TLC
Studio album by
TLC
ReleasedJune 30, 2017 (2017-06-30)
Recorded2015–2017
StudioHalpern (Atlanta, Georgia)
GenreR&B[1]
Length41:05
Label852 Musiq
Producer
TLC chronology
20
(2013)		 TLC
(2017)
Singles from TLC
  1. "Joy Ride"
    Released: October 26, 2016[2]
  2. "Haters"
    Released: October 26, 2016[3]
  3. "Way Back"
    Released: April 14, 2017[4]

TLC is the fifth and final studio album by American girl group TLC, released on June 30, 2017, by their label 852 Musiq.[5][6] TLC partnered with various distribution companies: Sony Music RED (North America), Liberation Music (Australia), Warner Music Group (Japan), and Cooking Vinyl (the rest of the world).[7] TLC is mainly a pop and R&B album with 1990s music influences.[1] It is their first studio album in 15 years following the 2002 release of 3D.

The album received generally positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised the throwback sound included on the album, though some criticized the album for not living up to their legacy. The album debuted at number 38 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 12,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, 11,000 of which were pure sales. The album also reached number 20 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number 40 on the UK Albums Chart.

TLC spawned the single "Way Back" which became their fourth Billboard Adult R&B top-10 entry, eventually peaking at number eight. "Haters" was released as the lead international single.

The UK-only deluxe edition features re-recorded versions of the singles "No Scrubs", "Creep", "Unpretty", "Baby-Baby-Baby", and "Diggin' on You".[5] The same recordings were included in the Japan-only 2013 release TLC 20 and were used in the group's television biopic CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story.

Background

On January 19, 2015, TLC announced their plan to release what they called their "final" album with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign. They asked fans to help finance the project by donating a pledge of at least $5 to reach their goal of $150,000.[8] In less than 48 hours, they surpassed their goal and become the "fastest most funded pop project in Kickstarter history". Among other artists who donated were New Kids on the Block (donating $10,000), Katy Perry (donating $5,000), Soulja Boy, Bette Midler and Justin Timberlake. The Kickstarter campaign raised a total of $400,000. In an interview published following the end of the campaign, Watkins and Thomas clarified that they would never split up following the release and promotion of the album, and that they would continue to perform together as TLC.[9]

During the development of their album, Watkins and Thomas petitioned Lisa Lopes' brother Ron Lopes for assistance with making Left Eye's presence on the album a possibility since she had an abundance of unreleased material. However, they ultimately passed on using any of Lopes' archive recordings as the available source material conflicted with the sound that they were recording for the album. However, wanting to make a tribute to Lopes as a member of TLC, they settled on creating an interlude sampling portions of her interviews for the album.[10]

Promotion

The album's lead single "Way Back" featuring Snoop Dogg was released on April 14, 2017. The single was produced by D'Mile and was released via TLC's independent label 852 Musiq which is distributed through RED Distribution in the US.[11] The group first performed the song in London in May 2017. In the United States, the group promoted the single, album, and the I Love the 90s: The Party Continues Tour with performances on Today and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

"Haters" was released on October 26, and on November 1, 2016, exclusively (alongside "Joy Ride") in Japan and New Zealand, respectively.[12] The former was later re-released as the lead international single from the album on May 5, 2017.[13]

"American Gold"[14][15] and "It's Sunny"[16][17] were released as promotional singles prior to the album's release. "American Gold" was announced as the second single in the United States in June 2017 by the track's songwriter Candace Wakefield.[18][19] However, no such release materialized and no further singles were released from the album.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?6.4/10[20]
Metacritic63/100[21]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[22]
Clash6/10[23]
Drowned in Sound7/10[24]
Entertainment WeeklyB−[25]
The Guardian[26]
NME[1]
Paste6.1/10[27]
Pitchfork 7.4/10[28]
Prefix Magazine7/10[29]
Slant Magazine[30]

TLC received generally positive reviews from music critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 63 based on 15 reviews. Rachel Aroesti of The Guardian gave the album 4 stars out of 5, calling the album "deeply nostalgic" also stating that it "proves that their winning formula still works."[26] Andy Kellman of AllMusic criticized the album, calling the album "more suited for Radio Disney than for the Hot 97", also targeting the song Haters, saying that it felt like it was more or so written for a teen pop girl group.[22] In a mixed review, Felicity Martin of Clash praised their comeback single "Way Back", calling it the perfect comeback single, and praised some other songs included on the album, however, criticizing songs such as "It's Sunny" for being cheesy.[23] In a positive review, Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly said that the songs on the album were great, but that they did not compare to their past music. Despite this comment, he stated that they were able to move ahead in one aspect: their mature perspective of nostalgia.[25] In another mixed review, Nick Levine of NME criticized some of the songs' cheesiness, along with criticizing some of the songs included on the album for sounding like every other song in the R&B genre. Despite these complaints, he praised the song Scandalous, calling it a return to their former edge.[1] In a positive review, Julianne Shepherd of Pitchfork praised the girl-power anthems included on the album, however stating that the songs do not hold up to their former glory.[28] In another positive review, Philippa Barr of Drowned in Sound praised the dance club anthems on the album, along with the empowerment anthems. However, she criticized the cliché in the song "It's Sunny".[24]

