Tiger Suit
Encyclopedia
Tiger Suit is the third studio album
by Scottish
singer-songwriter
KT Tunstall
. It was released by Relentless Records
in Ireland
on 24 September 2010, in the United Kingdom
on 27 September 2010 and in the United States
and Canada
on 5 October 2010. However despite these release dates, iTunes Canada has the album available for pre-order with an arrival date of September 28, 2010 a full week before the release of the physical disc.
The album features more contemporary ingredients than her previous work. Several tracks harness electronic beats to her acoustic guitar.
"Fade Like a Shadow
" was lead single
in the United States and was released on 6 August 2010 via iTunes
, and "(Still a) Weirdo
" in the United Kingdom was released on 26 September 2010 via iTunes.
On July 2010, as advance to the album, Tunstall uploaded via YouTube
a non-single video for the song "Push That Knot Away".
On 6 September 2010, Amazon.co.uk released a bonus track called "It Doesn't Have To Be Like This (Baby)" as a free download pre-release track of the album, available only in the United Kingdom, later being included on the AmazonMP3 version of the album in the US. The same track along with LCD Soundsystem's live cover "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" from The Hiro Ballroom are available on the Japanese edition of the album.
She stated down the line from a promo stop in Minneapolis that she doesn't write on tour, "so it was essential that I took time out from her previous album Drastic Fantastic
". She had started her time off by traveling through the Arctic, South America and India, so she had locked into a very primal, indigenous spirit by the time it came to recording.
Tunstall said that the album's title is inspired by a recurring dream she had, before discovering that 2010 is the Chinese Year of the Tiger. The dream is about her, seeing a tiger in her garden and goes outside to stroke it. She returns indoors and is seized by the fear that she could have been killed. Over the years, it has occurred to her that the reason the tiger responds so passively is that she herself is disguised as a tiger, wearing a tiger suit.
She said that while writing and recording the album, she found a new sound she called "Nature techno", which mixes organic instrumentation with electronic and dance textures, much like Bjork
has been doing since 1993. At a media showcase in London, KT Tunstall offered an unusual description of the songs from her forthcoming third album: "Like Eddie Cochran
working with Leftfield
".
reports a normalised
rating of 73% based on fourteen critic reviews and AnyDecentMusic?
reports a rating of 7.0 based on thirteen reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine
of Allmusic gave it 4.5 out of five, saying it is "built upon Tunstall’s strongest set of songs yet" and calling it "an excellent album that satisfies as pure sound and as songwriting sustenance". Charlotte Richardson Andrews of The Guardian
called it an "inventive follow-up to 2007's Drastic Fantastic, which merges her raspy folk with free-spirited campfire rhythms" and found it "introspective in places, but mostly [...] fierce, claws-out fun". Rick Pearson of the Evening Standard
awarded Tiger Suit four out of five stars, saying that Tunstall "has set her sights on the dancefloor with its 11 up-tempo tracks" and that "the album adds synthesisers and drum machines to Tunstall's platinum-selling pop formula". Victoria Dillingham of musicOMH
wrote that "despite her self-confessed lack of confidence when it comes to crossing musical boundaries, Tunstall proves that in the guise of her Tiger Suit she can achieve anything she puts her mind to. Greg Kot from Entertainment Weekly
thought that "with commercial radio all about that urban groove thing these days, it's little wonder that the Scottish singer KT Tunstall decorates her Lilith Fair-style songwriting chops with electro-pop beats" and stated that she "keeps enough off-kilter grit in her voice to make the claim in "(Still a) Weirdo
" stick". Fiona Shepherd of The Scotsman
felt that "Tunstall dresses up her songs with brave new sounds but at heart she's still a pop songwriter with rootsy inclinations" and stated that "there is a degree of tension throughout [the album] between Tunstall's determination to try something different and her love of a simple song".
Matthew Horton of BBC Music
said that Tunstall "has settled into a familiar groove" and called the album "all no end of fun, without pushing any envelopes". James Berry of Yahoo! Music
noticed that "there's the energy of electronic input underpinning some songs, but the moments that leave marks include the four-to-the-floor squall of "Push That Knot Away" [...], staccato simplicity of "(Still a) Weirdo
" and the xylophone and acoustic guitar marching drum twinkle-fest "Fade Like a Shadow
" and stated that the album sounds like "KT Tunstall armed with a better producer". Jeff Tamarkin from The Phoenix
found it "tougher, louder, and more electronically endowed than [...] its poppy predecessor" and noticed the "denser, rowdier sonics that permeate much of the record", but felt that "in her quest for catchy buzz lines, [Tunstall] sacrificed clarity and craft". J. Edward Keyes of Rolling Stone
said that Tunstall "leavens sleek pop songs with her warm-whiskey rasp" and stated that "one of Tiger Suits cleverest tricks" is that "it can so nimbly navigate such contradictions", awarding it three out of five stars.
