Hotel Cabana | |
---|---|
Studio album by | |
Released | 23 August 2013 |
Recorded | 2011–2013 |
Studio |
|
Genre | |
Length | 36:39 |
Label |
|
Producer |
|
Singles from Hotel Cabana | |
|
Hotel Cabana is the debut studio album by British record producer Shahid "Naughty Boy" Khan, released on 23 August 2013 through Naughty Boy Recordings and Virgin EMI. Khan set up his Naughty Boy Productions record and production company. He would find his break by producing Chipmunk's 2009 top-ten single "Diamond Rings", featuring a then unknown Emeli Sandé. Naughty Boy released his own debut single as a signed artist in 2010. "Never Be Your Woman" samples White Town's 1997 number-one single "Your Woman" and featured British grime artist Wiley and Sandé on the chorus; it reached the top ten in the UK and is included as a bonus track on Hotel Cabana.
The collaboration marked the start of a partnership between Naughty Boy and Sandé which is seen throughout Hotel Cabana and Sandé's debut set, Our Version of Events (2012). Hotel Cabana is R&B, soul, garage, pop and hip hop music productions record, with influences from orchestral and Bollywood music. Naughty Boy describes it as an "audio-visual experience" and a concept album based on a luxury hotel where musicians come to perform. Hotel Cabana reunites Naughty Boy with Sandé on eight collaborations, as well as features from other British artists such George the Poet, Sam Smith, Bastille, Tinie Tempah, Ella Eyre, Gabrielle, Wretch 32, Mic Righteous, Maiday, Chasing Grace, Ed Sheeran, and American rapper Wiz Khalifa, who appears on the album's fourth single overall, "Think About It", with Eyre. Ava Stokes, Tanika, Thabo and Romans make additional appearances on the US version of the album which was released by Virgin Records on 6 May 2014.
Prior to release, Hotel Cabana was promoted with several video trailers which included the collaborating artists arriving at the fictional hotel. It was also preceded by the release of three singles, including the two top-ten Sandé collaborations: "Wonder" and "Lifted", as well as the UK Singles Chart-topper "La La La" which featured Sam Smith. Upon release, the album received generally favourable reviews from music critics, who praised the production, but with some criticism towards the concept, execution and some collaborations. Hotel Cabana made its chart debuts at number two in the UK, number five in Scotland and twenty-five in Ireland.