Here I Am (Marion Raven album)

Infobox Album |
Name = Here I Am
Type = Album
Artist = Marion Raven


Released = flagicon|Norway flagicon|Sweden August 10, 2005 flagicon|Japan flagicon|Australia flagicon|Mexico flagicon|New Zealand June 8, 2005 flagicon|Singapore flagicon|Malaysia flagicon|Thailand flagicon|Indonesia flagicon|Philippines June 6, 2005
B-Side = "Surfin' The Sun", "There I Said It"
Recorded =
Genre = Pop Pop rock Modern Rock
Length = 56:56
Label = Atlantic Records
Producer = Max Martin Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald Rami
Reviews =
* ABCNYHETER.no rating|4|6 [http://www.abcnyheter.no/node/37200 link]
* The New Paper online rating|4|5 [http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,90326,00.html link]
* Melodic.Net rating|2.5|5 [http://www.melodic.net/reviewsOne.asp?revnr=3548 link]
* Play.com rating|4.5|5 [http://shopping.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/ss_Marion_Raven_Break_You.html link]
Last album = The Day You Went Away: The Best Of M2M (2003)
This album = "Here I Am" (2005)
Next album = Heads Will Roll EP

"Here I Am" is the pop rock solo album by former M2M band member, Marion Raven, that was released in mid-late 2005. "Here I Am" chronicles Marion's heartbreak and finding her true identity in an ever-changing pop landscape.

Raven wrote all of the songs, in collaboration with several well-known musicians. She played both acoustic and electric guitars as well as the piano and provided background vocals on a number of songs. Raven talked about "13 Days" and other songs on "Here I Am" in an interview in 2005, cquote|13 Days is about a Danish boy I met. He came and visited me in Norway, at my parent's house; before I got to know him well. He was there for thirteen days. It didn't go well. We had nothing to talk about. He was really boring and I felt as if I was trapped in my own house. And on the day he was going home he wrecked my car. My dad had to come and pick us up. Then he almost missed his flight and since then I haven't heard a word from him. No calls, no emails. I've written three songs about those thirteen days. Three songs about the same guy. I get really pissed when I sing them. I hope he buys my record.

The album debuted at #6 in her native Norway, and #1 in Japan and was well received in countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and The Philippines. Raven went on a tour of Southeast Asian countries to promote the album in late 2005. However, lack of promotion on Atlantic Records part and delays in releasing the album in the U.S. prompted Raven to leave the music company.

The album will be released in the USA in 2007, with a different tracklisting and title, "Set Me Free", incorporating new and old songs, including an acoustic version of "Let Me Introduce Myself" and the re-recorded version of "Heads Will Roll," which preceded the album in October 2006, as part of the Heads Will Roll EP.

ingles

* "End of Me" was the first single from the album to be released exclusively in Southeast Asia. It peaked at #4 on MTV Asia's video hitlist and was a top 10 song in Malaysia and Singapore.
* "Break You" was released in Japan and Norway. It went #1 in Japan and Indonesia and claimed the #9 spot in Norway.
* "Here I Am" was the album's title track, and third single, that was only officially released in Norway, around the same time "Break You" was released. It peaked at #20 on the official Norwegian charts and reached #3 on the TV2 Music Chart. Raven performed the song live in the Nordic Music Awards. The music video of "Here I Am" featured pictures of Raven's grandfather when he was a young man.
* "Little by Little", the fifth track of the album, was released as a radio-only single.

Track listing

"Here I Am" Southeast Asia release tracklistingThe "Here I Am" DVD Limited Edition was released in 2006. It featured the making of "End Of Me" and the "End Of Me" music video.

