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Sweet Disarray

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Sweet Disarray
Studio album by
Dan Croll
Released10 March 2014
Length38:18
LabelDeram
Dan Croll chronology
Sweet Disarray
(2014) 		Emerging Adulthood
(2017)
Singles from Sweet Disarray
  1. "From Nowhere"
    Released: 24 September 2012
  2. "Compliment Your Soul"
    Released: 1 April 2013
  3. "In/Out"
    Released: 12 July 2013
  4. "Home"
    Released: 1 December 2013

Sweet Disarray is the debut studio album by British recording artist Dan Croll. It was released on 10 March 2014 by Deram Records in the United Kingdom.

Composition

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The closing track, "Home", is a sweet, jangly folk-pop tune that was inspired by Croll's days as a broke student, coming home after an ill-advised and ill-prepared-for winter weekend getaway to Berlin.[1]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic59/100[2]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]
Clash6/10[4]
Consequence of SoundD+[5]
DIY[6]
Filter82%[7]
The Guardian[8]
The Irish Times[9]
The Independent[10]
The Independent on Sunday[11]
Under the Radar[12]

At Metacritic, which assigns a rated mean out of 100 from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 59, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".[2] Writing for AllMusic, Timothy Monger gave the album four out of five stars, calling Sweet Disarray a "colorful and immaculately produced debut album" which "proves [that] Croll has both a forward-looking experimentalism and pretty solid songwriting chops to boot. In spite of the extremely high expectations, he has managed a pretty neat debut that will please fans who have been waiting since his early singles".[3] In her review for The Guardian, Caroline Sullivan compared Croll to American singer-songwriter Jack Johnson and declared Sweet Disarray "a pretty good album" that "conflates lilting Scousepop and electronica into a warm nether-genre, with added sleek choruses that sound equally right on 6Music and Radio 1.[8] Filter magazine journalist Laura Studarus called Sweet Disarray "a rare debut, as well crafted as it is likeable". She praised its "sound that suggests Paul McCartney with a taste for Afro-pop, rock, electronics and the occasional grand-sweeping, Paul Simon–style folk gesture."[7]

DIY author Emma Swann felt that "despite [its] variety, not once does the record feel disjointed, or out of place. It’s a skill, but Croll’s soothing vocals, as well as he and his team’s spot-on engineering of the whole lot means it can slide from that soaring single to Croll’s inner Justin Timberlake via steel guitars and ukulele without missing a beat. It’s pleasantly pristine stuff from the still relative newcomer".[6] Joe Rivers, writing for Clash magazine, found that Sweet Disarray was "patchy" and that it "would be an unremarkable singer-songwriter album were it not for Croll's welcome smatterings of electronica, soul and, most intriguingly, Afrobeat throughout.[4] In his The Independent review, Andy Gill wrote that Croll's "ambitious arrangements need more disarray, and less sweetness".[10] Similarly, Kate Wills from sister newspaper The Independent on Sunday concluded that Sweet Disarray "won’t frighten the horses, but it might encourage you to buy an overpriced T-shirt. Job’s a good ’un."[11] Less impressed, Randall Colburn from Consequence of Sound felt that the album "reads more like a college thesis designed to satiate a panel of professors than it does an original document". He added that it "sounds like a who’s who of Spotify buzz bands, a time-stamped memo alerting music executives to the mainstream’s idea of indie rock [...] Croll remains a mystery, a patchwork of influences content to blend in, not to stand out."[5]

Commercial performance

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Sweet Disarray debuted and peaked at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart in the week of 16 March 2014.[13] In the United States, it reached number 12 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart.[14]

Track listing

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Credits adapted from the liner notes of Sweet Disarray.[15]

Sweet Disarray – Standard edition
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."From Nowhere"
  • Croll
  • Joe Wills
  • Wills
3:17
2."Thinkin Aboutchu"
  • Howe
  • Wills
2:59
3."Wanna Know"
  • Jonathan Gilmore
  • Wills
2:35
4."In/Out"
  • Croll
  • Wills
3:14
5."Compliment Your Soul"
  • Croll
  • Johan Karlberg
  • Croll
  • Wills
3:02
6."Only Ghost"
  • Croll
  • Wills
3:00
7."Can You Hear Me"
  • Croll
  • Wills
  • Wills
3:31
8."Sweet Disarray"
  • Croll
  • Wills
  • Wills
3:25
9."Maway"
  • Croll
  • Wills
3:14
10."Must Be Leaving"
  • Croll
  • Jethro Fox
  • Eric Molumby
  • Wills
3:00
11."Always Like This"
  • Croll
  • Wills
3:12
12."Home"
  • Croll
  • Wills
3:49
Sweet Disarray – Deluxe edition
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
13."Nobody Knows (Edit)" (featuring The Very Best)
  • Hugo
3:26
14."Nobody Knows" (featuring The Very Best)
  • Croll
  • Hugo
  • Mwamwaya
  • Hugo
3:41
15."If You Want Me (Edit)"
  • Croll
  • Carl Arvid Lehne
Lehne3:36
16."If You Want Me"
  • Croll
  • Carl Arvid Lehne
Lehne4:13
17."Hello My Baby" (featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
  • Jonathan Gilmore
  • Croll
4:29
18."Maway" (featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
  • Croll
  • Shabalala
  • Gilmore
  • Croll
2:36
19."Home" (featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
  • Croll
  • Shabalala
  • Gilmore
  • Croll
3:52
20."Cinnamon"
  • Croll
  • Joe Wills
Wills2:59
21."Ever At Your Side"CrollWills3:12
22."Eyes Together"CrollWills2:56
Total length:73:07

Charts

[edit]
Weekly chart performance for Sweet Disarray
Chart (2014) Peak
position
UK Albums (OCC)[13] 26
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[14] 12

References

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  1. ^ "It's Good To Gather Moss: A Young Artist On Missing 'Home'". NPR.corg. 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
  2. ^ a b "Sweet Disarray Reviews". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  3. ^ a b Monger, Timothy. "Sweet Disarray - Dan Croll". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  4. ^ a b Rivers, Joe (14 March 2014). "Dan Croll – Sweet Disarray". Clash. Music Republic Ltd. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  5. ^ a b Colburn, Randall (2014-04-04). "Album Review: Dan Croll – Sweet Disarray". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  6. ^ a b Swann, Emma. "Dan Croll - Sweet Disarray". Thisisfakediy.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  7. ^ a b Studarus, Laura (2014-03-12). "Album Review". Filtermagazine.com. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  8. ^ a b Sullivan, Caroline (6 March 2014). "Dan Croll: Sweet Disarray review – Sleek, vibrant Scousepop". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  9. ^ "Dan Croll: Sweet Disarray". The Irish Times. March 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2015
  10. ^ a b Gill, Andy (9 March 2014). "Album reviews: Metronomy, Dan Croll, Joan As Police Woman, Micah P. Hinson, Christine Tobin, Dean Wareham". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26.
  11. ^ a b "Album reviews: Elbow, Mo, Dan Croll, Ann Peebles, Arve Henriksen". The Independent on Sunday. 2014-03-09. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  12. ^ Hamilton, Billy (31 March 2014). "Dan Croll: Sweet Disarray (Capitol) Review". Under the Radar. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  14. ^ a b "Dan Croll Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  15. ^ Sweet Disarray (Media notes). Dan Croll. Deram Records. 2014.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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