Mad Love (JoJo Album)
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''Mad Love'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter JoJo. The album was released on October 14, 2016, through
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
. Incorporating a base core of R&B, pop and
soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...
, it serves as her first major album release in a decade following 2006's '' The High Road''. JoJo co-wrote every song on the album while also providing vocal production every song. The album was JoJo's only album release under Atlantic Records, as she left in August 2017 to form her own label under
Warner Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...
. Beginning in 2008, JoJo had recorded several incarnations of a third album while still contracted under Blackground Records. These incarnations were ultimately scrapped following JoJo's difficulties with the label and subsequent release from the Blackground Records in 2013. After signing with Atlantic Records in December 2013, the album then began production from scratch; the majority of the album was recorded in early 2016. Amongst those included are collaborations with rappers
Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...
and
Remy Ma Reminisce Kioni Mackie ( Smith; born May 30, 1980), known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper and songwriter. Discovered by the late rapper Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad ...
, in addition to Canadian singer
Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploading acoustic covers of songs such as " Love Yourself" and ...
who features on the song "I Can Only." JoJo also worked with producers Josh "Igloo" Monroy, Jussifer,
Rock Mafia Rock Mafia is an American record production team, consisting of Tim James and Antonina Armato who have been active since the early 2000s. They have written and produced 38 top ten singles, and have sold over 50 million records worldwide. They ...
, Matt Friedman, Oscar Holter, and
MNEK Uzoechi Osisioma "Uzo" Emenike (; born 9 November 1994), professionally known by his stage name MNEK ( ; a gramogram of Emenike), is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. He has been nominated for a Grammy and a Brit Award, and ha ...
, among others. The album was preceded by the release of the
lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...
" Fuck Apologies" which features American rapper and Atlantic Records label mate
Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...
. The song became moderate success charting on the U.S. Billboards Pop Digital Songs chart, peaking at number forty. It became JoJo's first charting single in the UK since 2007's "
Anything Anything may refer to: Albums * ''Anything'' (The Cranberry Saw Us demo), by the band later named the Cranberries, 1990 * ''Anything'' (The Damned album) or the title song (see below), 1986 * ''Anything'' (Kinnie Starr album) or the title son ...
", peaking at number 104 on the singles chart and number 18 on the UK R&B Singles Chart. "Mad Love.", " FAB." featuring
Remy Ma Reminisce Kioni Mackie ( Smith; born May 30, 1980), known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper and songwriter. Discovered by the late rapper Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad ...
, and "
Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
" served as promotional singles leading up to the album's release. ''Mad Love'' was further promoted through the Mad Love World Tour. Upon its release, the album received generally favorable reviews from
music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
, some noting that the album became JoJo's "bold coming-of-age statement" that helped cement her maturity and vocal growth since her previous album. ''Mad Love'' debuted on the US ''Billboard'' 200, Current Albums, and Top Digital Albums charts at numbers 6, 4, and 2 respectively with 25,000
album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...
s, of which 19,000 were traditional album sales.


