Today's Best Music 104.5 CHUM FM was proud to present The Corrs on Tuesday, September 5th at a secret location in downtown Toronto.  Tickets to this exclusive event were only available through CHUM FM on-air and on-line contests, and as evidenced by the many thank-you calls and emails we received from the contest winners, a good time was had by all! 

The Corrs, In Blue ( out of 4)

The Corrs' bouncy 'Blue' is one of pop's best bets

The Irish siblings who make up The Corrs seem to have all the makings of a successful pop act: decent chops, great looks and a huge international following. Still, Andrea, Caroline, Sharon and Jim Corr have not yet scored that all-important smash single in the USA. That situation might change with the release of this album, which finds the quartet collaborating with such noted hitmakers as Shania Twain's writer/producer hubby Mutt Lange. The bouncy first single, Breathless, could be a lost Twain nugget, while the shimmering Say benefits from producer Mitchell Froom's elegant roots-pop savvy. But some of the most appealing material finds the family act writing and producing on its own: the buoyant, electronica-kissed Give Me a Reason or the bittersweet All in a Day, one of several Celtic-flavored tracks. Whether the luck of the Irish will help The Corrs seduce American radio programmers this time remains to be seen, but regardless, In Blue is one of the best mainstream pop albums you're likely to come across this year. — Elysa Gardner
 

Follow Up Report from Roger Ashby of CHUMFM regarding Sept 5th "Live, Intimate and Unplugged" in Toronto, Canada.:
"It was great! They played for about an hour to around 150 of us in a warehouse kind of setting. Their manager said there might be a late winter tour that hopefully would bring them to Toronto."
 

Nothing 'Blue' About Corrs' New Album
http://www.billboard.com/hotprod/

Ireland's first family of roots/pop, the Corrs, have one major worldwide conquest left to make. With their latest international smash album, "In Blue," arriving on U.S. shores this week on 143/Lava/Atlantic, the Corrs hope to at last beat down the door to multi-platinum success in the States.

Released internationally July 17, "In Blue" hit No. 1 in its first sales week in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria; climbed to the top in week two in Sweden and Spain; and had No. 2 debuts in France and Norway. "We're very hopeful that we're going to build on the foundations that we've already laid," guitarist Jim Corr says.

THE CORRS 
In Blue 
Producer(s): Robert John "Mutt" Lange, the Corrs, Mitchell Froom 
143/Lava/Atlantic 83352
Originally reviewed for week ending 9/15/00
http://www.billboard.com/reviews/reviewdisplay.asp?ID=87814

On the international front, the Corrs are pop superstars. At this point in time, the same can't be said for the ultra-talented and -photogenic Irish quartet's standing in the U.S, where it's been unable to break. But with the release of the act's third studio set, "In Blue," which has topped the pop charts in 18 countries, that's about to change. From the infectious first single, the Robert John "Mutt" Lange-produced "Breathless," which may remind some of the Go-Go's, to the bright and buoyant "No More Cry," the Corrs -- who penned/co-penned all 15 tracks -- remain on one serious pop mission. Fans of the band's two previous studio albums ("Forgiven, Not Forgotten" and "Talk On Corners") and last year's international-only live album ("The Corrs Unplugged") will, no doubt, find much to admire and embrace on this wholly satisfying collection. 
 

"Parents and politicians worry about the insidious effects of violent rock and rap on kids' fertile minds, but has anyone considered the perils of ultraclean pop like that of The Corrs? Andrea, Sharon, Caroline and Jim Corr are the luscious-lipped Irish siblings whose second album, Talk On Corners, became an international sensation a couple of years ago. They don't drink or do drugs, and their music has evolved into a pert, cheerful hybrid of post-Spice dance-pop and lilting Irish folk. In Blue offers simple messages about love ("Breathless"), healing wounds ("No More Cry") and the inspiring power of music ("Radio"). The Corrs' emotional universe is awesomely uncomplicated: in "Give Me A Reason", removing makeup is equated with laying bare one's feelings. Instrumental touches like tin whistle and bodhran provide Riverdance-style local color. Although The Corrs seem harmless enough, kids are bound to rebel when they realize they can never be this perfect. A Goth phase with piercings and tattoos could be just around the corner." 

2 1/2 stars. 
"Imagine the flawlessness of ABBA without the glorious underpining of bad taste."
Review by: Karen Schoemer
 

Erin Go Blah. The mundane In Blue continues the Americanization of The Corrs. It's enough to get your Irish up.

CORRS LITE Siblings Caroline, Andrea, Jim, and Sharon lose their Celtic edge.

Assimilation has bedeviled ethnic cultures for centuries, but it's taken the Corrs only a few albums to succumb to it. The Irish siblings' 1995 Forgiven, Not Forgotten straddled the delicate balance between Celtic folk (fiddles and tin whistles) and mainstream pop (the sulky-glam looks and comely voice of singer Andrea Corr). They managed to pull it off, but with each subsequent release their national identity has receded further, as the band and its record company have sought first and foremost to make them as hugely popular in the U.S. as they are in Europe. 

