Starting Out (Annie Hartford album)

Starting Out is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Annie Hartford.

Release and promotion
Starting Out was released at midnight EDT on October 13, 2017. Prior to the album's development, her family pulled her out of school during 10th grade in order to prevent her from missing the recording sessions.

Singles
"Happy & Sad" is Annie Hartford's debut single and the lead single of Starting Out. Her label Topaz Records released the song to the U.S. teen contemporary radio on June 16, 2017. "Vintage Crap" serves as the second single from the album, released on July 28, 2017. The third single, "Land of Broken Hearts", was released on September 15, 2017 and is disco-oriented. The fourth and final single, "No Plans (Unless I'm Included)" was released on October 6, 2017, exactly a week before the album showed up.

Tour

 * Main article: Annie Hartford on Tour

Annie's debut tour to promote the album visited indoor and outdoor concert halls across Japan, the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada from April to August 2018 and was a critical success. The set list included all 10 songs from Starting Out as well as a medley of songs by Selena Gomez and a surprise cover song in each city. Hartford chose to sing the aforementioned medley because she attended Gomez's Stars Dance Tour at the Wells Fargo Center in 2013.

Critical reception
Starting Out proved to be a critical success.

Track listing

 * All the songs were written by Annie Hartford herself.


 * Single Releases
 * 1) "Happy & Sad" - released June 16, 2017
 * 2) "Vintage Crap" - released July 28, 2017
 * 3) "Land of Broken Hearts" - released September 15, 2017
 * 4) "No Plans (Unless I'm Included)" - released October 6, 2017


 * Cultural References
 * In the second verse of "Happy & Sad", Hartford mentions Wild Cherry's song "Play That Funky Music".
 * One of Hartord's outfits in the music video for "No Plans (Unless I'm Included)" is inspired by the character Rita Malone from the Flushed Away, expect Hartford's pants are dark blue with daisy patterns.

Personnel

 * Musicians
 * Annie Hartford – vocals
 * Francis McIlroy – percussion, programming, synthesizer (all tracks), background vocals (1–4, 7), electric guitar (1, 6, 9–10), acoustic guitar (8)
 * Janine Alberione – percussion (2–4), keyboards (6), electric guitar (5), synthesizer (5–9), background vocals (5–6, 8–10)
 * George Erganian – drums (all tracks), keyboards (1–5, 7–10), flute (3), saxophone (10)
 * Kelly Arinaga – background vocals (2)
 * Maria Cirillo – violin (8)


 * Technical
 * Francis McIlroy – engineering
 * Alexandra Diuvara – engineering
 * Dinesh Perumal – mixing
 * Richard Im – mixing assistance
 * Jonathan Alpatovi – mastering