Background and development

Following the release of "
Anything Anything may refer to: Albums * ''Anything'' (The Cranberry Saw Us demo), by the band later named the Cranberries, 1990 * ''Anything'' (The Damned album) or the title song (see below), 1986 * ''Anything'' (Kinnie Starr album) or the title son ...
"—the final single from her second studio album '' The High Road''—in late 2007, JoJo stated that she had been writing and working with producers for her third studio album, but would not go into the studio until early 2008. In mid-2008, JoJo said that her third album, then-titled ''All I Want Is Everything'', was scheduled for a fourth-quarter release that year. Due to difficulties with her label Blackground Records, the year passed without a release. Following numerous delays, on February 28, 2011, JoJo revealed the album would instead be titled ''Jumping Trains''." The album again did not see a release and JoJo continued to face difficulties with her label. She was subsequently released from Blackground Records in December 2013 and recordings with the label were ultimately shelved. Senior Vice President of A&R at
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
at the time, Aaron Bay-Schuck orchestrated the deal and was instrumental to JoJo's signing with Atlantic Records in January 2014. JoJo then began working on her third studio album for the label. However, on November 9, 2014, it was announced that Schuck would be leaving his position at Atlantic and was appointed the new President of A&R for
Interscope Geffen A&M Records Interscope Geffen A&M Records (IGA) is an American umbrella label operating as a unit of Interscope Capitol Labels Group, owned by Universal Music Group. It currently consists of record labels Interscope Records (with its subsidiary, A&M Records) ...
, thus leaving JoJo without an A&R at the label. In an interview with
Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolator or Idolater may also refer to: * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), a 2005 album by Blood Stain Child * ''Idolator'', a 1986 album by Ole Evenrud * "Idolater", a ...
, JoJo spoke about how the change affected the album's development, stating: "The A&R that signed me, Aaron Bay-Schuck, left and went to Interscope... He called me and was like, 'I have this thing. I don't wanna leave you. I don't wanna lose you. But I need to go.' I said, 'I completely understand,' but then I was left at Atlantic again and just kind of didn't know what to do." On August 21, 2015, JoJo released the
extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
'' III'' (pronounced "tringle"). Following its release, JoJo embarked on her second worldwide headlining I Am JoJo Tour. Initially, the tour and ''III'' release was a reintroduction for JoJo into the industry with a major-label backing. During this time, a large portion of the album had already been recorded and all three tracks from ''III'' were originally set to appear on JoJo's third album. However, these tracks were ultimately not included on ''Mad Love,'' with JoJo explaining "I was given a lot of songs, I was recording a lot of things that didn't feel completely 100% authentic to me." In November 2015, during the I Am JoJo Tour, Levesque's father Joel died due to struggles with addiction. JoJo had also broken up with her boyfriend of two years. Following the tour's conclusion in December 2015, Levesque took a six-day rest from work during the first week of January 2016, where she booked a hotel and spent time with herself and re-evaluated her life. As a result, JoJo decided she was unhappy with the approach the album was taking. This resulted in ''III'' becoming its own standalone project, and JoJo began working on new material in early 2016, with only a few tracks from earlier recording sessions ("I Am" and "Good Thing") making it onto the ''Mad Love'' album. From September 9 to 15, 2016, JoJo uploaded short videos of her singing each song from the album on her
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
account, revealing the track listing of the album.''Mad Love'' track listing: *Music: *I Can Only: *Fuck Apologies: *FAB: *Vibe: *Mad Love: *Honest: *Like This: *Edibles: *High Heels:


Concept and artwork

On July 28, 2016 it was announced that JoJo's third album would be titled "Mad Love". Speaking on the meaning behind the album's title, JoJo stated: "Mad Love. means so many different things, and I loved that about the title. It was one of the first songs that I wrote for this album, and I felt like it kind of shaped the intention of it, of this work. And, a phrase that I use in my family a lot, we say, 'I love you madly.' That's that 'I love you through it all, I love you as you are, I love you in a crazy way, in a deep way, in a way that other people might not understand.' And that's how I feel about music, and that's what my relationship is with my fans, and it's an intense, passionate love. That's also the love that I like to have in my romantic life. So, all of that is represented on this album." On September 7, 2016, JoJo revealed the album artwork via her social media accounts and announced the album would be available for pre-order on September 16, 2016. The album design was created by Nick Malvone with photos shot by photographer Brooke Nipar. JoJo appears on the cover "looking fierce as ever" while the rest of the artwork is otherwise blurred by paint smears.


