Right Now (Leon Jackson album)

Right Now
Studio album by Leon Jackson
Released	20 October 2008 (see release history)
Recorded	2007-08
Genre	Pop, jazz, soul
Length	47:54
Label	Syco, Sony BMG
Producer	Steve Mac
Leon Jackson chronology
Right Now (2008) Coronation Story (2014)
Singles from Right Now
"When You Believe" Released: 19 December 2007 "Don't Call This Love" Released: 11 October 2008 "Creative" Released: November 2008 "Stargazing" Released: 19 January 2009

Right Now is the first album by Scottish singer Leon Jackson, released on 20 October 2008, via Syco Music and Sony BMG. It was produced by Steve Mac. Jackson described the album as "a mixture in styles of modern jazz with singer-songwriter elements, and a lot of it is really soulful."^[1] Right Now received mixed reviews although the single, "Don't Call This Love", which was released as the album's second single in October 2008, entered the UK Singles Chart at number three.

Right Now was a commercially successful album for Jackson, debuting within the top five. To date, the album has sold 135,892 copies in the UK, becoming Gold certified by the BPI.

Background and release

The first single from the album, "Don't Call This Love", was released on 12 October 2008. Jackson made a guest appearance on the fifth series of The X Factor the night before, to perform the single. "Don't Call This Love" peaked at #3 in the United Kingdom and #8 in Ireland.^[2]

Right Now was released 21 October 2008.^[3] It debuted at number 7 on the Ireland Top 75 in the week of 23 October 2008, remaining on that chart for a total of five weeks.^[4] It debuted at #4 on the UK Top 40 Albums chart for the week of 26 October 2008.^[4][5] The following week, it was at #20 on the chart,^[6] and the week after that, was at #37.^[7] The following week, it slipped out of the Top 40,^[8] but remained in the UK Top 75 chart for six additional weeks.^[4]

The next two singles from the album, "Creative" and "Stargazing", were released as download-only singles. "Creative", which was released in November 2008, peaked at #94 on the charts for the week of 29 November, 2008.^[9] "Stargazing" was released in January 2009, but failed to make any impact on the charts.^[10] The album reportedly only sold 135,892 copies.^[11] On March 19, 2009, it was confirmed that Leon Jackson was dropped by his label, Syco/Sony, after poor sales of his album and the lack of success of his most recent singles.^[12]

The album was recorded from 2007–2008 under the direction of Simon Cowell, head of the Syco/Sony BMG record label, and under the production of producer Steve Mac. In an episode of the Bebo series from Jackson Leon's Life, one episode shows Jackson recording the track "All in Good Time" and how the original high note towards the end of the song was changed to a lower key note because Jackson could not reach the high note well enough on the original version of the song. The album was completed in 2008 and released on October 20, 2008. The single was available to download from midnight after the result of the show on December 15, 2007, and a CD was rush-released mid-week, on December 19, 2007.^[13] This is unusual as most new singles are released on a Monday to gain maximum sales for the UK Singles Chart the following Sunday. Exceptions included the previous two X Factor winners whose singles released in this fashion, in order for them to compete to be the Christmas number-one single, which they all became.^[13] A video for the single was made by each of the final four of the series, Jackson, Rhydian Roberts, Same Difference and Niki Evans. However, only the winner's version of the song and video was released.

The song ended 2007 as the year's fourth biggest-selling single in the UK and remained number one into 2008.^[14] However, this version of the song only managed to stay in the top 40 for seven weeks, despite being at the top of the chart for three weeks. It soon disappeared from the top 100, and was gone by late February.^[15]

Promotion

In December 2007, to help promote Right Now and the single "When You Believe", Jackson performed on various UK television shows such GMTV, This Morning and The X Factor.

After one year recording Right Now, Jackson debuted his new material. His first performance of this was on The X Factor, in which he sang "Don't Call This Love". Jackson also later appeared on the first show of the fifth series as the Celebrity Guest. The song was also performed on GMTV along with another track from the album, "You Don't Know Me". "Don't Call this Love" entered the United Kingdom chart at #3, behind Pink's "So What" and Peter Kay's "The Winners Song". In Ireland, the song debuted at #8.^[16]

Jackson performed the album's third single, "Creative", on the 2008 televised Children in Need, broadcast in November. The single only entered the chart at #94 in the United Kingdom.^[17]

The album's fourth single, "Stargazing", failed to chart in the United Kingdom. The failure of this single was attributed to low promotion. Jackson was dropped by his record label in March 2009.

Singles

"When You Believe" was released as the winner's single in December 2007. Like many X Factor winner singles, it entered the United Kingdom chart at #1, staying there for 3 weeks, and #1 in Ireland. The song was gone from the charts by early February 2008. The single sold 490,000 copies. The single was available to download from midnight after the result of the show on December 15, 2007, and a CD was rush-released mid-week, on December 19, 2007.^[13] This is unusual as most new singles are released on a Monday to gain maximum sales for the UK Singles Chart the following Sunday. Exceptions included the previous two X Factor winners whose singles were released in this fashion, in order for them to compete to be the Christmas number-one single, which they all became.^[13] A video for the single was made by each of the final four of the series: Jackson, Rhydian Roberts, Same Difference and Niki Evans. However, only the winner's version of the song and video was released.

