I cant see a huge success either if im honest, i can see it been lucky to make top 40 and fall fast.

In previous attempts by Mark he was quiet popular around album release time, 1st album had the hype of first pre Take That album, the second was released based on his huge popularity of winning Big Brother yet neither done well. His other album releases did not have the hype of the others and we know the results. Granted this is his first since Take That went massive but i still do not see it translating into huge solo success.

Personally I can't wait for his album. I'm a huge fan of solo work, In Your Own Time and How The Mighty Fall are two brilliant albums.

I hope it does do well as I would like to see him be recognized more for his songwriting skills, however I'm not expecting it to. It would be nice to see it be his highest charting album to date though.

Agree with everything you mention Laura. It would be great for him to achieve his highest chart peak for an album. Also i applaud your comment on "would like to see him be recognized more for his songwriting skills". Mark does not get enough credit for his song writing abilities solo or with Take That. There are still a lot of people who still believe that it is Gary who does all the song writing for Take That and Mark loses on getting credit for his work. While both are great song writers and both write songs i enjoy Gary is by far the better known as a songwriter.

A new highest peak position would be great and the low sales climate could help that.

A top 10 debut would be so great, on some weeks 9,000 sales can be enough for a top 10 debut, so fingers crossed.

9k would be a very poor opening week imo, he should be looking at selling probably half to three quarters of his overall sales figures of the album in the first month, more specifically in the first two week. So if he managed to sell 15000 in two weeks that would be a very poor return and would probably draw a line under his solo ventures for good with respect to major label backing and promotion

9,000 is realistic from my point of view based on his previous efforts and the current sales climate.

The video for Mark's first single Stars will be out this weekend apparently and the album will be released in June - word on twitter so keep an eye out everyone

I look forward to this.

Seems like the video will premiere on May 3rd, no news on the release date yet

Four Minute Warning is the only song I know of Mark's, and I LOVE that song. Forgot how good it was, will be interested to hear this.

The things go very slowly if the song is released this week . It screams flop all over it if we judge only from the chart and sales.

But i don't care. He has to know by now that he will flop, so if he does something he does it becouse he likes to do it, so i can be happy that i will get something new from him. I find the title of the album very tongue in cheek, i like it.I hope i will like his new music direction, i was not very happy with Progress, i like other kind of electronic music (like DM oder Erasure).

 

Here is his new webpage: http://markowenofficial.com/

I agree with your comments IrisAlbastru, it is likely the single wont even bother the top 200, but i would like the album to chart Top 40 or greater. Progress has strong elements (The Flood, 8 Letters, Love Love, Kidz) but had weak elements too, i would say it is my least favourite of their recent albums but enjoyable all the same. The next Take That album i would like to be more in target with beautiful world and the circus.

At least the artwork is AMAZING! :yahoo:

 

https://twitter.com/officialmarko

From what people have been saying Mark's album will be in the same vein as Progress and very electro-fied. The artwork is great though, very edgey! I hope the new TT album has a similar style and an inventive name as well

Somehow the artwork from MO albums are more interesting that the new TT albums. I liked very much the one from How The Mighty Fall... And i find The Progress very weak in the artwork.

Well not really, green man and the 2nd album covers werent very imaginative - they are just pics of him. Quite like the 3rd album cover though, but this one looks the best. Someone said it looks like an olly murs album cover :lol:

 

I think Robbie's albums look the best tbh, Like Escapology, TTC, Sing When You're Winning.

 

I liked the BW album cover, simple yet evocative. I like what they did with Progress but wish they had used a different shot for the repackaging of Progressed instead of just making it red lol

The cover is quiet good and the Olly Murs comparisons i can see the reason. His covers have been alright but this is is best i think, i hated the progress cover and likwise with progressed, i really liked beautiful world and the circus covers.

I liked the BW one, but The Circus not so much. I have the german version of HTMF; may it be that it has another artwork? And another booklet? I liked the retro vibe from it . And IYOT had his picture mainly, but the background worked well with the messages of his songs inside.

 

I don't know how Robbie's CD artwork is, so i cannot compare with him...