First Love (Emmy the Great album)
Encyclopedia
First Love is the first studio album from the London singer-songwriter Emma-Lee Moss, better known by her stage name Emmy the Great
. It was released on 9 February 2009 on the UK
-based indie label Close Harbour Records.
The first single, "We Almost Had A Baby", was released on 10 November 2008. In January 2009, a promotional version of the album was leaked on a number of music forums. Moss then posted a blog on her MySpace
page asking people not to download it, saying that the first run of promos had been of the wrong master, and were of a lower quality than the album that would be released officially.
Music videos were released for "We Almost Had A Baby", "First Love" and "MIA".
praised it as "a triumph, with a maturity beyond her years, and with a humour no less enjoyable for being subtle", while The Guardian
described Moss' style as "ultra-wordy, but also articulate and interesting." NME
, however, was more equivocal, criticising her "constant stance of diary-entry victimhood" as becoming "more grating than engaging". Moss' songwriting was widely praised, with webzine TwistedEar saying that her lyrics are "Emmy the Great's secret weapon, and save First Love from mediocrity."
The album was ranked at #7 on the New York Times "Albums of the Year 2009" list.
Emmy the Great
Emma-Lee Moss , known by her stage name Emmy the Great, is a London-based singer-songwriter. She has released two albums, First Love and Virtue.-Early life:Moss was born in Hong Kong to an English father and a Chinese mother...
. It was released on 9 February 2009 on the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based indie label Close Harbour Records.
Background
Moss explains that she never chose to write any of the album's songs any certain way, "they just came out". She does, however, admit that "...breaking up with my boyfriend when I did had a huge influence." She describes the album as "a record of the time that it was made, and the time I spent waiting for it to come out, and now that time is over. It’s actually quite weird that other people are only just hearing it. Members of my family will bring up a song and I’ll be like, 'that is so 2008.'"The first single, "We Almost Had A Baby", was released on 10 November 2008. In January 2009, a promotional version of the album was leaked on a number of music forums. Moss then posted a blog on her MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page asking people not to download it, saying that the first run of promos had been of the wrong master, and were of a lower quality than the album that would be released officially.
Music videos were released for "We Almost Had A Baby", "First Love" and "MIA".
Critical response
The album met with generally positive reviews on release. British webzine Drowned in SoundDrowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
praised it as "a triumph, with a maturity beyond her years, and with a humour no less enjoyable for being subtle", while The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
described Moss' style as "ultra-wordy, but also articulate and interesting." NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, however, was more equivocal, criticising her "constant stance of diary-entry victimhood" as becoming "more grating than engaging". Moss' songwriting was widely praised, with webzine TwistedEar saying that her lyrics are "Emmy the Great's secret weapon, and save First Love from mediocrity."
The album was ranked at #7 on the New York Times "Albums of the Year 2009" list.