The song ended 2007 as the year's fourth biggest-selling single in the UK and remained number one into 2008.^[14] However, this version of the song only managed to stay in the top 40 for seven weeks, despite being at the top of the chart for three weeks. It soon disappeared from the top 100, and was gone by late February.^[15] "Don't Call This Love" was released in October 2008.

"Creative" was released in November 2008 as the album's third single.^[18] To promote the track Jackson appeared on the BBC Children in Need 2008 show performing the song as an "exclusive" as this was the first time Jackson had performed it. The song entered the UK Singles Charts at #94.^[17]

"Stargazing" was released in February 2009,^[18] but did not reach the United Kingdom official chart. Yet again the song was only available via digital download. Jackson did not appear on any TV show to promote the single, nor was any music video created for the song. The song had a lack of promotion by Sony BMG. After "Stargazing" failed to chart, Jackson was dropped.^[18] The BBC commented on Stargazing: While the lyrics for Star Gazing may be rather saccharine - rhyming star gazing with amazing, is a bit too much to take - the pace and structure, (along with all-important key change) makes it pretty special - which can be said about all the tracks here.^[19]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Orange	[20]
BBC Music	(positive)[21]
All Music	[22]
OK Magazine	[23]
Heat Magazine	[24]
Digital Spy	[25]
Entertainment.ie	[26]

Right Now received mixed reviews. Digital Spy rated the album two out of five, saying "Jackson doesn't do a bad job, wrapping his warm, smooth vocals around a succession of beige ballads, classics that are too old for him (Leon Russell's 'A Song For You', Dorothy Moore's 'Misty Blue', Ray Charles's 'You Don't Know Me') and the odd uptempo big band number. But other than sounding surprisingly manly for a slight 19-year-old and singing in a Scottish accent for the first time on the album's penultimate track, he doesn't make much of an impression. He's rarely asked to test his range and there are few glimmers of personality across Right Now's 50 minutes."^[27]

A reviewer for the BBC said: "Oh, this album has all the ingredients of something many would love to hate: it's by an X Factor winner and it's in the style of Harry Connick Jr, Michael Buble, and all those Irish man-bands' tributes to Frank, Tony etc. It's also taken over a year since Leon's first single to come up with, so many will be saying Leon who?. It's a brave move in the openly cynical world of the nationwide talent contest to expect those sitting on the sofa to remember one year's winner to the next, but it's paid off. Looking rather older and sporting suspiciously photoshopped cheekbone chisels, the cheeky chappy's voice is also surprisingly mature and smooth as a baby's... He's surrounded by equally slick orchestration, which is light of touch and spaciously balanced. Incredibly, given that most tracks are ballads, underpinned by piano with soaring violins, the album neatly avoids overblown territory, which must be credited to Jackson's vocal control, never over-singing. Opener and first single Don't Call This Love is complete with chimes and full of force, though it's not certain that it's charismatic enough to knock Peter Kay’s Winner's song off the top spot."

Track listing

Track listing
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Don't Call This Love"	Carl Falk, Chris Braide, Bryn Christopher	4:11
2.	"Creative"	Chris Porter, Howard New, Peter Gordeno	3:56
3.	"Stargazing"	Alan Chang, Savan Kotecha	4:13
4.	"All In Good Time"	Peter Gordeno	3:43
5.	"Right Now"	Carl Sigman, Herbie Mann	2:19
6.	"You Don't Know Me"	Cindy Walker, Arnold Eddy	4:05
7.	"Ordinary Days"	Andreas Romdhane, Josef Larossi, John Reid	4:09
8.	"A Song For You"	Leon Russell	3:52
9.	"Fingerprints"	Andreas Romdhane, Savan Kotecha	3:40
10.	"Could Do Better"	Peter Gordeno	4:12
11.	"Misty Blue"	Bob Montgomery	3:40
12.	"Caledonia"	Dougie Maclean	3:34
13.	"When You Believe"	Stephen Schwartz	4:14
Total length:			47:54

Digital download bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
14.	"Home"	2:34
15.	"Fly Me To The Moon"	2:25
16.	"Don't Give Up"	3:51

Release history

Region	Release date	Format	Label
Ireland	17 October 2008	CD, digital download	Syco Music, Sony BMG
United Kingdom[28]	20 October 2008

Chart performance

Charts

Chart (2008)	Peak position	Certification	Sales
UK Albums Chart	4	Gold	135,892[29]
Irish Albums Chart	7	Platinum	15,000+
World Albums Top 100	25	-	-

Certifications

• United Kingdom: Gold^[29]
• Ireland: Platinum^[29]

End-of year charts

• United Kingdom: #75^[30]

References

Leon Jackson Album Right Now Singles "When You Believe" "Don't Call This Love" "Creative" "Stargazing" Related articles The X Factor series 4 finalists