Unhealthy (album)

Unhealthy is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Anne-Marie. It was released on 28 July 2023, through Major Tom's and Asylum Records. Unhealthy was preceded by three singles: "Psycho", "Sad Bitch" and "Unhealthy". The album features guest appearances from American singer Khalid, British rapper Aitch, Thai singer Minnie from South Korean girl group (G)I-dle and Canadian singer Shania Twain.

Unhealthy peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and became her best selling album to date in her homeland. The album also saw continued success in other charts including peaking at number 1 on the Scottish albums chart and at number 11 on the Irish albums chart, respectively.

Background
Anne-Marie started working on her third studio album in 2022. While promoting her single "Psycho" with Aitch in September 2022 she revealed that she's been writing a lot of new stuff and figured out what she wants to say.

The singer finished working on the album in January 2023. The record was written at four writing camps, including Decoy Studios in Suffolk. A total of 19 songs were written in a week, including pop, rock, country and musical songs.

On 27 April 2023, Anne-Marie announced the title, release date, artwork and tracklist of her third album. On the same day, the singer met fans at Brick Lane in London, where she revealed billboards advertising "Unhealthy", which she later graffitied with black paint.

In a podcast "Table Manners" with Jessie Ware and Lennie Ware, Anne-Marie provided information about her third studio album. She explained that after the release of her second album and having weekly therapy sessions during lockdown, she began to feel numb to emotions. Because of this, she stopped talking to her therapist so often and as a result she started feeling completely different. This change inspired her third album. "When I started therapy in lockdown, that's when I started writing the second album, so it was all very much about self improvement, you know, figuring out my brain and all those techniques my therapist was telling me. I felt like I went into therapy because I was quite numb to emotions and then I came out of therapy numb to emotions in another way. I just learned so much on how to understand everything and deal with things that I just didn't feel extreme anger, extreme sadness or extreme happiness anymore. I was back on the middle road. And I kinda missed those extremities again so I stopped therapy, I do it every now and again, but it was like a weekly thing for years. (...) So the second album was very much like that, you know, calm and collected. So in the process of this new album I just wanted to feel everything again." She later added: "I basically have done a journey of two relationships: one which I came out of which wasn't great and then one which I've gone into which didn't start great because it was like an obsessiveness, unhealthiness and then at the end it kind of levels out. So it's like all of the phases of a relationship that you could imagine is put into the album."

The album title was inspired by her food dietries and the fact that she is an obsessive person and most of her thoughts are unhealthy.

Talking about the writing process Anne-Marie said: "I definitely feel like I was less scared to experiment with stuff on this one. I feel like in the last two albums I've definitely felt a way about staying in a lane, like if I don't sound like this or if I don't make a song that sounds like this, are they gonna know it's Anne-Marie? I definitely think my label and people around me were a bit worried about me going 'I'm gonna try new stuff'. (...) It's not as if I've changed completely, it just feels like every song had a freedom to just be whatever it wanted to be."

During the interview on The One Show, Anne-Marie explained the story behind the picture that was chosen for the album cover: "When I got into the industry, I felt a way about being a pop star and what I'm supposed to look like. Whether it's like make-up and fake nails and all this stuff. And with my other albums I've kind of done that and I've got nails on, and you know, all of that stuff. And in this one I just thought 'No, I'm going to be me.' So I found my shower door and pushed my face up against it."

Intimate performances
On 23 June 2023, Anne-Marie announced six intimate shows across UK in support of Unhealthy. The tickets went on sale on 27 June at 12 pm BST. On 30 June, the singer added another two shows in Kingston and Bristol due to high demand. On 4 July 2023, Anne-Marie announced that on 28 July, the release day of her album, she will do an intimate performance in London as part of the YouTube Music Nights. Tickets for the event did not go on sale, instead for a chance to attend, the copy of Unhealthy had to be pre-ordered from the artist's official store. On 11 July 2023, a show in Southampton was announced. During the album release week 4 additional shows were added.

Colouring-in room
On 10 July 2023, Anne-Marie announced that she would invite fans on 19 July 2023 into a room in East London to colour the walls with her if they pre-saved Unhealthy in the next 48 hours from her official store. Tickets did not go officially on sale, but instead, fans would get invites if they pre-ordered the copy of Unhealthy.