The Songs "Come On, Get In" and Glamour Puss were used in the TV show Desperate Housewive's promo for episodes 8 and 12 of the 7th season
All lyrics written by KT Tunstall
; music compositions are listed below.
Special DVD edition (available in UK, Germany, France, and on Amazon.com in the US)
iTunes Deluxe edition
Japanese edition
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
KT Tunstall
KT Tunstall
Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from St Andrews, Scotland. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland...
. It was released by Relentless Records
Relentless Records
Relentless Records, founded by Shabs Jobanputra and Paul Franklyn in 1999 is now a part of Sony Music based in London, UK. Having achieved large scale successes with Joss Stone, KT Tunstall and several urban artists such as Artful Dodger and So Solid Crew, the label is now building a small focused...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
on 24 September 2010, in the United Kingdom
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...
on 27 September 2010 and in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on 5 October 2010. However despite these release dates, iTunes Canada has the album available for pre-order with an arrival date of September 28, 2010 a full week before the release of the physical disc.
The album features more contemporary ingredients than her previous work. Several tracks harness electronic beats to her acoustic guitar.
"Fade Like a Shadow
Fade Like a Shadow
"Fade Like a Shadow" is a 2010 song by Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall. It was released as the U.S. lead single for her third studio album Tiger Suit in August, 2010. Tunstall performed an acoustic rendition of the track in July 13 at the Hiro Ballroom in Manhattan, using live looping to...
" was lead single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
in the United States and was released on 6 August 2010 via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, and "(Still a) Weirdo
(Still a) Weirdo
" Weirdo" is a song by Scottish recording artist KT Tunstall. It was released as the UK lead single from her third studio album Tiger Suit , on 26 September 2010. Written by Tunstall herself and Greg Kurstin, and produced by Kurstin, the song is an acoustic rock ballad and talks about still the...
" in the United Kingdom was released on 26 September 2010 via iTunes.
On July 2010, as advance to the album, Tunstall uploaded via YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
a non-single video for the song "Push That Knot Away".
On 6 September 2010, Amazon.co.uk released a bonus track called "It Doesn't Have To Be Like This (Baby)" as a free download pre-release track of the album, available only in the United Kingdom, later being included on the AmazonMP3 version of the album in the US. The same track along with LCD Soundsystem's live cover "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" from The Hiro Ballroom are available on the Japanese edition of the album.
Background
On 11 February 2010 reported that, " 'KT TUNSTALL has recorded her new album in Berlin's famous Hansa studio. The studio, beside the site of the Berlin Wall, was used to make legendary albums including David Bowie's Heroes and U2's Achtung Baby. KT said: "I had an amazing three weeks recording in Hansa in Berlin in January and am finishing it all off in London." The Scots singer, who has been quiet of late, reassured fans she has been busy. She added: "I am still very much alive and have every music-making limb and muscle working in my laboratory of fierce-new-album-ness." Before her album comes out, KT played a stripped-down set at the Haiti fundraising gig at the Roundhouse in Camden on Thursday 25 February. She hoped to jump up with her old pal Seasick Steve for a song or two. Kt added: "My shizzle will feature some new faces and definitely some new songs, so come and have a listen and chuck some dough at a good cause."She stated down the line from a promo stop in Minneapolis that she doesn't write on tour, "so it was essential that I took time out from her previous album Drastic Fantastic
Drastic Fantastic
Drastic Fantastic is the second studio album by Scottish Singer-songwriter KT Tunstall. It was released by Relentless Records on 10 September 2007 in the United Kingdom and 18 September 2007 in the United States and Canada. The album was leaked on P2P networks on 3 September 2007. "Hold On", the...
". She had started her time off by traveling through the Arctic, South America and India, so she had locked into a very primal, indigenous spirit by the time it came to recording.
Tunstall said that the album's title is inspired by a recurring dream she had, before discovering that 2010 is the Chinese Year of the Tiger. The dream is about her, seeing a tiger in her garden and goes outside to stroke it. She returns indoors and is seized by the fear that she could have been killed. Over the years, it has occurred to her that the reason the tiger responds so passively is that she herself is disguised as a tiger, wearing a tiger suit.