Commercial performance

In the United States, TLC debuted at number 38 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 12,000 album-equivalent units, 11,000 of which were pure sales.[31] The album spent one week on the chart, marking TLC's lowest-charting studio album, and lowest-running studio album. The album performed similarly on the UK Albums Chart when it debuted at number 40;[32] the album charted five spots higher than 3D (2002), making it their highest-charting album on the chart since FanMail (1999).[33]

On the Scottish Albums Chart, the album debuted at number 72, spending one week on the chart.[34] The album also managed to debut at number seven on the Recorded Music NZ Heatseeker Albums chart, where it spent one week on the chart.[35]

Track listing

Standard edition[36]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."No Introduction"
  • Candace Wakefield
  • Elvis Brown
  • Carnoy "Ayo Kayo" Watkins
3:02
2."Way Back" (featuring Snoop Dogg)
D'Mile3:46
3."It's Sunny"
Ron Fair3:23
4."Haters"
  • Busbee
  • Casper & B.
2:40
5."Perfect Girls"
  • Watkins
  • Candace Wakefield
  • Raylene S. Arreguin
  • Ayo Kayo
  • David "Davey Remix" Reed
  • Desmond "Motown" Washington
3:05
6."Interlude" Desmond Peterson1:11
7."Start a Fire"
Kayo4:02
8."American Gold"
  • Watkins
  • Nowee
  • Candace Wakefield
  • Brown
  • Kayo
  • Tipz
3:38
9."Scandalous"
Cory Mo3:32
10."Aye Muthafucka"
  • Watkins
  • Marqueze Etheridge
  • Nowee
  • Drephantom
  • Tipz
3:16
11."Joy Ride"Muhammad
  • Knotch
  • Tipz
  • Chris "Big Duke" Malloy
  • Niko McKnight
  • Raymond "Ray Keys" Komba
4:18
12."Way Back" (featuring Snoop Dogg) (extended version)
  • Watkins
  • Abrahart
  • Broadus
  • Dernst Emile II
D'Mile4:26
Total length:41:05
Deluxe edition (bonus tracks)[5]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
13."No Scrubs" (2013 re-recording)
She'kspere3:32
14."Creep" (2013 re-recording)Dallas AustinAustin4:23
15."Unpretty" (2013 re-recording)
  • Austin
  • Watkins
Austin4:38
16."Baby-Baby-Baby" (2013 re-recording)
  • Reid
  • Babyface
  • Simmons
4:58
17."Diggin' on You" (2013 re-recording)EdmondsBabyface4:09
Total length:62:45
Japanese and online store standard edition (bonus tracks)
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
13."Joy Ride" (TJO remix)
  • Muhammad
  • Komba Raymond Aiah Jr.
  • Knotch
  • Tipz
  • Tipz
  • Knotch
4:18
14."It's Sunny" (Lucas Valentine remix)
  • Hebb
  • McKay
  • White
  • Willis
  • Watkins
  • Muhammad
  • Fair
  • Lucas Valentine
3:23
Total length:48:46

Personnel

Credits for TLC adapted from AllMusic.[38]

  • Chris Athens – mastering
  • Luke Austin – keyboards
  • Leslie Brathwaite – mastering, mixing
  • Mike Busbee – production
  • Casper & B. – production
  • Bill Diggins – production
  • Theodore "NoizeBeatz" Lawrence – production
  • Charles Dunlap – production
  • Terrence "Grad Teachem" Dunlap – vocals
  • Devon Eisenberger – guitar
  • Dernst Emile II – keyboards, production, programming
  • Ron Fair – additional production, engineering, executive production, piano, production, vocal production
  • Kevin Hellon – bass
  • Debra Killings – background vocals
  • Raymond Komba – keyboards, production
  • Dennis Leupold – photography
  • Chris Malloy – production
  • Cory "Knotch" Marks – drum programming, production, programming
  • Niko McKnight – guitar, production
  • Cory Mo – drum programming, engineering, keyboards, mixing, production, synthesizer, vocal engineering
  • Zach Nicholls – engineering, mixing, mixing engineering, vocal engineering
  • Desmond Peterson – production
  • David Reed – production
  • Joshua "Tipz" Richardson – engineering, production
  • Lucas Sader – guitars
  • Peter Sharkey – programming
  • Snoop Dogg – featured artist
  • Gavin Taylor – creative direction, design
  • Patrick Thrall – vocal engineering
  • TLC – primary artist
  • Desmond "Motown" Washington – production
  • Carnoy "Ayo Kayo" Watkins – production
  • Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins – production

Charts

Chart performance for TLC
Chart (2017) Peak
position
Australian Digital Albums (ARIA)[39] 34
Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[40] 25
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[41] 166
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[42] 81
Greek Albums (IFPI)[43] 42
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[44] 62
New Zealand Heatseeker Albums (RMNZ)[35] 7
Scottish Albums (OCC)[34] 72
UK Albums (OCC)[32] 40
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[45] 3
UK R&B Albums (OCC)[46] 1
US Billboard 200[47] 38
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[48] 1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[49] 20

