Late Nights & Early Mornings is the debut studio album by English recording artist and previous Floetry

Floetry

Floetry was a British R&B duo comprising Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart . The group recorded two studio albums, one live album, and sold over 800,000 records worldwide. Formed in 1999, Floetry started on the performance poetry stage.In 2002, the duo released their first album entitled, Floetic...

 member Marsha Ambrosius

Marsha Ambrosius

Marsha Ambrosius or Marsha is an English singer/songwriter. A former member of the English Soul/R&B duo Floetry, she released her first solo album Late Nights & Early Mornings on March 1, 2011.-Early career with Floetry:...

. It was released by J Records

J Records

J Records was an American record label, owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment, and was distributed through the RCA Music Group.-Company history:...

 on March 1, 2011. This was Ambrosius' only album with J Records

J Records

J Records was an American record label, owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment, and was distributed through the RCA Music Group.-Company history:...

. The album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 with 96,400 copies sold in the first week.

Background

Songs from the album were produced and written by Ambrosius herself with other contributors, including Just Blaze

Just Blaze

Justin Smith, better known as Just Blaze, is an American hip hop music producer from Paterson, New Jersey. Blaze is also the CEO of Fort Knocks Entertainment. He is most well known for producing Jay-Z songs on the albums The Blueprint, The Blueprint 2, and The Black Album. He is also known for...

, Dre & Vidal

Dre & Vidal

Dre & Vidal is a Multi-Grammy Award Winning songwriting and production duo consisting of Andre Harris and Vidal Davis, who are best known as the main producers for Jill Scott and Glenn Lewis...

, Focus...

Focus...

Bernard "Focus..." Edwards, Jr is a Atlanta-based Grammy Award–winning producer who first rose to fame when signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. Since then he has produced tracks for Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé Knowles, Busta Rhymes, Bishop Lamont, Tony Yayo, Stat Quo,...

 and co-writing credits by Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys

Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...

 and Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Noelle Hill is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.Early in her career, she established her reputation as a member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, The Miseducation of...

  The album also contains a cover version of Portishead's "Sour Times

Sour Times

"Sour Times" is a song by English trip hop group Portishead, released as their second-ever single in August 1994. Written by all three members of the band, "Sour Times" features on Portishead's debut album Dummy...

".

Music

Ambrosius said that the overall vibe of the album is "sensual, it’s sincere, it’s seductive" and also explained, “Not too many women get the opportunity to say what they want, and having controlled and written pretty much everything I get to do all of that on one album. J Records, they understood me as an artist and said, ‘What do you want? How do you want to sound? What do you feel like your album should be’ and they allowed me to go in the studio.” Ambrosius describes the song, "Hope She Cheats on You (With a Basketball Player)" as "the reality of a bad break up. "

Singles

"Hope She Cheats On You (With A Basketball Player)

Hope She Cheats on You (With a Basketball Player)

"Hope She Cheats On You " is a song by English recording artist Marsha Ambrosius. It was released on August 13, 2010 as the lead single from her debut studio album, Late Nights & Early Mornings.-Background:...

" was released as the album's first single on August 13, 2010. The song charted on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and peaked at number twenty-two. "Far Away" was released as the album's second single on December 7, 2010. Produced by Just Blaze

Just Blaze

Justin Smith, better known as Just Blaze, is an American hip hop music producer from Paterson, New Jersey. Blaze is also the CEO of Fort Knocks Entertainment. He is most well known for producing Jay-Z songs on the albums The Blueprint, The Blueprint 2, and The Black Album. He is also known for...

 and written by Marsha Ambrosius

Marsha Ambrosius

Marsha Ambrosius or Marsha is an English singer/songwriter. A former member of the English Soul/R&B duo Floetry, she released her first solo album Late Nights & Early Mornings on March 1, 2011.-Early career with Floetry:...

 co-written by Sterling Simms

Sterling Simms

Sterling Simms , is an American R&B singer-songwriter. His debut album, Yours, Mine & The Truth was released on December 23, 2008 by Def Jam Records. He is currently working on his sophomore album on J Records, and recently released a mixtape entitled July's Finest.- Biography and career :Sterling...

.
"Far Away

Far Away (Marsha Ambrosius song)

"Far Away" is a song by English recording artist Marsha Ambrosius. It was released on December 7, 2010 as the second single from her debut studio album, Late Nights & Early Mornings. The album was subsequently released on March 1, 2011...

" was released on December 7, 2010 as the second single. The track was inspired by one of Ambrosius's own friends who committed suicide, and discusses how it feels once someone she's loved is gone. This song has also reached #3 on Billboard's "R&B/Hip-Hop Songs" chart. "Late Nights & Early Mornings" The title track has been released as the third single.

Critical reception

The album has received positive reviews from Allmusic and DJBooth. DJBooth.net's Nathan S. referred to the album as a "near-classic," stating "Marsha Ambrosius’ debut is the R&B album of the year."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 2 on the United States Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 chart with 96,400 copies sold in the first week. As of June 15, 2011, the album has sold 306,700 units in the United States.

Track listing

Chart positions

Chart (2011)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	2
U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...	1