Tempo

Tempo is the third studio album by Antarctican singer Cadence, which was first released on October 28, 2012 by Club Penguin Music Records. The album was recorded between December 2010 and September 2012. DJ Crow returned as executive producer on the album after being absent on Causing Mayhem (2010) and worked with several record producers; Zippy Penguin, Ray Kodo, Yusei, DJ Crow, Flipperstomp and DJ Crab - among others. The album features three guest vocalists; leon.a.rd, Dancing Penguin and DJ Crow. The album differs from the more prominently foreboding, upbeat, angry tone of Causing Mayhem (2010). Tempo consists of more calm R&B and hip hop elements - ditching the dance-pop style of Cadence: The Beginning (2009). The album incorporates R&B-rock in "Hello Fear", dance-hop in "Dynamo" and hardcore hip hop in "Living Till I Die".

The lead single, "I'll Always Be Alright", was released on August 26, 2012, with six more successful singles being released from October 2012 and June 2013. Tempo received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised her transition from dance music to pure R&B, becoming Cadence's best-reviewed album. It is also her most successful album to date - selling over 600,000 copies in one week and peaking at number 1 in seven out of eight charts.

Background
The album was produced and recorded in "Club Penguin Studios" and DJ Crow's and Cadence's own igloo studios. In September 2011, Cadence announced that production for her third studio album had been going on since December 2010, and has been recording ever since. In interviews, Cadence revealed that she would be writing more of her lyrics for the third album. After the interview, gossip started speculating whether Cadence's lyrics could actually be better if she wrote them herself. Normally Cadence wrote one simple verse or chorus for each of her songs. Upon hearing this, Cadence took to her own Chitter to say: "@DJCrow advised me 2 write my own lyrics and I'll follow what he has advised. Just wait and watch out." Crow himself then cheeted: "Cadence can write her own lyrics. Trust me." In late September, Crow revealed that he will be assigned as executive producer for the album, who was executive producer for Cadence: The Beginning but not for Causing Mayhem. In a blog post on September 25, 2011, Cadence said that the album was originally going to be released next month [November 2011] with ten songs on the album but stated that there was not enough time to get singles out due to commitments on Antarctican Idol. The following month Crow cheeted: "There's still a long time until the release of the @Cadence album." No other details were revealed in 2011.

7 months later in April 2012, Cadence spoke about the album again, revealing that the album contains less dance-pop songs and more R&B and hip hop. According to record label insights, Meaghan, Nebulent, Anna Ice and Delaine were expected to feature on the album. Nor Cadence or DJ Crow comment on these rumours. Instead, Antarctican rapper and producer leon.a.rd was revealed as a featured performer on the album. Dancing Penguin was later also confirmed for the album. After the release of the lead single in August, more details about the album were revealed.

At the end of the month the second single was premiered on radio.

Titling and artwork
On September 1, 2012, Cadence released a "Beakbook campaign" on her official Beakbook page which was developed by the Club Penguin Music Records technical team. The game-inspired campaign involved fans answering Cadence-related trivia questions and completing tasks. Some questions and tasks included: "What is the release date of Cadence's album Causing Mayhem?" and "Put these five singles from Causing Mayhem in release order.". After completing Stage 1, it is revealed that there are 12 songs on the album. Stage 2 reveals the release date and Stage 3 reveals the album name, tracklist and artwork. It also unlocks a 10-minute video of Cadence discussing the album name, featured guests and more album-related details. Fans asked Cadence why the album was called Tempo, who said: "We just wanted a simple, basic album name. Tempo means the speed of music. There's a variety of tempo songs on the album - some are slow, some are fast."

Composition
Seven songs are classified as R&B, two are hip hop, one is dance-hop and two incorporate a blend of R&B and dance. Altogether there is a variety of tempos, genres and song structures. The title track "I'll Always Be Alright" is a low to mid-tempo ballad. Track two "Tremours" changes the tempo completely to a loud, bass/synth-heavy, hip hop beat - which is also the longest song on the album, running for 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

Guest appearances
Three artists are featured on the album - leon.a.rd, Dancing Penguin and DJ Crow himself. Crow contacted leon.a.rd to feature on a dance-hop song ("I Don't Know Why"). Cadence asked DP to feature on the "Dynamo" song. At first, Cadence hesitated to feature DP on the album due to the feud between him and Crow, but once Cadence approached Crow he didn't mind, as long as he didn't interact with him and performed well on the song. Upon speaking about the matter, Crow said: "If Cadence wants him on [Tempo], then he can be on. But I want him to give 100% effort on whatever song he's gonna be on. I want good lyrics, good vocals, good flow and good attitude." After Crow read Dancing Penguin's verse, he wasn't too impressed - and neither was Cadence - so to solve the matter Cadence suggested Crow rewrote the lyrics. At first Crow said no, but for the sake of the song he edited a few bars. Cadence guided Dancing Penguin into giving a different flow.

Production
Cadence's long-time friend and mentor DJ Crow served as the executive producer of the album, who gave orders to Cadence to write more of her own lyrics instead of hiring other songwriters: "Originally Crow wanted me to write my own material ever since Cadence: The Beginning but the label suggested that I got used to others writing for me first." said Cadence. Crow produced and co-produced six of the twelve tracks - who, despite not producing the other tracks, directed the production ideas. Crow made sure that all twelve songs sounded like singles, saying that: "I didn't want any songs to sound like they were purposely made for a non-single release. We worked very hard to make a hit-after-hit album. Five of the twelve songs are not singles, but I hope fans can listen to them five songs and say 'That sounds like it could of been a single'." Crow also added that he believed the Tempo production was much better than the Causing Mayhem production. The album is broke up into four R&B songs, four dance-hop songs, two hip hop songs and two songs mixing R&B and hip hop together. Crow said that he wanted the genres to be split as equally as possible and spread them around the whole around.

Singles
"I'll Always Be Alright" was released as the lead single on August 26, 2012. The song was premiered music-video-style on PengTube at 11pm on August 20. Many announcements based around the song were revealed on Chitter, with Cadence cheeting: "I'll be revealing more info on the single in the coming hours." At 12pm she said: "The song is written and produced completely by Crow. I know I said I'd be writing my own lyrics but Crow came to me with this song and I just fell in love with it instantly." Next she gave out a few hints about the concept of the music video and finally cheeted the link to the song: "Well it's up! The lead single .. "I'll Always Be Alright"! Let me know what u think." Online reception was phenomenal. #IllAlwaysBeAlright became an aiming affair by 11:04, with many revealing that they had stayed up late for the premiere. According to PengTube views, approx. 900,000 penguins had viewed the video in the hour.