Intimate Encounters

Intimate Encounters is the second studio album by American pop artist Elice Claire, the album was released on 3 November 2009 in the United States and 16 November 2009 in the UK. Elice wrote the entire album and had production help from Diamond Cut, La Manichansons, Shell Ruin, Alesha, Twisted Disco, Indigo Peak, James Fauntleroy, amongst others to produce the follow-up to her debut album Strictly Confidential. The album is preceded by the single "Damn Wrong About Me", released on 9 November.

Background and production
As with Claire's debut album, Strictly Confidential, each of Intimate Encounters' producers were enlisted by her record label. Unlike her debut album, where she stayed in the United States, Intimate Encounters was recorded in the UK, Sweden and United States and took nine months to produce. It contains ballads, racier tracks and dance floor anthems. Elice titled the album Intimate Encounters due to the album's edgy sound. In August 2009 she wrote on her official website: "It's final stages of the recording process, I'm working with incredible producers (...) I feel that my music has evolved so much. It's so exciting to create something innovating." she added, "I'm actually more confident with this album than the last. I've taken a little more control and this time and I feel more at ease with everything." She told Variety magazine that she "wanted the album to have a little R&B feel to it, with hints of pop, rock and dance, something a little more edgy." Claire worked with Alesha, whom she was touring with in the United States in the fall of 2009. Alesha produced the tracks "Devilicious", Alesha had help from Shell Ruin to produce "Inevitable" and "Mercy". Elice wrote on her official blog "Alesha and Shell are incredible, touring with her [Alesha] was a dream come true and working with her is absolutely out of this world. Shell and Alesha pushed me to create a pop perfection, and I can honestly say 'Devilicious' is one of my favorite tracks on the album" Twisted Disco contributed production to a several songs, including "Forget The Times" and "About A Boy". Cosmos Cowgirl who produced albums for pop singer Paris, produced "Hot Mess" and "Femme Fatale". Indigo Peak also helped produce the album, the duo helped Alesha produce the upbeat feisty tune "Devilicious", as well as the mid-tempo track "Farewell" and the US Mix of "Inevitable". Producer and mixer Diamond Cut was responsible for producing "Forever's Not for Always", "(From Here) Watching Over You" and the US only track "Sunset Boulevard".

Critical
Intimate Encounters received possitive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 21 reviews, which indicates "favorable reviews". The Observer's review of Intimate Encounters gave the album four out of five stars, with reviewer Peter Robinson writing, "It's unusual for pop singers like Elice Claire to pull an outstanding second album, I can honestly say I am proud of Claire. A handful of upbeat and slow numbers — including R&B, Dance and even some soul sound into it — pull Elice back from the teen pop to a more mature sound." The Daily Telegraph described the album as a "selection of sexy but underwhelming R&B pop". Kim Dawson of Daily Star felt the album was "another victory" for Claire, arguing that "the mix of sounds in the collection has the same charm as her huge Geordie smile." Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly gave Intimate Encounters a B-, saying that "The album is remarkably (and exhaustingly) pure in its vision of a world in which nothing trumps being glamorous, wild, and sexy. In this economy, though, her high-times escapism has its charms".

Commercial
The album debuted at number one in the UK with sales exceeding 100,000 copies. In the United States the album was well received, outselling her debut album from three-to-one in its first week. The album entered and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200, selling a little over 50,000 copies. The album was re-issue in the UK on 16 August 2010, a week prior to the release of Elice's single "Never Let Go / Cloud Nine". The album re-entered the charts at number one, selling over 100,000 copies and getting its Diamond certification. On 29 May 2011, the album re-entered the British charts when the song "Scattered Echoes" started playing on the radios. The album has sold a total of 1,503,753 copies.

Promotion
"Damn Wrong About Me" was the first single from the album and it was first performed on the Apocalypse City Live in the fall of 2009. Elice played a clip of an early demo on New York City's Z100 months prior to the Alesha tour performance. A clip of the final edit of the song was played on Los Angeles's biggest radio station KissFM on 28 September 2009. The full song was premiered on The Radio 1 Chart Show on 11 October 2009. The first televised performance of "Damn Wrong About Me" was on the SAVE URAPS Telethon on 10 October 2009. On 11 October, Claire appeared on the 2009 Video Music Awards to present an award. In the awards' after party, Elice performed the song. Elice was scheduled to appear on BBC's The One Show on 14 October 2009, but she unable to make it, as she was in the United States finishing the Alesha Tour. To promote the album, Elice performed an exclusive live show at the Hackney Empire in London on 2 November 2009. Claire appeared at the Urapopstar Awards 17 to perform "Damn Wrong About Me" and "Devilicious" with Helena Rossi.

iTunes Countdown
To help promote the album, Saturdays Records signed a deal with iTunes to exclusively release 3 songs from the album before its release date. The songs chosen for the iTunes Countdown to Intimate Encounters were "Seize The Spark" released on 15 October, "Forever's Not for Always" released on 20 October, and "Forget The Times" with Claire Kitten released on 24 October. On 12 October 2009 as iTunes updated Elice's Countdown page, something went wrong and all three songs were made available for purchase before its release date. iTunes only came to notice the mistake hours after the page was uploaded. iTunes quickly removed the songs and re-uploaded them for pre-order only. Apple released a public apology to Saturdays Records for their mistake. iTunes revealed that only 2,500 downloads were made within those hours that the songs were made available.

Singles

 * "Damn Wrong About Me", written by Elice Claire and produced by La Manichansons, was released in the United Kingdom and United States in the fall of 2009 as the album's lead single, spending one week atop the Urapopstar Single Charts and eleven weeks in the top forty. Two music videos were made to promote the single, the album edit version of the video was directed by Dave Meyers and feature guest appearances by Sophie Ramone and Helena Rossi. The remix edit of the video was directed by Francis Lawrence.
 * "Forever's Not for Always" was the second single from the album. Released on 22 March 2010 in the UK, the single was served as a charity single to help Haiti. Two music videos were made to promote the single. One music video was for the Forever's Not for Always and another music video was for the b-side You'll Never Be Alone which was the song Elice performed on the Help For Haiti Now telethon.
 * "Never Let Go", served as the final single from the album. The song was released a double-a side with "Cloud Nine". Both songs received very positive reviews from critics, who claimed that the single was "Elice's best single to date". The music video for 'Never Let Go' was premiered in August 2011.

Extrenal Links

 * Original Release - Album Everything Topic
 * 'Intimate Encounters' Re-Issue Everything Topic and Booklet