Thank You is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. Epic Records released it on May 13, 2016, after a week of exclusive streaming on Apple Music. Trainor wrote most of its material with songwriter Jacob Kasher Hindlin and the album's producer Ricky Reed. Influenced by various genres including dance, hip hop, funk, and Caribbean music, Trainor conceived the album to showcase her versatility. It features guest appearances by Yo Gotti, LunchMoney Lewis, Trainor's mother, and R. City.
Thank You is a pop, dance-pop, and R&B record which explores themes such as self-acceptance, empowerment, and Trainor's experiences with fame. She promoted the album with public appearances and televised performances. After its release, Trainor embarked on the Untouchable Tour (2016). Thank You included three singles: "No" and "Me Too", which respectively peaked at numbers three and thirteen on the US Billboard Hot 100, and "Better".
Reviewers were divided about Thank You; a few thought its production was an improvement from Trainor's debut major-label studio album, Title (2015), while others believed it lacked artistic identity and criticized the lyrical themes. In the US, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 107,000 album-equivalent units. It peaked within the top five in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, and the United Kingdom and received Platinum certifications in the US and Canada.
Background Trainor signed a contract with Epic Records in 2014 and released her debut single, "All About That Bass", in June that year. The song reached numberone in 58 countries and sold 11 million units worldwide. Trainor's artists and repertoire contact asked her to work on similar material with its co-writer, Kevin Kadish, for her debut major-label studio album, Title (2015). Her father had always encouraged her to "write for every genre", and she believed she had the ability to compose music in a variety of styles. Trainor created more doo-wop songs but believed they did not showcase her versatility: "I don't want to be stuck here because honestly it's not what I do. I do pop songs. I do Caribbean songs. I do everything." The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became the ninth-best-selling album of 2015. It produced three top-10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and she won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Trainor was embroiled in controversies surrounding the lyrics of "All About That Bass" and the portrayal of gender roles in the music video for her song "Dear Future Husband" (2015). Some critics questioned the sustainability of her commercial success and anticipated a decline with subsequent releases.
Recording and production
In October 2015, Trainor began holding studio sessions for her second major-label studio album. Kadish reprised his role as producer and co-writer. A fan of the music project Wallpaper, Trainor co-wrote songs with its frontman, producer Ricky Reed, and his frequent collaborator Jacob Kasher Hindlin. In a December 2015 interview, she revealed that the album would be completed soon, with an expected release in "February or March", and she confirmed collaborations with her mother and R. City. On December 11, the day after Trainor co-wrote the song "Just a Friend to You" with Chris Gelbuda, she uploaded three clips of it to Instagram. She described the two albums' worth of material initially conceived as "these great doo-wop-y throwback songs that were huge".
Upon hearing the material, L.A. Reid, the chairman of Epic Records, encouraged her to go back to the drawing board because she lacked a proper lead single for the project, a behavior that Trainor described as typical of him. In a session that started with the idea of a dancehall-inspired rhythm, Trainor, Reed, and Hindlin wrote the song "No". When Reid heard it, he jumped up and said "that's what I'm talkin' about!", playing it 29 times in succession. Ultimately, "No" changed the direction of Thank You, as the three started experimenting with new musical styles and produced six more tracks. The doo-wop material was retained on the album's deluxe version. Along with Reed, the executive producer, its producers include Tommy Brown, Steven Franks, Johan Carlsson, Thomas Troelsen, the Elev3n, Gelbuda, Kadish, Twice as Nice, the Monsters & Strangerz, and German.
Trainor chose Thank You as the album title after writing its title track to express gratitude for her fans and others who supported her career: "I wanted this album to be dedicated to everyone who helped me get here – from my family, to my fans, to radio people, to magazines. Everyone." She was influenced by various genres—dance, hip hop, funk, and Caribbean music which she was introduced to by her Trinidadian uncle. Trainor cited Bruno Mars as an inspiration due to his ability to "pull off" a diverse amount of musical styles, along with artists she listened to during her childhood like Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley and ones she missed hearing on the radio—NSYNC and Destiny's Child. She thought listeners would be unable to recognize Thank You as her album on first listen: "When you first listen to [the album] you might go, 'Whoa, who is this?' Then you hear my quirky lyrics and throwback melodies, and it sounds like Meghan Trainor sounds."
Composition Overview The standard edition of Thank You includes 12 tracks; the deluxe edition contains three additional original songs, and the Target version has all 15 tracks and two more. The album predominantly comprises a pop, R&B, and dance-pop sound. Rolling Stone Christopher R. Weingarten thought it is "a brash pop statement" that expands Trainor's sound into "dance-, rap- and Caribbean-influenced tunes". Allan Raible of ABC News described Thank You style as "funk, faux hip-hop, and some ballads", and Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic believed its "shiny, happy pop" was equally influenced by "modern R&B and Y2K throwback". Lyrically, the album is about self-acceptance, empowerment, and Trainor's experiences with her recent fame.