Promotion

On June 6, 2016, prior to any official announcements for release of JoJo's third album. It was announced that JoJo would be joining
Fifth Harmony Fifth Harmony, often shortened to 5H, is an American girl group based in Miami, composed of Ally Brooke, Normani, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui, and formerly Camila Cabello until her departure from the group in December 2016. The group signed a ...
on their 7/27 Tour as a special guest opener in promotion for their second studio album. The North American leg of the tour begun on July 27 in Manchester, New Hampshire before concluding on September 17 in Las Vegas. On July 26, 2016, JoJo debuted a short YouTube video that delivered a preview of new material, which included "
Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
" and "Fuck Apologies". The following day, JoJo announced the release of her new album and also released the lead single " Fuck Apologies". to digital retailers. The song's accompanying music video debuted on JoJo's official website the next day. JoJo performed " Fuck Apologies" for the first time live during her first stop on the 7/27 Tour. She performed a clean acoustic version of the song on the ''
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'' on August 1, 2016, along with a cover of
Shawn Mendes Shawn Peter Raul Mendes ( , ; born August 8, 1998) is a Canadian singer. He gained a following in 2013 when he posted song covers on the video-sharing platform Vine (software), Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manage ...
' " Treat You Better". On September 30, 2016, JoJo performed the song with
Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...
on
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
's ''Wonderland'', where she also performed "
FAB Fab or FAB may refer to: Commerce * Fab (brand), a frozen confectionery * Fab (website), an e-commerce design web site * Fab, a digital asset marketplace by Epic Games * The FAB Awards, a food and beverage award * FAB Link, a European electricity ...
" and "Mad Love". On October 14, 2016, JoJo performed "No Apologies", the clean version of "Fuck Apologies", on ''Today'' on October 14, 2016, and on ''
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'' on October 20, 2016. On October 22, 2016, Revolt TV aired an original concert show titled "Revolt Sessions" in which JoJo performed " Fuck Apologies". A Remix EP of "FAB" was released on March 3, featuring production from RealOnes, Kemist & DJ Braindead among others.


Singles

The album's lead single " Fuck Apologies" featuring
Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...
was teased by JoJo on July 26, 2016 in a promotional video previewing new music. The following day the single leaked in full online only hours before its release. The single was officially released as the lead single from the album on July 28, 2016.International releases of ''F*ck Apologies. (feat. Wiz Khalifa)'': * In the US: * In Australia: * In the UK: * In Canada: The music video, which was directed by
Francesco Carrozzini Francesco Carrozzini (born September 9, 1982) is an Italian-born director and photographer based in the United States. In 2016, he made his feature directorial debut at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival with the documentary '' Fran ...
, for the song was released on July 28, 2016, through JoJo's YouTube channel. The song debuted at number 40 on the US Pop Digital Songs Chart. Internationally, the song peaked at 104 on the UK Singles Chart and number 18 on the UK R&B Singles Chart. JoJo performed "Fuck Apologies" for the first time live during her first stop on the 7/27 Tour closing her set with the song. On October 14, 2016, she performed the song live on the ''
Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...
'' show. After its initial release as a promotional single, "
FAB Fab or FAB may refer to: Commerce * Fab (brand), a frozen confectionery * Fab (website), an e-commerce design web site * Fab, a digital asset marketplace by Epic Games * The FAB Awards, a food and beverage award * FAB Link, a European electricity ...
" featuring
Remy Ma Reminisce Kioni Mackie ( Smith; born May 30, 1980), known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper and songwriter. Discovered by the late rapper Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad ...
was released as the album's second single on November 29, 2016. A remixes EP for the single was released on March 3, 2017.


Promotional singles

"Mad Love." was released as the first promotional single on September 16, 2016, along with the pre-order of the album. JoJo released the audio video of the single on her YouTube channel. " FAB.", featuring
Remy Ma Reminisce Kioni Mackie ( Smith; born May 30, 1980), known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper and songwriter. Discovered by the late rapper Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad ...
, was released on September 23, 2016, as the second promotional single. The three letters form an acronym, which stands for "Fake Ass Bitches". " Music." was released as the third and final promotional single on October 6, 2016. In conjunction with the announcement of the Mad Love Tour, the music video for FAB. was released on November 29, 2016.


Tour

JoJo announced on ''Today'' that the Mad Love Tour will begin in early 2017. On November 30, 2016 JoJo announced her third headlining and second major world tour in support of her third studio album entitled the "Mad Love Tour". The 60-date " Mad Love World Tour" will travel throughout Europe and North America with the first leg of the tour beginning on Jan 15 in Dublin, Ireland and traveling across the UK for the month before concluding on Feb 1 in London. The second leg of the tour largely takes place in North America and began on Feb 15 in Portland, OR and travels to clubs and theatres across the country stopping in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Milwaukee, Chicago, Washington, Houston and more wrapping up in Huntington, NY on May 3. Craig Stickland and Stanaj were announced as opening acts for the UK and US leg of the tour respectively.