Sales

Region Sales
Japan[50] 4,586

Release history

List of release dates and formats for TLC
Region Date Format Edition Label
United States June 30, 2017
  • Standard
  • deluxe
  • 852 Musiq
  • Sony Music RED[6]
United Kingdom Cooking Vinyl[36]
France[51]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Levine, Nick (June 29, 2017). "TLC – TLC Album Review". NME. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  2. ↑ "TLCの「Joy Ride – Single」". Apple Music. Japan. October 26, 2016.
  3. ↑ "TLCの「Haters – Single」". Apple Music. Japan. October 26, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Way Back (feat. Snoop Dogg) – Single by TLC". Apple Music. Australia. April 14, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 "TLC (Deluxe) by TLC on Apple Music". iTunes Store. United Kingdom. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  6. 1 2 "TLC by TLC on Apple Music". iTunes Store. United States. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  7. ↑ "TLC Form New Label '852 Musiq' For Upcoming Album – CyberTLC World". Cybertlc.world. Archived from the original on April 23, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  8. ↑ Bradley Stern (January 19, 2015). "TLC on Kickstarter, Lady Gaga and Making New Music". TIME.com. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  9. ↑ "The SPIN Interview: TLC Look Back on Their First Decade and Ahead to Their Final Album". Spin. February 26, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  10. ↑ "TLC duo wasn't able to use Left Eye's music on their new album". Music-News.com.
  11. ↑ "Way Back (feat. Snoop Dogg) – Single by TLC". iTunes Store. Australia. April 14, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Haters – Single by TLC". iTunes Store. New Zealand. November 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  13. ↑ "TLC: Haters on Google Play". Google Play Store. United Kingdom. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  14. ↑ Fresh, Mikey (June 23, 2017). "TLC Debuts Uplifting New Song, "American Gold"".
  15. ↑ "TLC – American Gold (Audio)" – via www.youtube.com.
  16. ↑ "TLC Returns With A New Single "It's Sunny" – Sways Universe". swaysuniverse.com. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017.
  17. ↑ "TLC – It's Sunny (Audio)" – via www.youtube.com.
  18. ↑ "CANDACE WAKEFIELD on Instagram: "When you find out you and ya Besty have the new TLC SINGLE "AMERICAN GOLD" 🤗 GOD IS AMAZING we were super fans, now super friends AND now…"". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021.
  19. ↑ @SuPaStAr_C (June 23, 2017). "When you find out you and best have the new TLC SINGLE "AMERICAN GOLD" 🤗 GOD IS AMAZING we were…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  20. ↑ "TLC by TLC reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. June 30, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  21. ↑ "Reviews and Tracks for TLC by TLC". Metacritic. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  22. 1 2 Kellman, Andy. "TLC – TLC". AllMusic. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  23. 1 2 Martin, Felicity (August 3, 2017). "TLC – TLC". Clash. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  24. 1 2 Bar, Philippa (June 30, 2017). "TLC – TLC". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on April 7, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  25. 1 2 Farber, Jim. "TLC's new album will make fans nostalgic: EW review". Entertainment Weekly.
  26. 1 2 Aroesti, Rachel (June 30, 2017). "TLC: TLC review – Chilli and T-Boz turn back time". The Guardian. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  27. ↑ Voynovskaya, Nastia (July 7, 2017). "TLC: TLC Review". Paste. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  28. 1 2 Shepherd, Julianne (July 6, 2017). "TLC: TLC Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  29. ↑ O'Brien, Jon (July 6, 2017). "TLC: TLC Album Review". Prefix Magazine. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  30. ↑ "Slant review". Slant Magazine. July 4, 2017.
  31. ↑ Zellner, Xander (July 14, 2017). "TLC Joins De La Soul & More Artists With Crowdfunded Albums on the Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
  32. 1 2 "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  33. ↑ "TLC | full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
  34. 1 2 "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  35. 1 2 "Heatseeker Albums". Recorded Music NZ. July 10, 2017. Archived from the original on July 22, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  36. 1 2 "TLC by TLC on Apple Music". iTunes Store. United Kingdom. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  37. ↑ "ACE Repertory)". ASCAP. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  38. ↑ Kellman, Andy. "TLC – TLC | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
  39. ↑ "ARIA Digital Albums Chart" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. July 10, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  40. ↑ "ARIA Urban Albums Chart" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. July 10, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  41. ↑ "Ultratop.be – TLC – TLC" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  42. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – TLC – TLC" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  43. ↑ "Official IFPI Charts – Top-75 Albums Sales Chart (Week: 29/2017)". IFPI Greece. Archived from the original on July 31, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  44. ↑ "TLC | TLC" (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on July 30, 2022. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  45. ↑ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  46. ↑ "Official R&B Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  47. ↑ "TLC Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  48. ↑ "TLC Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  49. ↑ "TLC Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  50. ↑ オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」 －CD・ブルーレイ・DVD・書籍・コミック－ (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  51. ↑ "TLC (Deluxe) de TLC sur Apple Music". iTunes Store. France. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
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