The Corrs aren't the first overseas act with such a goal, but few have pursued it with their depressing zeal. First came a collaboration with producer Glen Ballard, then a remix disc, and now In Blue, which finds them paired with, among others, producer and Shania Twain husband/Svengali "Mutt" Lange. The Lange-helmed opening track and single, "Breathless", could be credited to Wilson O'Phillips, and it sets the tone for what follows. 

The nothing-but-a-heartache songs are banal, each one reduced to adult-contemporary radio fodder that feels very 1991 ("All the Love in the World" is awaiting Celine Dion's return). The album also reflects a music-biz mind-set that emphasizes not merely Stateside sales but global success; In Blue is unlikely to offend anyone, anywhere. Tellingly, sister Sharon Corr's fiddle is featured prominently only on two tracks. It's a shame, since the Corrs can work up a jig-rock lather on stage. But on record, they're a disheartening example of musical ethnic cleansing.

Grade:  C
Review by:  David Brown
 

The CORRS will be performing LIVE on NBC's Weekend Today this coming Saturday, September 9th “on the plaza” at Rockefeller Center in the heart of midtown Manhattan.

The show airs at 7:30 am.

All American fans in New York City...head down to the plaza. As for the Canadian fans...set your VCR. The show is 1 hour and 30 minutes but they probably won't show the band til near the end.
 

Traditional Celtic sounds and modern pop... mixed together? This unique blend is the signature of one band... The CORRS

CHUM FM is proud to present The Corrs "Live, Intimate and Unplugged" on Tuesday, September 5th at a secret location somewhere in Toronto. 

Winners of the contest were gathered through online entries as well as being the 10th caller to the radio station whenever "Breathless" is played.

Follow Up Report from Roger Ashby of CHUMFM:
"It was great! They played for about an hour to around 150 of us in a warehouse kind of setting. Their manager said there might be a late winter tour that hopefully would bring them to Toronto."

The Corrs Find New York City 'Irresistible'
By: Jason Gelman, New York

The Corrs were in New York City's Times Square this week shooting the video for "Irresistible," the second single from their upcoming album In Blue, which is due for U.S. release on September 12. The Irish quartet comprises the siblings Jim, Sharon, Caroline, and Andrea Corr.

Andrea gave LAUNCH the scoop on the "Irresistible" video: "I think it's a very glamorous video--and a very kind of cosmopolitan video as well because it's set just right in the middle of Times Square with all of the cars and the yellow cabs and everything going past," she noted. "The idea of the video is just basically iconoclastic. It's just, I suppose, very much about stars."

The Corrs were on the set very early each day Sunday (Aug. 27) through Tuesday (Aug. 29) to shoot the video, which was directed by Joseph Kahn (Destiny's Child, Sisqo). Sharon told LAUNCH that despite the early morning hours, it was still a fun shoot: "We were up at about five every morning to do it. It was great--they got the mayor's permission to be able to shoot and have all that seriously big equipment in the middle of Times Square for three days."

Andrea added that Kahn came up with a rather unique way to shoot the video: "He had this beautiful idea, where we are surrounded by daylight--so he shoots us in daylight, but he also shoots in nighttime. So, we have an aura of daylight within nighttime around us. It's a beautiful idea." 

The band's current single "Breathless" and the upcoming "Irresistible" were co-written and produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange (Shania Twain, Backstreet Boys). 

In Blue, the follow-up to the Corrs' 1999 album Talk On Corners, has already hit No. 1 in more than 17 countries, including Ireland, the U.K., Australia, Germany, Austria, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and Singapore. Sharon told LAUNCH that the group members were confident that In Blue would be a success, but they never expected it to climb to the top of the international charts so quickly: "I think the speed of it was surprising," she said. "I think that we've built great foundations with our last two albums, you know? They've all done well, but this one pretty instantaneously--like, within a month --was No. 1 in so many countries. 

"We're really happy with the album," Sharon added. "We do think it's worthy of [success]. We really are pleased with this album we've made."
 

The Corrs Top Charts Across The Globe
By: Neal Weiss, Los Angeles

While The Corrs' In Blue doesn't arrive in American record stores for almost three more weeks, the album has already proved phenomenally successful elsewhere across the globe where it has already been released.

The Irish quartet's third studio release has hit Number One in 14 countries, including Ireland, the U.K., Australia, Germany, Austria, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines. It is currently the top seller overall in the European market.

The Corrs have still made inroads here in the States. Their new album's first single, "Breathless," is currently gaining steam at radio across the country.

In Blue will be released in America on September 12. Three of the tracks were produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, the husband and studio collaborator of Shania Twain.
 

