Time of My Life (Ronan Keating album)

Background

In July 2014, Ronan Keating revealed that he had signed a new three album contract with Decca Records, saying: "Maybe I'm not valid but that's fine, I’m valid to myself, my family and the people who like my music." Ronan Keating announced the album on 25 November 2015 writing: "It's taken a year to write but in that time I have given the most honest piece of me." Keating has said the album was inspired by his wife Storm Uechtritz, whom he married in August 2015: "I think it's my best yet. I’m in a great headspace, the songs are all very optimistic and positive. I'm at this place in my life, I feel very secure. It’s all optimism and hope – it's because of this woman. I feel very lucky."

Time of My Life is Ronan Keating's first studio album in four years (since 2012's Fires), which is the longest span between two albums. Keating has said the album took a year to write and record: "It’s the longest I’ve ever spent making a record so it was a real pleasure to have the time to write and record without the pressure of having to rush to meet a particular deadline."

Ronan Keating said of the title, which comes from the song of the same name: "I threw around different ideas. It was gonna be Breathe, it was gonna be In Your Arms, and Time of My Life just felt right because I definitely feel I'm in my prime, you know—the best time in my life. And this albums reflects that."

Singles

On 25 December 2015 the album was made available for pre-order on iTunes Store with "Falling Slowly" released on the same date as an "instant-grat" track. The album's lead single "Let Me Love You" was released on 4 January 2016. The music video for the song premiered on 15 January 2016. It features Ronan Keating performing the song the South Bank in London, England as a group of buskers. Ronan Keating has said that the music video "mirrors where I am in my life and the way I now live it: optimistic, happy and without pretence".

"Breathe" was released as the album's second single on 1 April 2016.

Critical reception

Adrian Thrills of the Daily Mail gave the album three out of five stars, and said: "Acoustically driven and partly self-penned, his tenth solo effort is optimistic, but reflective. So, is it a desperate attempt to cash in on the success of Ed Sheeran and other sensitive young men with guitars? Or a belated flowering of his true artistic spirit? It turns out that it's a bit of both." Writing for The Times, Will Hodgkinson gave the album two out of five stars, and wrote: "Time of My Life sticks to the kind of soft acoustic balladry that neither offends nor excites, with Keating singing one mellifluous song about true love after another."