Critical reception

The album has received positive reviews from music 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 ...
, it has a score of 70 out of 100 based on 6 reviews.
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
writer Nolan Feeney gave the album a B+ and wrote that JoJo's "well-documented struggles and triumphs inform her long-awaited third LP, ''Mad Love.'', and they turn her tales of love, friendship, and family into one bold coming-of-age statement".
Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolator or Idolater may also refer to: * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), a 2005 album by Blood Stain Child * ''Idolator'', a 1986 album by Ole Evenrud * "Idolater", a ...
writer Jon Reyes gave the album 4 out of 5 stars and wrote that JoJo is "sauntering in with ''Mad Love'' sounding totally refreshed".
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writer Vanessa Okoth-Obbo gave the album 7 out of 10 stars and wrote that "''Mad Love.'' sounds like an album that JoJo needed to make, and one that her fans were waiting for".


Year-end lists


Commercial performance

''Mad Love'' debuted at number six on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, selling 25,000
album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...
s, of which 19,000 were traditional album sales in its first week. It charted three spots lower and with significantly lower sales than her second album. ''Mad Love'' also debuted on the Current Billboard Albums & Billboard's Top Digital Albums chart at number 4 and number 2 respectively. It became JoJo's first entry on the chart in 10 years. In its second week ''Mad Love'' dropped from number six to one hundred and eleven on the ''Billboard'' 200 on the week starting November 12, 2016. In its third week the album left the ''Billboard 200'' chart.


Track listing

Notes * denotes vocal producer *Track 7, "Honest" contains a
hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...
titled "Cold" on the CD and digital versions of the album. It begins first behind "Honest." with the latter commencing approximately one minute and 19 seconds (1:19) into the track.


Personnel

Adapted from
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 ...
and the album liner notes.JoJo – ''Mad Love''.. lbum Booklet
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
(
Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...
). Catalog Number: 075678663734.
Creativity and management *Gita Williams – management *Katie Gallagher – management *Chris Smith – management *Evan Lipschutz – A&R *Doug Davis – legal *Benjamin Landry – Atlantic Business and legal affairs *Anne Declemente – A&R administration *Nina Webb – marketing *Brooks Roach – marketing *Carolyn Tracey – project director *Nick Malvone Bilardello –
art direction Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...
,
design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
*Brook Nipar – photographer *Dante Marshall – additional photographer * Tom Coynemastering Performers * JoJo – lead vocals, background vocals *
Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploading acoustic covers of songs such as " Love Yourself" and ...
– featured artist *
Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...
– featured artist *
Remy Ma Reminisce Kioni Mackie ( Smith; born May 30, 1980), known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper and songwriter. Discovered by the late rapper Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad ...
– featured artist *Hayley Warner – background vocals *Jakob Hazell – background vocals *Jason Dean – background vocals *Joseph Kirkland – background vocals *Svante Halldin – background vocals Technical *Delbert Bowers – mixing *Dexter Cabellon – assistant engineer *Eric Dawkins – vocal producer *Niklas Flyckt – mixing *
Serban Ghenea Serban Ghenea () is a Canadian audio engineer and mixer. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award a total of 45 times and has won 21 times. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Romania, and in 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. H ...
– mixing *Ryan Gladieux – engineer, mixing *Steve Hammons – engineer *John Hanes – mixing engineer *Adam Hawkins – mixing *Oscar Holter – producer *Jack & Coke – producer *Jussi Karvinen – producer *Joanna Levesque – vocal producer *Josh "Igloo" Monroy – engineer, mixing, producer *Erm Navarro – trombone *Noah Passovoy – engineer *Rock Mafia – mixing, producer *T.J. Routon – producer *Jacob Scesney – baritone saxophone, saxophone *Joakim Söderström – mixing assistant *Andrea "AD" Smith-Meecham – mixing assistant


Charts


Release history


References


External links


''Mad Love''
at
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 ...
{{Authority control 2016 albums Atlantic Records albums JoJo (singer) albums Albums produced by MNEK Albums produced by Rock Mafia Albums recorded at EastWest Studios Albums recorded at Westlake Recording Studios Albums produced by Oscar Holter