The Sellout is Macy Gray's fifth studio album that was released on June 22, 2010 by Concord Records.
Tracklisting[]
- The Sellout 3:57
- Lately 2:56
- Kissed It 4:36
- Still Hurts 3:50
- Beauty In The World 3:49
- Help Me 4:37
- Let You Win 3:56
- That Man 3:32
- Stalker 2:27
- Real Love 4:02
- On & On 3:19
- The Comeback 4:04
Chart Performance[]
"The Sellout" peaked at #38 on the Billboard 200, selling 11,000 copies.
Critical Reception[]
"The Sellout" received generally mixed 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 58, based on 17 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".
At AnyDecentMusic?, that collates critical reviews from more than 50 media sources, the album scored 6.0 points out of 10.
Andy Gill of The Independent gave it 3 out of 5 stars and wrote that it "suffers much of the same frustrating patchiness, that distinctively emotive voice squandered on material that simply doesn't deserve it".
Allmusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
MusicOMH writer Talia Soghomonian gave the album 2½ out of 5 stars and wrote "While there is plenty of soul in the sound, there is a lack of body in both delivery and melody".
Q gave it 2 out of 5 stars and called it "her blandest record yet: it drifts from nondescript disco-pop and cloying R&B to woefully ersatz glam stomp".
However, The Boston Globe's James Reed commended its production and wrote that it "sands off the edges that have been key to Gray’s appeal".
Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating and praised Gray for "effortlessly combining classic pop with flamboyant chart-frippery".
Entertainment Weekly's Simon Vozick-Levinson gave the album a B- rating and stated: "Nothing here will dramatically alter the arc of Gray's career, but The Sellout yields several jams worth hearing".
In his consumer guide for MSN Music, critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A- rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks."