The Real Thing

The Real Thing is the fourth studio album by American singer Sherlyn O'Sullivan. It was released on October 23, 2015 through Hear Music. It serves as the follow-up to her succesfull third studio album Let Yourself (2012). Began to be planned during the end of its second concert tour.

Throughout the project, she worked with her longtime producer Zach Ziskin, also collabored with Benny Blanco, Ben Roulston, and Salaam Remi. The album resulted in a primarily elements of pop, contemporary R&B and soft rock, occasionally dips into elements of disco, dance, house, pop country, reggae, trip hop, and hip hop. She described the album as "a fun way to play with musical genres".

The Real Thing received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised her variety sound production, and was ranked as one of the best albums of 2015 by Billboard, Time, and Rolling Stone. It debuted in the top five spots of every major chart, including the Billboard 200, giving third second consecutive chart-topper in the U.S. with first-week sales of 2.1 copies was the second-biggest debut in history for a female artist. The album eventually became the second world's best-selling album of 2015 with 15 million copies sold within the year. It was seven eight times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of 7 million copies in the United States, making she only artist of the 2010s to sold more than 5 million copies in United States in three consecutive albums, and has sold 20 million copies as of May 2017, making it one of the best selling albums worldwide.

Six singles were released in total from the album, incluiding the U.S number one singles—"Hair on Fire", and "The Sweetest Life", featuring Pharrel Williams. "Hair on Fire", resuted Record of the Year, and Best Music Video winner at 58th Annual Grammy Awards, while "The Sweetest Life" won for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at 59th Annual Grammy Awards. The country inspired song "Glue Your Blue Jeans on Me" also was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance. The album was nominated for Album of the Year, and for Pop Vocal Album at 59th Annual Grammy Awards, but lose for Adele 25's album, and promote the album on her third concert tour The Real Thing Tour, which grossed $295.8 million in 2016.

Track listing
Standard edition Japan edition bonus track Deluxe version bonus tracks Deluxe version bonus tracks (exclusive to Target in US and Canada)
 * 1) "The Real Thing" – 3:36
 * 2) "Angels" – 3:17
 * 3) "Remember When" – 3:48
 * 4) "Hair on Fire" – 3:51
 * 5) "The Sweetest Life"  (featuring T.I) – 3:57
 * 6) "Breathe" – 4:02
 * 7) "Screw You" –  (featuring Sam Hunt) – 3:42
 * 8) "Glue Your Blue Jeans on Me" – 4:02
 * 9) "Overdose" – 3:09
 * 10) "Midnight Stories" – 3:45
 * 11) "Promises" – 3:33
 * 12) "Thousand Stars" – 3:43
 * 13) "Come On Boy" – 3:51
 * 14) "Turn to You" – 3:22
 * 1) "Into Me" – 3:41
 * 1) "Better Place"  – 3:12
 * 2) "If" – 3:06
 * 3) "Satisfied" – 4:05
 * 1) "I'll Be Right Here" – (featuring Nas) – 3:54
 * 2) "Into Me" – 3:41
 * 3) "Satisfied" – 4:51
 * 4) "Fallin" – (demo version) – 3:38
 * 5) "The Real Thing" – (a capella version) – 3:16

Charts
Weekly charts Year-end charts