All I Need

"All I Need" Studio album by Foxes Released 5 February 2016 Recorded 2015 Genre Pop Length 41:46 Label Sign of the Times Producer(s) Mark Ralph, Tim Bran, Roy Kerr, Jim Eliot, Dan Wilson, Ashley Hayes, Jesse Shatkin, Liam Howe Previous album Glorious Next album The Kick

"I was inspired a lot more with this record with stripping things back and making it a lot more emotional. I didn't want to do a concept album, I always like it when I can write from a diary in a way. It's quite an emotional album. It's got elements from the first one, but it's definitely not as produced. The tracks feel a lot more vocal [with] piano and strings. It's still cinematic in ways but I'm a lot more honest on this record this time around, which is quite a scary thing to be." - Foxes talking about All I Need.

All I Need is Foxes' second studio album which released on 5 February 2016. The album features sixteen tracks including "All I Need" which is the titular track to the album like "Glorious" in her debut album. This was Foxes' second and final album with her label Sign of the Times.

This was the second instance of Foxes naming her album after a song in the album, in this case, being "All I Need". This was originally done with "Glorious" for her first album.

Background

Foxes commenced work on the album in January 2015. On 21 January, Foxes tweeted a picture of herself sitting on a chest with a caption about it. Eight days later, on 29 January, she posted a black and white photograph of herself standing with two men in a studio. The next day, she tweeted about how she couldn't stop smiling about the album..

On 27 March, Foxes posted a picture of herself and three other people clapping in the same studio she claimed Tina Turner recorded "What's Love Got to Do with It" in.

On 12 June, she tweeted a video of herself in the studio with a choir of children. On June 17, she posted a picture of herself surrounded by keyboards. The next day, she tweeted a picture of herself with a tambourine.

On 1 July, she tweeted a picture of herself eating Nando's in the studio. On 3 July, she announced that she was finally deciding on the album's track listing. From 15 to 16 July, various Twitter accounts were sent postcards containing titles of some of the album's tracks. Foxes confirmed the album's title and full track listing on 28 July.

All I Need was made available for pre-order on 21 August.

On 9 July 2023, Foxes announced that she was looking to explore the possibility of releasing music from All I Need which never made the final cut whilst in the process of writing new music.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1	Rise Up - Intro	Jonas Quart Foxes	Mark Ralph	0:59
2	Better Love	Johnny "Ghostwater" Harris Dan Smith Foxes	Tim Bran Roy Kerr	3:36
3	Body Talk	Jim Elliot Foxes	Jim Elliot	3:30
4	Cruel	Kid Harpoon Foxes	Mark Ralph	3:47
5	If You Leave Me Now	Jim Elliot Foxes	Jim Elliot	4:52
6	Amazing	Jonny Lattimer Martin Brammer James Newman Foxes	Mark Ralph	3:48
7	Devil Side	Dan Wilson Foxes	Dan Wilson	4:00
8	Feet Don't Fail Me Now	Jessie Shatkin Fransisca Hall Foxes	Jessie Shatkin	3:24
9	Wicked Love	MoZella Rick Nowels Foxes	Mark Ralph	3:15
10	Scar	JP Saxe Babyface Antonio Dixon Khristopher Riddick-Tynes Jin Jin Foxes	Tim Bran Roy Kerr	3:09
11	Money	Jonas Quart Foxes	Jonas Quart	3:15
12	On My Way	Jessie Shatkin Foxes	Tim Bran Roy Kerr	4:23
13	Shoot Me Down	Kid Harpoon Jonas Quart Foxes	Kid Harpoon	3:39
14	Lose My Cool	Johnny “Ghostwriter” Harris Bnann Charles Fink Foxes	Mark Ralph	3:23
15	All I Need	Hannah Robinson Liam Howe Foxes	Liam Howe	3:50
16	Rise Up (Reprise)	Jonas Quart Foxes	Mark Ralph	2:36

Gallery

Critical reception

"All I Need (album)" Metacritic 67/100 AOTY {{{AOTY}}} AllMusic ★★★★ Spotify {{{Spotify}}} Deezer {{{Deezer}}} DigitalSpy {{{DigitalSpy}}} Financial Times {{{Financial Times}}} The Independent {{{The Independent}}} The Irish Times ★★★ The Observer ★★★★ Q ★★★ Rolling Stones ★★★★ The Guardian ★★★ NME 4/5 The Line of Best Fit {{{The Line of Best Fit}}} iNews DIY Gigwise The Perfect Tempo Dork RYM Daily Star

All I Need received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Metacritic gave the album a score of 67 out of 100 and the album received three to four stars out of five on media reviews.

AllMusic praised the album and said: "All I Need is a refreshing blast of deftly produced, stylish pop. At its best, All I Need is on par with the smarts of Marina and the addictive joy of Ellie, while mirroring the focused vision of Carly Rae. From the double whammy of the two singles that open the album to the stirring numbers that close it, it's a dose of unabashed emotion that never overwhelms with treacle or plastic detachment."

Rachel Aroesti from The Guardian was critical of the album and wrote: "With the notable exception of Cruel, a track anchored gratifyingly around a staggered Eurodancey vocal sample, Allen tends to favour either dreary mid-tempo balladry or unremarkable electropop. Her lyrics may be personal, but the package as a whole feels disappointingly generic."

Whilst The Guardian's review was critical, their sister paper, The Observer praised it for the mix between optimism and sadness. Reviewing the album, Michael Cragg said: "On second album All I Need, Southampton’s Foxes, aka Louisa Allen, manages to pull off pop’s greatest trick; making sadness danceable."

References

Albums and extended plays by Foxes
Studio albums EPs: Other: