Glory Days is the fourth studio album by British girl group Little Mix. It was released on 18 November 2016, by Syco Music and Columbia Records.[1] The album was preceded by the UK number-one single "Shout Out to My Ex", released a month before. The single later won the Best British Single award at the 2017 BRIT Awards. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and stayed there for four weeks; it later became their first album to yield more than two top ten singles when the fourth single, "Power", reached number six on the UK Singles Chart. In January 2018 the album was certified triple platinum in the UK for shipments of 900,000 units.[2]
The group re-issued the album on 24 November 2017 as Glory Days: The Platinum Edition. The re-issued album includes the single "Reggaetón Lento (Remix)", a remix of CNCO's song featuring the band, which peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart, along with three other previously released remixed singles, three new songs and a bonus documentary "Glory Days: The Documentary".[3] It is a dance-pop,[4]tropical house[5] and R&B[6] album. The band promoted the album with The Glory Days Tour between May and October 2017. As of October 2018, the album has generated 4.5 million total global sales.[7]
Singles
"Shout Out to My Ex" was released on 16 October 2016, as the album's lead single. The song was premiered on the day of release by a live performance on The X Factor results show before it was made available to download along with the pre-order of the album.[8] The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart.[9] The song remained at number one for three consecutive weeks before falling to number two in its fourth week.[10] On 5 December 2016, the group announced "Touch" as the second single from the album.[11]
On 1 March 2017, the group announced they would release "No More Sad Songs" as the third single from the album, on 3 March 2017. The new mix of the song features American hip-hop artist Machine Gun Kelly.[12] On 19 May, Little Mix announced through their official Twitter that "Power" would be released as the album's fourth official single on 26 May 2017. Two hours after the announcement of the single's release, they announced that the single release of "Power" would be remixed, with an added feature from English grime act Stormzy.[13][14]
Promotional singles
"You Gotta Not" was released as the first promotional single on 27 October 2016.[15] The song debuted at number sixty-one on the UK Singles Chart on the week beginning 4 November 2016.[16] "F.U." was released as the album's second promotional single on 4 November 2016.[17] The song debuted at number eighty-two on the UK Singles Chart on the week beginning 11 November 2016.[10] "Nothing Else Matters" was released as the third promotional single on 11 November 2016.[18] "Touch" was released on 15 November 2016 as the fourth single of the album, before being released as the second official single of the album.[19]
"Nobody Like You" was released on 16 November 2016 as the fifth promotional single of the album.[20]
The sixth and final promotional single, "Down & Dirty", was released on 17 November 2016.[21]
Promotion
Promotion campaigns were arranged for fans in the UK, Australia, the US, France, Netherlands, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Finland and Singapore, called the Glory Days Road Trip.[22]
The group embarked on The Glory Days Tour in support of the album. The UK leg of The Glory Days Tour was announced on 14 October 2016, and began on 27 October 2017.[23] The European leg — which took place in May and June 2017 — was announced in November 2016. A leg in Oceania took place in July 2017.[24][25]
The Guardian called the album "chart pop perfection."[26]
In another positive review, Digital Spy wrote "Little Mix have put together their most personal album yet, without sacrificing big hooks, a mainstream pop sensibility and plenty of sassy attitude." The article continued by saying "Glory Days hears four young women come together with a very real bond, making their message all the more believable."[27] The Evening Standard praised Little Mix for surviving with their fourth studio album, writing "Glory Days mostly sticks to their winning formula", and adding that "the foursome have carved out a pop niche for themselves."[29]
Digital Spy considered Glory Days the 12th best album of the year.[31]
Commercial performance
Glory Days became the group's first UK number-one album, and its 90,000 sales in its first week in the UK made it the fastest-selling album since David Bowie's Blackstar in January 2016. This record was broken two weeks later by the Rolling Stones.[32] The album also reached number one in Ireland, and debuted at number two in Australia,[33][34] and in the top 10 in the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.[35][36][37]Glory Days spent a total of five non-consecutive weeks at number one in the UK Albums Chart, the longest run at the top by a girl group album since the Spice Girls spent 15 weeks at number one with Spice in 1996,[38] and in March 2018 the album spent a 69th week in the top 40 of the UK Albums Chart, making it the longest-running girl group album in the top 40 ever.[39] As of January 2018 the album has been certified triple platinum in the UK for shipments of 900,000 units.[2] As of October 2018, the album has generated 4.5 million total global sales.[7]
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