Right Here Right Now (Jordin Sparks album)

Background

In October 2010, in an interview, Sparks revealed she had started working on her third studio album. In November 2010, during an interview with Good Day New York, Sparks confirmed she would be recording the album in New York and Arizona. In January 2011, it was reported Sparks and John Legend were working together on songs in the studio.

On May 5, 2011, it was revealed Sparks would release a non-album single titled "I Am Woman." To support her new single, Sparks served as an opening act for the NKOTBSB summer tour. On May 12, 2011, Sparks performed "I Am Woman" on the American Idol Top 4 results show. It debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 82, with 33,000 downloads sold. It also debuted on the US Billboard Digital Songs at number 57. Sparks performed "I Am Woman" on Regis and Kelly on June 14. On August 9, 2012, Sparks stated during her interview with Billboard, she had about seven songs set so far for her third album. Sparks stated, "It's going to be different from what my fans have heard before. With (2009's) 'Battlefield' it was pop/rock and a little bit of pop/R&B, but I'm going for more of the R&B side now, so it's like R&B/pop instead of pop/R&B."

On August 9, 2012, Sparks stated during her interview with Billboard that she had about seven songs set so far for her third album. Sparks stated, "It's going to be different from what my fans have heard before. With (2009's) 'Battlefield' it was pop/rock and a little bit of pop/R&B, but I'm going for more of the R&B side now, so it's like R&B/pop instead of pop/R&B."

In May 2013, Sparks took to Twitter, to announce that she and RCA Records had come to an agreement regarding the release of new material. The first promotional single "Skipping a Beat" premiered on Sparks' Soundcloud page on August 1, 2013, and was made available for digital download on August 13, 2013. The album was not released until early 2014 due to timing issues with acting projects as well as placement issues within her label RCA.

Development

On August 15, 2014, record producer Salaam Remi announced Sparks was a part of the 'Louder than Life' roster. In an article with Music Connection,, Remi announced he would be producing Sparks' upcoming album. During a promotional tour for Sparks' movie, Left Behind, Sparks said she was in the finishing stages of her new album. Sparks said she was no longer with RCA Records and her single was due by the end of the year, with an album release in 2015. Sparks said she and her label were currently picking the first single, first look and album name.

On October 23, 2014, Remi hosted a music showcase featuring Sparks, showcasing three songs, two of which were performed live. On November 26, 2014, Sparks followed up with an official release of "How Bout Now", which debuted on the 'LALeakers' Soundcloud page and website. Her mixtape, #ByeFelicia, was released on the following day. On the last track of the mixtape, '(11:11) Wish', Sparks stated her upcoming album would be titled 'Right Here Right Now' and it would be released in 2015.

Record label conflict and new management

On October 7, 2011, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records. With the shutdown, Sparks would release future material with RCA Records.

Due to RCA's not choosing a placement for her third album in their yearly budget, Sparks set out on other ventures of auditioning for film and television roles. Sparks landed her first major film role in the musical drama Sparkle. The film's original motion picture soundtrack included new original music from Sparks based on the film and included the single "Celebrate", a duet between Sparks and Whitney Houston.

Sparks was released from her contract from RCA records and subsequently signed to Louder than Life, where ReMi would executive-produce with Sparks. As a result of the new deal all the material Sparks' had previously recorded for her third album under RCA had subsequently been scrapped and had since begun re-recording and writing new material since January 2014. An official announcement of Sparks' signing to the new label had only been released a year later in August 2014.

Recording and composition

Right Here Right Now was inspired by Sparks' life experiences over the last couple of years including issues with her previous label, her relationship and her personal growth continuing "my mom just got married, my brother had a baby, he got married — just huge milestones have been happening so I've been really inspired by all of that". Sparks cites soul legends Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men and Babyface for their influence on her sound.

