Here I Am is the debut solo album by M2M member, Marion Raven, released in mid-2005. Raven co-wrote all of the songs, with several well-known musicians. She played both acoustic and electric guitars as well as the piano and provided background vocals on a number of songs. The album showed her transition from her past M2M pop sound to a dark hard-rock sound. Her musical transition was well received by critics internationally. The album debuted at No. 6 in her native Norway, and No. 1 in Japan and was highly successful in countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Raven went on a tour of Southeast Asian countries to promote the album in late 2005. However, lack of promotion on Atlantic Records part and delays in releasing the album in the U.S. prompted Raven to leave the music company. The album was released in the United States in 2007, with a different track listing and title, Set Me Free, incorporating new and old songs, including an acoustic version of "Let Me Introduce Myself" and the re-recorded version of "Heads Will Roll," which preceded the album in October 2006, as part of the Heads Will Roll EP. Raven talked about "13 Days" and other songs on Here I Am in an interview in 2005,
Singles
"End of Me" was the first single from the album to be released exclusively in Southeast Asia. It peaked at No. 4 on MTV Asia's video hitlist and was a top 10 song in Malaysia and Singapore.
"Break You" was released in Mexico, Japan, Sweden and Norway. It went No. 1 in Japan and Indonesia and claimed the No. 9 spot in Norway.
"Here I Am" was the album's title track, and third single, that was only officially released in Norway, around the same time "Break You" was released. It peaked at No. 20 on the official Norwegian charts and reached No. 3 on the TV2 Music Chart. Raven performed the song live in the Nordic Music Awards. The music video of "Here I Am" featured pictures of Raven's grandfather when he was a young man.
"Little by Little", the fifth track of the album, was released as a radio-only single in Asia.
Track listing
Japan and Scandinavia release track listing The Japanese release also has a bonus DVD with 'Break You' and 'Here I Am' music videos. Southeast Asia and Taiwan releases track listing
The Here I Am DVD Limited Edition for Taiwan was released in 2006 only. It featured the making of "End Of Me" and the "End Of Me" music video.
"There I Said It" 3:48 *Single B-Side for Swedish "Break You" and Norwegian "Here I Am" singles
Tracks that did not make it into the final cut of the album were,"Forgot His Name", "Brand New Me", "Disconnected", "Have Mercy", "Bittersweet" and "Gutter". Little is known about these songs, but a track called 'Get Over Me' leaked to the web in 2006.
On the online version of the Singapore newspaper, The New Paper, music reviewer Seto Nu-Wen wrote, "Her music is more heartfelt than contrived, thus avoiding the commercial trappings of your average teenage punk-rock debut."
On her "Here I Am" tour across Asia, Japan and Scandinavia, MTV Asia praised Raven on shedding the cuteness of M2M and sporting an assertive voice of vengeful yet positive tunes backed with a strong radio-friendly pop-rock vibe.
At the end of 2005, Raven's singles "End Of Me" and "Break You" were at No. 54 and No. 69 respectively on MTV Asia's year end top 100 countdown, with "End Of Me" beating songs like "Ghost Of You" and "Misunderstood", by My Chemical Romance and Robbie Williams respectively.
Chart performance
Charts
Credits
Marion Raven — Guitar, Guitar , Writer, Piano, Vocals, Vocals
Allen Kovac — Management
Max Martin — Guitar, Writer, Producer, Programming, Vocals, Engineer, Instrumentation
Steve Thompson — Arranger, Producer, String Arrangements, Mixing
Lukasz "Doctor Luke" - Gottwald Instrumentation
Hans Akeson, Ulrika Frankmar, Elisabeth Arnberg Ranmo, Håkan Roos — Viola
