''Hand Built by Robots'' is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter

Newton Faulkner Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner (born 11 January 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and musician from Reigate, Surrey. He is known for his percussive style of guitar playing. In 2007 Faulkner's debut studio album '' Hand Built by Robots'' was ...

. Produced by

Mike Spencer Michael Spencer is an English record producer and recording engineer, who has worked with pop acts ranging from Newton Faulkner to Emeli Sandé. Many of his productions have achieved platinum certification, and have won MOBO and Brit Awards, a ...

, it was released on 30 July 2007 on Ugly Truth Records. Preceded by the single " Dream Catch Me", the album initially charted at number 3 in the

UK album chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, and subsequently reached number one in its fourth week. Regarding the album's success, Faulkner stated, "I don't think anyone involved in ''Hand Built by Robots'' actually thought it would do that at all."

Writing and composition

Regarding the album's composition, Faulkner stated, in 2009, that the album was "actually quite rushed in a lot of ways. ' Dream Catch Me' was actually released before we finished the album, so we had to move really fast to complete ''Hand Built By Robots''. The album wasn't the culmination of ten years worth of writing, but was a few months of panic, and a couple of things I had lying around - a couple of older songs that were still good enough to be used. ..A lot of ''Hand Built By Robots songs were written in the last few months leading up to recording, as I became better at writing." Four tracks on the album were co-written with former Longpigs vocalist Crispin Hunt and two were co-written by Adam Argyle, who is perhaps best known for writing " Next Best Superstar" for

Melanie C Melanie Jayne Chisholm (12 January 1974 - 25 December 2022), better known as Melanie C or Mel C, is an English singer-songwriter and media personality. She is best known as one of the five members of the Spice Girls, during which time she was ni ...

Lyrics

The album's lyrics mainly explore dreams, aspirations and observations on society.

Album cover

The album cover art work includes a number of historical figures standing upon a robotic hand.

Track listing

Chart performance

''Hand Built by Robots'' was certified platinum and later double platinum,"British certification for ''Hand Built by Robots''"

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company wi ...

. 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2009. in the United Kingdom, and was the twentieth best-selling album of 2007, selling 444,000 copies. The album debuted at number 26 on the Australian

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

in March 2008. It subsequently ascended fifteen places the following week to number 11, and then to number 8. The album eventually peaked at number 5 the week after. It has since been certified Gold on the ARIA charts. The album was released in Germany on 18 April 2008, and in the United States (it did not have massive success in the U.S. but did manage to reach number 42 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart) and Canada on 29 April 2008, with the first single being " Dream Catch Me".Newton Faulkner Album Preview and Tour Dates
, ''news.jamradio.org'' 24 March 2008, Retrieved 24 March 2008

Writing and composition

Lyrics

Album cover

Track listing

Chart performance

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References