Songs
The album opens with "Watch Me Do", an upbeat song which recalls hip hop music from the 1990s, referencing several songs from the genre. In its lyrics, Trainor denounces her detractors and flaunts her looks and riches; The Boston Globe Marc Hirsh described it as "James-Brown-by-way-of-Bruno-Mars rubbery electro-hip-hop funk groove". "Me Too" is an electro and R&B song about self-love. The third track, "No", is a dance-pop and R&B song, with lyrics about sexual consent and women's empowerment. "Better", featuring Yo Gotti, is a soca and reggae song, whose instrumentation of percussion, guitar, and a "loping beat" give it a "Caribbean feel" according to PopMatters Chris Conaton. Its lyrics are about Trainor addressing an ex-lover and acknowledging she deserves better than him. The fifth track, "Hopeless Romantic" is a stripped-down doo-wop love ballad, based on a simplistic guitar and vocal arrangement.
"I Love Me", featuring LunchMoney Lewis, is a song about confidence with a groovy baseline, which The Guardian Dave Simpson described as a "self-help-manual-with-beats" and the Knoxville News Sentinel Chuck Campbell called a "clappy/plucky sing-along" that seems like a mashup of "Happy" (2013) and "Uptown Funk" (2014). The seventh track, "Kindly Calm Me Down", is a piano ballad reminiscent of the work of Adele and places emphasis on Trainor's voice as she pleads her lover to mollify her. "Woman Up", a hawkish song with lyrics commanding women to lift their hands if they are good without a man, reworks the 2014 Ashley Roberts song of the same name. "Just a Friend to You" is a ukulele-driven song about unreciprocated affection towards someone. The 10th track, "I Won't Let You Down", is the lyrical opposite of "Better"; Trainor declares her partner deserves better than the way she has been treating him.
"Dance Like Yo Daddy" includes squawking saxophone sounds and audacious background vocals and is about eschewing one's wariness and dancing. The standard edition closes with "Champagne Problems", on which Trainor complains about first world problems, like bad wi-fi connections and her phone discharging. "Mom" contains a recorded phone conversation between Trainor and her mother, along with girl group background vocals and a Motown-influenced horn segment. "Friends" is a sing-along, in which Trainor celebrates having a delightful time because she is in the company of her friends. The deluxe edition closes with the title track, which features R. City. The Target version includes the songs "Goosebumps" and "Throwback Love", which also appear on the Japanese edition along with a karaoke version of "No" and the song "Good to Be Alive".
Release and promotion
Trainor's public image evolved with the release of Thank You; in an interview with her, Weingarten described it as "[Trainor] emerging from a poodle-skirt shell into a modern pop star". In February 2016, she got a shorter haircut and dyed her hair auburn, allowing her to travel outside without being recognized. Trainor started identifying as a feminist, after previously refusing to consider herself one. Her objective with the album was "to model someone who is cool with herself". Thank You was streamed exclusively on Apple Music during the week preceding its release. The album was officially released to other platforms on May 13, 2016.
Thank You was promoted with the release of three singles. The first two, "No" and Me Too", were released on March 4 and May 5, 2016, respectively, and peaked at numbers three and thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100. Writing for the magazine, Jada Yuan described them as "bona fide hits". Some critics accused Trainor of staging a publicity stunt when she pulled the latter song's music video due to alleged unapproved digital alteration of her waist size; Trainor denied the allegations. "Better" was released as the third single from the album on August 29, 2016, and it commercially underperformed.
Trainor promoted Thank You with public appearances and televised live performances at award shows, including the iHeartRadio Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards. Her appearances on television talk shows included The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Today, and The Graham Norton Show. A performance of "Me Too" on The Tonight Show drew attention when Trainor fell to the floor while trying to grab a hold of a microphone stand. Songs from the album were featured in television shows and movies. It was supported by the Untouchable Tour, which began in Vancouver, British Columbia, in July 2016, and concluded in Boston in September 2016. Hailee Steinfeld and Common Kings served as opening acts.
Critical reception
Thank You received generally mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on 10 reviews. Spins Dan Weiss called it a huge advancement from Title, for which he credited Reed's funk-influenced production that did not incorporate synthesizers. Erlewine believed Thank You is more modern and consistent as it is rooted in refined and fashionable sensibilities, but he added that it is too self-congratulatory and exposes the "seams in [the] construction" of Trainor's music. Newsday Glenn Gamboa wrote that Trainor is among the most talented new artists at writing songs suited to her persona, and Conaton thought the album marked musical development and took her nearer to the more unvaried sound of popular music.