A Joyful Noise (Gossip album)

A Joyful Noise is the fifth studio album by American indie rock band Gossip, released on May 11, 2012, by Columbia Records. The album was produced by Xenomania founder Brian Higgins.

Critical reception
A Joyful Noise received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 60, based on 24 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Andy Gill of The Independent gave the album four out of five stars, writing that "the involvement of Brian Higgins on A Joyful Noise enables the group to break new ground with confidence". The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan gave the album three out of five stars and stated that "it's Girls Aloud producer Higgins to the rescue, with a sound influenced by Abba and Madonna. Having said that, Gossip—especially Beth Ditto, in waspishly fine voice here—seem very much at home with it." However, Priya Elan of NME felt that "[g]ood moments are squandered by unsatisfying choruses and/or weak lyrics." The Independent on Sunday's Simon Price expressed that after a few years of career, Ditto "already feels like a footnote", adding that the band pairing up with Higgins "should be a stroke of genius, but Higgins has caught Ditto & co at a point where they appear to have disastrously lost their fire."

Commercial performance
A Joyful Noise debuted at number 100 on the Billboard 200, selling 5,000 copies in its first week. In Europe, the album debuted at number 47 on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 2,822 copies, while reaching number one in Switzerland, number two in Germany, number three in France, number four in Austria and number eight in Belgium.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of A Joyful Noise.

Gossip

 * Beth Ditto – vocals
 * Hannah Billie – drums, percussion
 * Nathan Howdeshell – live bass, guitars, keyboards, programming

Additional musicians

 * Jeremy Sherrer – additional percussion
 * Brian Higgins – additional programming (all tracks); additional composition (track 4)
 * Luke Fitton – additional programming
 * Owen Parker – additional programming
 * Toby Scott – additional programming (all tracks); additional composition (track 4)
 * Matt Gray – additional programming
 * Joshua Jenkin – additional programming
 * Sam Martin – additional programming
 * Jerry Bouthier – additional programming
 * Andrea Gorgerino – additional programming
 * Fred Falke – additional programming (all tracks); additional composition (track 4)
 * Jason Resch – additional programming (all tracks); additional composition (track 4)
 * Kieran Jones – additional programming (all tracks); additional composition (track 4)

Technical

 * Brian Higgins – production (all tracks); mixing (tracks 4–7, 9–11)
 * Gossip – additional production
 * Toby Scott – special production assistance, engineering (all tracks); mixing (tracks 4–7, 9–11)
 * Jeremy Sherrer – engineering
 * Ben Taylor – recording engineering assistance
 * Matt Gray – mixing (tracks 4–7, 9–10)
 * Rich Costey – mixing (tracks 1–3)
 * Chris Kasych – logic engineering (tracks 1–3)
 * Serban Ghenea – mixing (track 8)
 * John Hanes – engineering for mix (track 8)
 * Phil Seaford – engineering assistance (track 8)
 * Tom Coyne – mastering

Artwork

 * Rankin – photography
 * Mike Larremore – additional photography
 * Jeri Lynn – art direction