White Light is The Corrs' sixth studio album, released on 27 November2015 in Europe, excluding German-speaking countries, and released on 12 February 2016 in German-speaking countries. It is their first studio album in a decade, after Home, their first of original material since 2004 and marks their return to the music scene. The album peaked inside the Top 10 in Hungary, Ireland and Switzerland and reached the Top 20 in 8 countries.
Background
The Corrs returned to the studio in May 2015 after a 10-year hiatus from music. Sharon told Vibe Magazine that it was Caroline who initiated the sessions saying: "I think she had been thinking about it for a while." before going on to state that "We had never said never, we are a family, we hadn’t broken up – that would be way too serious and catastrophic. She rang us all and we were all open to it.” The sessions were not made public at the beginning, as Sharon explained that "We did it all in a very organic way, completely under the radar. We told nobody about it and we just went into a studio in London. We all wrote stuff at home, brought it in and found out if we had any good ideas together. The magic was there immediately.” From their first session, "Ellis Island" and "Strange Romance" began convincing the siblings that they were on to something. "Gerry's Reel" pays tribute to their father, 82, who died during the production of the album. The Corrs performed together for the first time in 10 years at his funeral. "Bring On The Night" was also written about his death and was also inspired from a book that Andrea had read, hence the lyrics "I read the book you read, tasted the words you said". "White Light", the title track, came to life after Andrea went to see the documentary, Amy, about singer Amy Winehouse, who died from a drug overdose at the age of 27, and became inspired from a Tony Bennett quote in the film. Bennett stated, "You've got to live long enough to learn how to live." Jim told Magic Radio that he believed this album was "probably the best album we've ever done. We are really proud of it and hope the fans love it just as much."
Release and promotion
On 19 October 2015, the lead single "Bring on the Night" was premiered worldwide for the very first time on BBC Radio 2. The single was released as a digital download on 30 October 2015. The Corrs official YouTube channel uploaded a lyric video for the song on 30 October 2015. A music video was released on 11 November 2015. The album debuted at number eleven on the UK Albums Chart, with 27,648 copies sold. On 1 January 2016, the album was certified Gold by the BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. A European tour in support of the album took place in 2016.
Critical reception
White Light has received mixed reviews from critics. Neil Yeung of AllMusic rated 4/5 stars for the album, stating that "this collection sounds like they picked up immediately after their last album and not a return to the scene after a decade."