The Corrs Eye U.S. Success
By: Paul Sexton And Chuck Taylor

Ireland's first family of roots/pop, the Corrs, have one major worldwide conquest left to make -- and it's in the country where they were signed.

With their latest international smash album, "In Blue," arriving on U.S. shores Sept. 12 on 143/Lava/Atlantic, the Corrs hope to at last beat down the door to multi-platinum success in the States.

It's a conquest the group from Dundalk in Southern Ireland sought with its previous studio releases, 1995's "Forgiven Not Forgotten" and 1997's "Talk On Corners." While both reached gold status in the U.S., that pales compared with the quartet's global achievements.

Even before "In Blue," worldwide sales of the Corrs' catalog, including last year's "Unplugged" set, were estimated by Atlantic at 14 million. 

Released internationally July 17, "In Blue" hit No. 1 in its first sales week in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria; climbed to the top in week two in Sweden and Spain; and had No. 2 debuts in France and Norway. The album also won an International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) Platinum Europe Award for 1 million sales across the continent in just 11 days -- just a month after "Unplugged" received its second such award for 2 million in European sales. 

In recent weeks, all three of the Corrs' studio albums have ranked within the top 75 on the U.K. sales chart. The "Unplugged" set resurged from No. 40 to No. 26 on Music & Media's European Top 100 Albums survey in early August and is still selling strongly in much of Europe.

Leading the international charge for "In Blue" is the breezy, ultra-pop lead single "Breathless," one of three songs on the set co-written and co-produced by the red-hot Robert "Mutt" Lange. Another respected producer, Mitchell Froom, collaborated with the group on the remainder, picking up from his work on "Unplugged."

Drummer Caroline Corr agrees that "Breathless" has a more mainstream pop sound than previous efforts, a fact many observers think will give the band its big shot in the U.S. But, she says, "when you listen to the album, there's also an awful lot of stuff that's so not mainstream pop, and I think people will be saying, 'They're all so different.' 'Breathless' does sound poppy, and it's supposed to sound like that; it's high-energy, it's just that kind of song."

Guitarist Jim Corr believes that the group's efforts in the U.S. thus far have given it a sturdy platform. "We're very hopeful that we're going to build on the foundations that we've already laid," he says. "We went gold there; it'd be nice to have a platinum album and similar success that we've had in the U.K. and the rest of the world."

Even though the band has had phenomenal success outside of the U.S., it took some time for those audiences to catch on, too. "Forgiven Not Forgotten" had an initial, modest six-week U.K. chart run in March 1996, reaching No. 36, but that debut set did not hit its peak of No. 2 there until April 1999, in the slipstream of its massively successful follow-up "Talk On Corners" -- which is nine-times platinum (2.7 million units) in the U.K. alone.

But the sequel began its run even before the group had a major hit single. Ironically, when that came in May 1998, it was with a track recorded not for one of its own albums, but for Lava/Atlantic's "Legacy: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' " project: "Dreams."

"It was hard for us to get airplay," says Caroline Corr. "'Dreams' kind of opened the door for us. But I think it's a good thing that it was a slow build."

Adds Jim Corr, "We're lucky that our record company has a tendency to develop artists and stick with them."

To promote the new album, the group is set to perform Friday (Aug. 25) on ABC's "Good Morning America" summer concert series, Sept. 9-10 on the "Weekend Today" show on NBC, and Sept. 13 on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." A "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" booking is also confirmed for Oct. 3.
 

Wind problems for the Corrs
Another One Big Sunday took place at the weekend for the people of the Scottish seaside town of Irvine. Bleachin', Ronan Keating, The Animalhouse, Jamelia and the Corrs were among the artists who performed.

The Corrs surprised many of their critics by being quite simply brilliant. Against all the elements they played a live set which went down a treat with the Irvine crowd: "The wind was blowing severely, so if it sounded bad we’re sorry!" Andrea told Radio 1: "That type of situation is not ideal but the crowd were absolutely great."

Corrs keep their kit on
Meanwhile, the Corrs have apparently been made an offer they could refuse as Playboy magazine want them to appear naked in a forthcoming issue! Vice President Jeff Cohen claimed it would help the band to break into the US if they posed as he reckons they could make it through the back door.

This time around, The Corrs have created an even more accessible album for fans around the world to enjoy. While some may complain that the band has sold out for a greater audience by employing more pop, my beef with In Blue is not its sound, but its songs. Teaming up with Mutt Lange for songwriting help in the Swiss mountains may have seemed like a great idea, but the product of that combination was a few unoriginal songs that would have better suited Mutt's wife, Shania. This is not to say that singer Andrea Corr is nothing more than a pretty face. Her voice is strong and, unlike the vocals of Sarah, Delores, Jewel or many other talented female singers, you can't hear a strain or screech on the album. She makes it sound so easy. Just listen to tracks like "Somebody for Someone," "Radio," "Rain" and "At Your Side" and remind yourself that feel-good pop can still be sung well by those who can actually write the songs themselves.