Olly Murs has told Music Week that the modern music market means “you just don’t know” how new releases will perform.
Murs releases his sixth album You Know I Know today (November 9) via RCA and the record comes with a bonus disc featuring 12 of the singer’s biggest hits. It follows 2016’s 24 Hrs, which hit No.1 and has sold 387,140 copies, according ot the Official Charts Company.
“The last record did well, got to No.1, and had some decent songs,” said Murs, who recently appeared on the cover of Music Week. “You Know Your Lover was my favourite, Unpredictable was a nice collaboration with Louisa Johnson. But the album didn’t do as well as the previous record in terms of figures and streaming numbers.”
Murs puts the drop off from 2014’s Never Been Better (862,946 sales) down to a shift in sound.
“It was a different album for my fans, a different feel, a bit more serious, emotional and honest, more from the heart,” he said. “It wasn’t that feelgood energy. I think it was the best album I’ve done as a songwriter but I don’t think it was necessarily the Olly people fell in love with on the last records.”
I’m in a different place, reenergised, reinvigorated, with new music and fresh song
Olly Murs
All but one of Murs five previous albums debuted at No.1, and two have passed the 1 million sales mark, 2011’s In Case You Didn’t Know and 2012’s Right Place Right Time.
The singer said You Know I Know, which includes collaborations with Snoop Dogg, Shaggy and Nile Rogers, represents a return to his roots. “It’s about coming back to that, I’m in a different place, reenergised, reinvigorated, with new music and fresh songs.”
So far, comeback single Moves (written by Ed Sheeran and Steve Mac) is emulating the singles released from 24 Hrs and is performing better at radio than in the singles chart. A fixture in the UK airplay Top 10 since its release, it has 40,847 sales to date.
“If I was releasing Moves three or four years ago, I’d like to think it would be a No.1 record,” he said. “But now with the market as it is with streaming figures, you just don’t know.”
RCA president David Dollimore told Music Week the major hopes to “sell as many Olly Murs records going into Christmas and Q1 next year as possible”.
Murs and his team acknowledge that the growth of streaming stands to impact sales, but the singer said he’s “hunting down a fifth consecutive No.1”.
Subscribers can read Music Week’s Olly Murs campaign story, which features Dollimore and Modest Management boss Harry Magee alongside the singer, online here.
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