The album opens with "Work From Home", an uptempo song that features American rapper B.o.B. Salaam Remi produced the "bouncy" and radio friendly beat which speaks about putting in "overtime" in a relationship with someone and "when that particular person comes home, you wanna do whatever you can to make that person happy". Sparks compares the song to Cater 2 U by Destiny's Child for its similarity in topic. Then comes "1000", which features J-Doe, an electro-R&B and saxophone driven track written by Dwayne Abernathy, Alju Jackson & J-Doe, with production handled by Dem Jointz. The song features two prominent interpolations, the first heavily samples "Moanin", by American jazz double bassist Charles Mingus, from his 1960s album Blues & Roots as well as "Ain't Worried About Nuthin'", a 2013 single by American rapper French Montana. It lyrically speaks about "a relationship where there's no strings attached" coming from the perspective of a girl. The album is named after track three, "Right Here Right Now", an uptempo R&B track written by James Fauntleroy and Dwayne Abernath which serves as the second song on the album to include production from Dem Jointz. Rap-Up described the song as a "sexy jam", whilst Idolator's Mike Wass described the song as a "club-banger". upon hearing the songs production Sparks labeled it as an "intricate" track with an "international feel".

The album continues with track four, "Double Tap" which features American rapper 2 Chainz. With production from Jonas Jeberg, who also produced Sparks' 2008 single "One Step At A Time", the song is an ode to all of the Instagram stalkers that don’t show their love in the form of the likes. It’s also a call to action for those people. Sparks sings "Baby, on the low / You stay on my page cause I guess I’m your favorite / But you won’t let it show, no way / If you like what you see then you gotta let me know / Bet you won’t double tap that hoe / Bet you won’t double tap that hoe". The next song, "Boyz In The Hood" keeps the upbeat energy of the album going with its piano-led snapping production. The "infectious" jam sees Sparks take on her ideal version of the perfect bad boy, describing all different types of guys that peek her interest, "Snap backs, tattoos and a Vee neck / That's all he'll ever need to be fresh / And we rolling down the street / And them J's on his feet / And His chains all on me". Production on the album then moves on to a senual midtempo ballad, "Silhouette" .The song sees Sparks using her falsetto vocals by channeling Mariah Carey's earlier work adopting her "most agile coos". Sparks takes it to the bedroom in speaks of the descriptive and intimate moments she is sharing with her lover " There's no space between us / Tonight we'll be seamless / Painting perfect pictures of what's going on in this bed / Insatiable shadows revealed by the candles / You and me and our silhouette".

This moves onto another track called "They Don't Give" a "sultry" Babyface produced ballad that is "reminiscent of any early ’90s track that had Babyface behind the pen". Lyrically it talks about a being in a relationship and not caring what anyone from the outside has to say, even though no body else understands "They Don't Give an eff about us", They don't know anything about their love. Eighth in the album, is the adult contemporary-influenced, "Left.... Right?". Crada produced the vibey record, which centres on a conversation of a lover asking the other all these questions, expecting an answer but not getting the answer they want. "I'll find my way back to you / That's what you said before you left....right? / I was the one you'd run to / The only one that you had left....right?".

Concept and title

With the release of Sparks' third album it sees her with her first urban rhymatic contemporary album. Sparks spoke on the albums musical growth and maturity siting "My last album came out when I was 19 & 19 - 25 is a big growth spurt for anyone to go through, in the time I was away I got to grow, learn & experience new things, that helped me be able to create a completed body of work that I am so proud of. The album is heavily influenced by 90's Rhythm & Blues and sees Sparks make use of her lower vocal register that aloud her to give the slower records a more urban vibe to their delivery. Sparks cites Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey as major influences on the album.

On November 24, 2014 Sparks released her first official mixtape #ByeFelicia helmed by the LA Leakers, which served as an album sampler and featured nine songs with majority of the mixtape including small snippets of tracks that would eventually appear of the full length album. Most tracks included a small interview with sparks where she spoke on some of the tracks and announced that the official title for her third album would be called "Right Here Right Now" stating "I'm coming into my own Right Here, Right Now, I'm feeling confident Right Here, Right Now & all we have is Right Here, Right Now. So I thought the title was very symbolic in a lot of ways...".

Artwork

In early 2015 Sparks shot the album packaging photo shoot with LA based photographer James White. Salaam Remi had also held a previous photoshoot with Sparks for the albums lead single Double Tap with Sparks perched in front of a blackboard with a chalk drawing of the singles title. The albums final official artwork had been submitted as both the album & single cover for the title track second single. Unlike Sparks previous albums which both included a deluxe edition album with separate artwork, a standard edition of the album had been serviced to all markets. The rest of the albums photo shoot and package design had been inspired by the elements earth, water, air and fire.

Release and promotion

To create buzz for Sparks' upcoming album, Sparks joined forces with the LALeakers to produce a mixtape that would be given to fans for free. The mixtape titled #ByeFelicia was released on November 25, 2014 and contained interview clips where Sparks talked about each song. At the end of the last track, "11:11", Sparks announced that some of the songs from the mixtape, as well as new tracks, would be on her upcoming third album. The same day Sparks released an album pre-order on her official website; giving fans the opportunity to have their names placed in her official album booklet.

In the weeks leading up to the album release Sparks began releasing instant gratification tracks from the album each Friday, in which she called #NewMusicFridays. Beginning on July 24, 2015, Sparks released the album track "100 Years", followed by 'They Don't Give' (a video was also released exclusively through VH1.com on August 7 ), 'Work From Home (ft. B.o.B)', and 'Boyz in the Hood' in the following weeks. On August 14, Sparks released an exclusive full stream of the album through VH1 and Reese's VH1First program, an entire week before the official album release. Sparks will perform on Today on August 27, 2015,.

Singles

"It Ain't You" was the first release from the album as a promotional single. The song debuted on Sparks' mixtape, #ByeFelicia on November 25, 2014. The official version of the song then debuted on Sparks' Vevo channel on December 2, 2014. This version differed from the version on her mixtape in production as well as some vocal additions. The song became available for pre-order on the same day and was officially released on December 16, 2014.

"Double Tap", featuring 2 Chainz, was announced to be the official lead single from the album. It was originally set to be released on February 24, 2015, however it was pushed back a week to coincide with the radio release date and became available on March 3, 2015 in the United States, but in the United Kingdom it became available on March 2, 2015. It was released to Rhythmic radio in the U.S. on the same day. The music video was shot in Atlanta on February 11, 2015 and premiered on Yahoo Music on March 10, 2015. It was made available to all digital outlets the following day.

The title track, "Right Here Right Now", was released as the album's second official single on July 8, 2015. Its music video premiered on July 9, 2015 in Times Square. "They Don't Give" was serviced to Rhythmic Top 40 Radio on September 2, 2015 as the third single from the album. The songs accompanying music video was shot on June 4, 2015 at the Crescent Bay Beach, Laguna Beach in California. The video was directed by Mike Ho who also directed the video for "Right Here Right Now" and premiered on VH1 on August 10, 2015.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Right Here Right Now received generally favorable reviews from music critics, based on an aggregate score of 69/100 from Metacritic, Sparks highest rating. With many critics citing Right Here, Right Now as Sparks best work to date, applauding her for finally finding her sound.

NY Daily News writes "At 25, Sparks finally sounds like a woman, one in control of both her voice and her character. … The most direct role model for the project seems to be Mariah Carey’s better urban records of the '90s and early 2000s. Carey fans may consider the best of "Right Here" the stuff they wished for years that Mariah would cut. ... That hybrid, and Sparks’ new maturity, allows her to find her voice, as well as a potential new role. While many fans have called Ariana Grande the new Mariah, "Right Now" makes Sparks sound like the true heir."

Entertainment Weekly said "On her third album, the Idol alum enlists 2 Chainz and B.o.B to add edge to her sultry R&B sound. But it’s Shaggy’s support on an island-y ode to committed relationships that pops among a mix of passionate R&B jams and take-charge lady anthems."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 161 on the US Billboard 200, number 11 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Albums, and number 4 on the Billboard R&B albums.

Personnel

Adapted from Allmusic and the album liner notes.

Recording locations

Creativity and management

Performers