She said that while writing and recording the album, she found a new sound she called "Nature techno", which mixes organic instrumentation with electronic and dance textures, much like Bjork
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
has been doing since 1993. At a media showcase in London, KT Tunstall offered an unusual description of the songs from her forthcoming third album: "Like Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the...
working with Leftfield
Leftfield
Leftfield are a British duo of electronica artists and record producers, namely Paul Daley and Neil Barnes, who formed in 1990 in London, England...
".
Reception
Tiger Suit received generally positive reviews by critics. Aggregating website MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reports a normalised
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating of 73% based on fourteen critic reviews and AnyDecentMusic?
AnyDecentMusic?
AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates reviews of contemporary music albums, covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots and urban...
reports a rating of 7.0 based on thirteen reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
of Allmusic gave it 4.5 out of five, saying it is "built upon Tunstall’s strongest set of songs yet" and calling it "an excellent album that satisfies as pure sound and as songwriting sustenance". Charlotte Richardson Andrews of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called it an "inventive follow-up to 2007's Drastic Fantastic, which merges her raspy folk with free-spirited campfire rhythms" and found it "introspective in places, but mostly [...] fierce, claws-out fun". Rick Pearson of the Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
awarded Tiger Suit four out of five stars, saying that Tunstall "has set her sights on the dancefloor with its 11 up-tempo tracks" and that "the album adds synthesisers and drum machines to Tunstall's platinum-selling pop formula". Victoria Dillingham of musicOMH
MusicOMH
musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...
wrote that "despite her self-confessed lack of confidence when it comes to crossing musical boundaries, Tunstall proves that in the guise of her Tiger Suit she can achieve anything she puts her mind to. Greg Kot from Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
thought that "with commercial radio all about that urban groove thing these days, it's little wonder that the Scottish singer KT Tunstall decorates her Lilith Fair-style songwriting chops with electro-pop beats" and stated that she "keeps enough off-kilter grit in her voice to make the claim in "(Still a) Weirdo
(Still a) Weirdo
" Weirdo" is a song by Scottish recording artist KT Tunstall. It was released as the UK lead single from her third studio album Tiger Suit , on 26 September 2010. Written by Tunstall herself and Greg Kurstin, and produced by Kurstin, the song is an acoustic rock ballad and talks about still the...
" stick". Fiona Shepherd of The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
felt that "Tunstall dresses up her songs with brave new sounds but at heart she's still a pop songwriter with rootsy inclinations" and stated that "there is a degree of tension throughout [the album] between Tunstall's determination to try something different and her love of a simple song".
Matthew Horton of BBC Music
BBC Music
BBC Music is a team working in the department of Audio and Music Interactive at the BBC. Responsible for the BBC Music website - the portal site to music content across the BBC website....
said that Tunstall "has settled into a familiar groove" and called the album "all no end of fun, without pushing any envelopes". James Berry of Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming...
noticed that "there's the energy of electronic input underpinning some songs, but the moments that leave marks include the four-to-the-floor squall of "Push That Knot Away" [...], staccato simplicity of "(Still a) Weirdo
(Still a) Weirdo
" Weirdo" is a song by Scottish recording artist KT Tunstall. It was released as the UK lead single from her third studio album Tiger Suit , on 26 September 2010. Written by Tunstall herself and Greg Kurstin, and produced by Kurstin, the song is an acoustic rock ballad and talks about still the...
" and the xylophone and acoustic guitar marching drum twinkle-fest "Fade Like a Shadow
Fade Like a Shadow
"Fade Like a Shadow" is a 2010 song by Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall. It was released as the U.S. lead single for her third studio album Tiger Suit in August, 2010. Tunstall performed an acoustic rendition of the track in July 13 at the Hiro Ballroom in Manhattan, using live looping to...
" and stated that the album sounds like "KT Tunstall armed with a better producer". Jeff Tamarkin from The Phoenix
The Phoenix (newspaper)
The Phoenix is the name of several alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts including the Boston Phoenix, the Providence Phoenix, the Portland Phoenix and the now-defunct Worcester Phoenix...
found it "tougher, louder, and more electronically endowed than [...] its poppy predecessor" and noticed the "denser, rowdier sonics that permeate much of the record", but felt that "in her quest for catchy buzz lines, [Tunstall] sacrificed clarity and craft". J. Edward Keyes of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
said that Tunstall "leavens sleek pop songs with her warm-whiskey rasp" and stated that "one of Tiger Suits cleverest tricks" is that "it can so nimbly navigate such contradictions", awarding it three out of five stars.
The Songs "Come On, Get In" and Glamour Puss were used in the TV show Desperate Housewive's promo for episodes 8 and 12 of the 7th season
Tracklisting
Standard editionAll lyrics written by KT Tunstall
KT Tunstall
Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from St Andrews, Scotland. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland...