Critical reception
Unhealthy received mixed reviews from music critics upon release. For Clash, Tamzin Kraftman wrote that "with repetitive melodic motifs and overcooked themes, Anne-Marie had a chance to offer a profound perspective but settled for the mundane." Evening Standard's David Smyth described Unhealthy as "very much a radio-friendly pop album". Tanatat Khuttapan of The Line of Best Fit wrote that "Anne-Marie's true control of the narrative is via honest intercommunication; Unhealthy realises it a little too late, perhaps impeded by the poor decisions that appear to be hers." Writing for NME, Sophie Williams said that "Anne-Marie's goal of making pop that represents the most intimate, darkest of feelings is admirable but not always effective. It's not exactly clear what message she's pining for." Reviewing for The Guardian, Tara Joshi described the album as "broadly a fun record that's pushing to be more raw and upfront than she [Anne-Marie] has managed before", and adding that "Anne-Marie does sound freer and more playful in her own right, toying with more ambitious instrumentation (rock, orchestral) alongside the dance-pop and ballads."

Commercial performance
In its first charting week, Unhealthy opened at number-two on the UK Albums Chart with sales of 23,778, of which 19,778 were physical copies, marking it her best selling album in the country. It secured the highest weekly sale for an album by a UK female soloist since Florence and the Machine's Dance Fever topped the chart in May 2022.

Personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal.

Musicians


 * Anne-Marie – vocals (all tracks)
 * Mojam - programming (1, 12, 14)
 * Evan Blair - keyboards, synthesizer, drum programming (2); programming (2, 6, 7, 13)
 * Samuel Brennan - percussion, drums, synthesizer, bass programming (2); drum programming, piano (3), programming (2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15)
 * Tom Hollings - drums, synthesizer, bass programming (2); percussion (2, 3); bass, percussion programming (3); programming (2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15)
 * Aitch - vocals (3)
 * Slowthai - backing vocals (6)
 * Shania Twain - vocals (9)
 * Connor McDonough - programming (9)
 * Riley McDonough - programming (9)
 * Khalid - vocals (12)
 * Kamille - backing vocals (12)
 * Felix Stephens - cello (10,12)
 * Nina Lim - violin (12)
 * Rics - programming (12)
 * Andrea Cozzaglio - strings programming (12); drums programming (13)
 * Liam Toon - drums (13)
 * Travis Sayles - programming (13)
 * Nami Ondas - programming (13)
 * Minnie - vocals (16)
 * Paprikaa - programming (16)
 * Duncan Brookfield - bass, guitar, percussion, piano (17); programming (17, 18)

Technical


 * Stuart Hawkes – masterer (1-15, 18)
 * Joe Burgess - assistant mixer (1-15, 18)
 * Niko Battistini - assistant mixer (1-15, 18)
 * Geoff Swan - mixer (1-8, 10-15, 18, 19)
 * Connor McDonough - mixer, engineer (9)
 * Riley McDonough - mixer, engineer (9)
 * Mojam - engineer (1, 3, 12, 14,); vocal recording engineer (1, 12)
 * Evan Blair - engineer (2, 6, 7, 13); vocal recording engineer (7, 13)
 * Bob MacKenzie - engineer (3)
 * Dom Shaw - engineer (3)
 * Katie May - engineer (3)
 * Billen Ted - engineer (3-5, 8, 10, 11, 15); vocal recording engineer (4, 5, 8, 11)
 * Cameron Gower Poole - vocal recording engineer (6, 10, 13, 19); mixer (17)
 * Mark Ralph - vocal recording engineer (9)
 * Mark "Spike" Stent - vocal recording engineer (9)
 * Samuel Brennan - vocal recording engineer (10)
 * Kay One - vocal recording engineer (16)
 * Andrea Cozzaglio - strings recording engineer (12); drums recording engineer (13)
 * Duncan Brookfield - mixer (17)
 * Dick Beetham - masterer (17)
 * Jeremy Cooper - masterer (19)
 * Bankz - additional vocal recording engineer (3)

Artwork


 * Slowthai - photography
 * Will Beach - photography
 * Elliott Elder - design