe Album) by Oh Land". iTunes Store (DK). Apple. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
22. Oh Land (CD liner notes). Oh Land. Fake Diamond Records. 2011. FDRCD016.
23. "Oh Land – Oh Land". danishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
24. "Oh Land – Chart history: Billboard 200". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
25. "Oh Land – Chart history: Alternative Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
26. "Oh Land – Chart history: Rock Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
27. "Album Top-100 2011" (in Danish). Hitlisten.NU. IFPI Denmark. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
28. "Album Top-100 2012" (in Danish). Hitlisten.NU. IFPI Denmark. Archived from the original on 4 April 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
29. "Oh Land "Oh Land" (ALARM)" (in Danish). IFPI Denmark. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
30. "Oh Land "Oh Land"". Fake Diamond Records. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
31. "Oh Land by Oh Land". iTunes Store (DK). Apple. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
32. "Oh Land: Oh Land". Amazon.com. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
33. "Oh Land by Oh Land". 7digital (CA). Retrieved 7 November 2014.
34. "Oh Land by Oh Land". HMV Canada. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
35. "Oh Land : Oh Land" (in French). Fnac. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
36. "Oh Land – Oh Land" (in Polish). Empik. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
37. "Oh Land: Oh Land: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
38. "Oh Land – Oh Land" (in German). Sony Music Entertainment Germany. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
39. "Oh Land: Oh Land: MP3-Downloads" (in German). Amazon.de. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
40. "Oh Land: Oh Land" (in Italian). Amazon.it. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
41. "Oh Land: Oh Land: Musica Digitale" (in Italian). Amazon.it. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
42. "Oh Land: Oh Land". HMV. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2011.