; music compositions are listed below.
- "UummannaqUummannaqUummannaq is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality, in northwestern Greenland. With 1,299 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the eleventh-largest town in Greenland, and is home to the country's most northerly ferry terminal...
Song" (Tunstall) – 3:37 - "Glamour Puss" (Tunstall, Greg KurstinGreg KurstinGregory Allen "Greg" Kurstin is an award-winning American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In 2009 Kurstin received a Grammy Award nomination for Producer of the Year. That same year he won three Ivor Novello awards for his work with Lily Allen, including Songwriters of the Year for "The Fear"...
) – 3:19 - "Push That Knot Away" (Tunstall) – 3:46
- "Difficulty" (Tunstall) – 4:59
- "Fade Like a ShadowFade Like a Shadow"Fade Like a Shadow" is a 2010 song by Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall. It was released as the U.S. lead single for her third studio album Tiger Suit in August, 2010. Tunstall performed an acoustic rendition of the track in July 13 at the Hiro Ballroom in Manhattan, using live looping to...
" (Tunstall) – 3:28 - "Lost" (Tunstall, Martin Terefe) – 4:41
- "Golden Frames" (feat. Seasick SteveSeasick SteveSteven Gene Wold, commonly known as Seasick Steve, is an American blues musician. He plays guitars, and sings, usually about his early life doing casual work.-Childhood and early life:...
) (Tunstall) – 3:46 - "Come On, Get In" (Tunstall, Terefe) – 3:40
- "(Still a) Weirdo(Still a) Weirdo" Weirdo" is a song by Scottish recording artist KT Tunstall. It was released as the UK lead single from her third studio album Tiger Suit , on 26 September 2010. Written by Tunstall herself and Greg Kurstin, and produced by Kurstin, the song is an acoustic rock ballad and talks about still the...
" (Tunstall, Kurstin) – 3:40 - "Madame Trudeaux" (Tunstall, Linda PerryLinda PerryLinda Perry is an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer. Once best known as the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, Perry has founded two record labels and has become a major songwriter and producer...
) – 3:18 - "The Entertainer" (Tunstall, Jimmy Hogarth) – 4:50
Special DVD edition (available in UK, Germany, France, and on Amazon.com in the US)
- "How To Make A Tiger Suit"
iTunes Deluxe edition
- "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down (Live from the Hiro Ballroom, New York)" - 4:49
- "(Still A) Weirdo" (Music Video)
- "Fade Like a Shadow" (Music video)
- "How To Make A Tiger Suit" (Documentary)
Japanese edition
- "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down (Live from the Hiro Ballroom, New York)" - 4:49
- "It Doesn't Have To Be Like This (Baby)" – 3:09
Release history
| Region | Date | Label | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | EMI EMI Records EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide... |
CD | |
| Ireland | Relentless Relentless Records Relentless Records, founded by Shabs Jobanputra and Paul Franklyn in 1999 is now a part of Sony Music based in London, UK. Having achieved large scale successes with Joss Stone, KT Tunstall and several urban artists such as Artful Dodger and So Solid Crew, the label is now building a small focused... |
CD CD+DVD |
|
| United Kingdom | Relentless Relentless Records Relentless Records, founded by Shabs Jobanputra and Paul Franklyn in 1999 is now a part of Sony Music based in London, UK. Having achieved large scale successes with Joss Stone, KT Tunstall and several urban artists such as Artful Dodger and So Solid Crew, the label is now building a small focused... |
CD CD+DVD |
|
| Canada | Virgin Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny... |
CD CD+DVD |
|
| United States | |||
| Europe | Relentless Relentless Records Relentless Records, founded by Shabs Jobanputra and Paul Franklyn in 1999 is now a part of Sony Music based in London, UK. Having achieved large scale successes with Joss Stone, KT Tunstall and several urban artists such as Artful Dodger and So Solid Crew, the label is now building a small focused... |
CD | |
| CD+DVD |
Charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Scottish Albums Chart | 2 |
| Belgium Albums Chart | 90 |
| Swiss Albums Chart | 34 |
| Netherlands Albums Chart | 61 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
5 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
33 |
| European Top 100 Albums European Top 100 Albums The European Top 100 Albums chart is the European adaptation of the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was created in March 1984.The European Top 100 Albums, commonly referred to as Eurochart Top 100 Albums shows the sales of an act in 19 European countries based on IFPI data.The European Top 100... |
25 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 Albums 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... |
43 |
| French Albums Chart | 118 |
| U.S. Top Rock Albums | 13 |
| U.S. Digital Albums | 18 |