Bonus tracks and B-Sides:
# "Surfing the Sun" (Marion Raven, Nikki Sixx, James Michael) 3:53 *Japanese Bonus Track
# "There I Said It" (Marion Raven, Max Martin, Rami) 3:48 *Single B-Side for Swedish "Break You" and Norwegian "Here I Am" singles

Tracks that did not make it into the final cut of the album were, "Brand New Me", "Disconnected", "Have Mercy", "Bittersweet" and "Gutter". Little is known about these songs. [cite web | author=http://marionravenonline.tripod.com/news.html | publisher=http://marionravenonline.tripod.com/news.html | year= 2004 | url=http://marionravenonline.tripod.com/news.html| title= June 8th 2004 blog post| accessdate=2007-03-31]

Reception

* The album sold over 135,000 copies in Asia after 3 months from the date it was released. [cite web | author=last.fm | publisher=3am Music | year= 2005
url=http://www.3am.com.cn/MusicData_Artist.aspx?artist=Marion+Raven&parent=M&ischinese=0 | title="Here I Am" sold 135,000 copies in 3 months| accessdate=2007-04-25]
* On the online version of the Singapore newspaper, The New Paper, music reviewer Seto Nu-Wen wrote, "Her (Raven's) music is more heartfelt than contrived, thus avoiding the commercial trappings of your average teenage punk-rock debut." [cite web | author=Seto Nu-Wen | publisher=newpaper.asia1 | year= 2005 | url=http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,90326,00.html | title= As strange as they seem | accessdate=2007-04-18]
* On her "Here I Am" tour across Asia, Japan and Scandinavia, MTV Asia praised Raven on shedding the cuteness of M2M and sporting an assertive voice of vengeful yet positive tunes backed with a strong radio-friendly pop-rock vibe. [cite web | author=MTV Asia| publisher=MTV Asia | year= 2005 | url=http://www.mtvasia.com/Video/Feature/20050503000042/index.html | title=Marion Raven video showcase | accessdate=2007-04-05]
* At the end of 2005, Raven's singles "End Of Me" and "Break You" were at #54 and #69 respectively on MTV Asia's year end top 100 countdown, with "End Of Me" beating songs like "Ghost Of You" (#57) and "Misunderstood" (#58), by My Chemical Romance and Robbie Williams respectively. [cite web | author=MTV Asia | publisher=MTV Pop Inc | year= 2005 | url=http://www.mtvasia.com/Onair/Shows/PopInc/6.html | title= 2005's Top 100 countdown | accessdate=2007-04-05]

Chart performance

Charts

Credits

* Marion Raven — Guitar (Acoustic), Writer, Piano, Vocals, Vocals (background)
* Allen Kovac — Management
* Max Martin — Guitar, Writer, Producer, Programming, Vocals (background), Engineer, Instrumentation
* Steve Thompson — Arranger, Producer, String Arrangements, Mixing
* Lukasz "Doctor Luke" - Gottwald Instrumentation

* Hans Akeson, Ulrika Frankmar, Elisabeth Arnberg Ranmo, Håkan Roos — Viola
* Art Alexakis — Guitar, Vocals
* Andreas Andersson, Mikael Sjogren, Bo Soderstrom, Martin Stensson, Torbjorn Bernhardsson, Hanna Göran, Svein H. Martinsen — Violin
* Monica Jönsson, Astrid Lindell, Kati Raitinen — Cello
* Tomas Andersson — Guitar, Violin
* Kenny Aronoff — Percussion, Drums
* Richard Nettermalm, Johan Reivén — Drums
* John Degrazio — Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)
* John Deley — Piano, Strings, Keyboards, Programming
* Peter Svensson — Guitar

* Liz Barrett — Art Direction
* P.R. Brown — Design, Photography
* Dana Marasca — Stylist
* Andrew Feigenbaum, Craig Kallman, Craig Rosen — A&R
* Janne Hansson — String Engineer
* Michael Ilbert — Engineer, Digital Editing, Mixing
* Henrik, Ulf — Janson String Arrangements
* Jesse Levy — String Arrangements
* George Marino — Mastering
* Mike Plotnikoff — Engineer, Mixing
* Bryan Russell — Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant
* Jamie Siegel — Programming, Engineer, Pre-Production

References