''Down to Earth'' is the second studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by Welsh musician Jem, the follow-up to '' Finally Woken''. The first single, " It's Amazing", was featured on the soundtrack to the ''

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO, based on Sex and the City (newspaper column), the newspaper column and 1996 book by Candace Bushnell. It premiered in th ...

'' movie. The album spawned four singles. The press release states that Jem co-wrote the album with a variety of people including Jeff Bass, Lester Mendez and

Greg Kurstin Gregory Allen Kurstin (born May 14, 1969) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2017 and 2018, and contributed to five songs that pe ...

and sings in Japanese on the track, "Aciiid!". The album also includes a collaboration with South African singer-songwriter and poet-activist Vusi Mahlasela on the track "You Will Make It" which was dedicated to the memory of D12 member

Proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a co ...

. Although the collaboration never happened, Jem wanted to work with Eminem for the song, saying "The track is about losing someone and I wrote it the day after his friend Proof was murdered. I was in Detroit with Eminem's friends, who I happened to be recording with, when it happened".

Critical reception

''Down to Earth'' was met with "mixed or average" reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 54 based on 7 reviews. In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, critic reviewer Andrew Leahey wrote: "''Down to Earths title depicts Jem as a grounded musician, but its wide-ranging sound suggests something different, as the singer has yet to find a style that fully suits her capabilities."

Track listing

Personnel

*Hiroko Aoyagi – vocals *Jeff Atmajian – piano, string arrangements, piano arrangement *Jeff Bass – bass, guitar, keyboards, producer, drum programming, tracked by *Kevin Beber – drum programming *Brian Berryman – engineer, fader engineer *Mick Bolger – trombone, trumpet, euphonium, mellophonium, E flat cornet * Mike Bradford – producer, string arrangements, instrumentation *Del Casher – sounds *Bryan Cook – engineer *Nick Cuchinella – trombone *

Nabil Elderkin Nabil Elderkin (born February 11, 1982) is an American-born Australian film and music video director and photographer, who is of Iranian and American descent. He is mononymously credited as Nabil in his videos. Elderkin has directed videos for ...

– photography *Johnny Evans – saxophone *Serban Ghenea – mixing *Jem Griffiths – vocals, producer, vocal engineer, poetry reading *Justin Griffiths – acoustic guitar *John Hanes – mixing *Mark Aaron James – design *Ted Jensen – mastering *Shinobu Lee – vocals *David Levita – acoustic guitar, guitar *Lester Mendez – piano, producer, string arrangements, brass arrangement, instrumentation *Monica Mendez – sound design *Milan, Derrick & The Krew – chorus *Eddie Miller – vocal engineer *Rafael Padilla – percussion *Phillip Ramos – studio assistant *Tim Roberts – mixing assistant *Ken Robinson – trumpet *Sonus – strings *Welsh Choir of Southern California – chorus *Joe Wohlmuth – engineer

Charts

Release history

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2008 albums Albums produced by Greg Kurstin Albums produced by Michael Bradford ATO Records albums Jem (singer) albums