Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon

Tunstall announced through Facebook on 20 March 2013 that her official website had been redesigned ready for the new album, scheduled for a June 2013 release by Virgin Records. She also revealed the album cover, in which she is seen from behind in the desert of Tucson, Arizona. The same day, a trailer for the album was revealed on her YouTube page, showing her in the studio and driving around the Tucson desert.

The album was primarily recorded in Tucson with the singer Howe Gelb during two separate sessions in April and November 2012.[2] This has led to the sound of the album naturally separating into two distinct parts – which would explain the title of the album. Tunstall has explained that one side of the record, the Invisible Empire side, deals with the themes of mortality, a subject close to her heart following the death of her father in 2012. The second side, Crescent Moon, evokes an ethereal mood, more reflective of deeply felt changes in outlook and shifts in her personal life following her separation from her husband of four years later that year.[1][3]

On The Culture Studio programme with Janice Forsyth, Tunstall explained that she had used old reel-to-reel tapes to record the album. "I like the unperfection of it." She said that she recorded the song "Made of Glass" in one take.

In March 2013, Tunstall announced a UK tour in June and July to promote the album. Initial promotion was via the Internet, where the album's release was announced for June in Europe and Canada with the USA following in August.

Most of the earliest promotion was on the radio. On 29 April, the first single, "Feel It All", was the first song from the album to be played on UK radio. She later promoted the album on The Culture Studio with Janice Forsyth (BBC Radio Scotland) on 13 May, where she performed acoustic versions of the album's opening track "Invisible Empire", "Made of Glass", where she explained the inspiration coming from her father's death, and the first acoustic version of "Feel it All". On 15 May, during the Jo Whiley Show, she played "Feel It All" and the Eye to the Telescope song "Other Side of the World".

On 16 May, she promoted the song on Welsh radio with an interview with Louise Elliott on BBC Radio Wales. After the broadcast of "Feel It All (Band Jam)" (the version ultimately released for radio play), she explained the inspirations for the album stemming from her personal circumstances and from the Tucson desert.

In the week after the release of Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon, Tunstall made appearances on some TV shows to play the lead single, including on Jools Holland and BBC Breakfast.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	74/100[6]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
Daily Express	[8]
Evening Standard	(8/10)[9]
Rolling Stone	positive[10]
Irish Times	[11]
The Guardian	[12]
The Independent	[9]
The Scotsman	[13]
So So Gay	[14]
Uncut	[9]
Virgin Media	[15]
MIMO	[16]

Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon received critical acclaim upon release. Giving the album 4 stars out of 5, Caroline Sullivan said "there's little here that doesn't make you wonder where Tunstall has been hiding all this beauty until now". The blog Female First also gave a very good review of the album, calling it "her most honest and talent-filled album yet".

Andy Gill, from The Independent, awarded the album four out of five stars, and highly advised listening to the tracks "Made of Glass", "Feel It All", "Yellow Flower" and "Honeydew". In that same article, he wrote "KT Tunstall's fourth album is by some distance her best". Virgin Media also awarded the album 4 stars, praising her voice by saying "Tunstall's voice is light, more pure than ever before" and describing "Crescent Moon" and "No Better Shoulder" as "wonderful". According to Theupcoming, who gave the album 3 stars out of 5, "Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon represents a turning point in her musical career: she’s grown up". In this review, Hannah Wallace said that "Waiting on the Heart" was " undoubtedly Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon’s killer track", but ended the article by saying, "It is questionable that such a strong Western motif was wise, but only time and play count can tell."

The Daily Express gave the album 5 out of 5 stars, and gave one of the most positive reviews of the album on its first week, saying, "Melodically perfect and lyrically heartfelt and with vocals that trip the eloquent songwriting fantastically, KT has on her hands a delicate masterpiece." With a similar enthusiasm, Ben Kelly from Sosogay gave 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "an emotional journey" and picking "Invisible Empire", "Old Man Song" and "Feel It All" as his favourites. The Sun gave 4.5 stars out of 5.

Only a few critics were less enthusiastic with Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon. For instance, Entertainmentwise criticised the "lack of fiery performances" that was Tiger Suit's best asset, but Sam Hailes, the review's writer, added, "At the end of the day Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon should be judged on its own terms. It's a deep, reflective and thoughtful album which stirs a plethora of emotions. Best served by itself with no distractions, this is an unhurried release that speaks to the heart." The worst rating is from the website "musicomh", which gave 2.5/5 stars, and said, "Tunstall's songwriting remains as pedestrian as ever, with most tracks lacking anything in the way of a memorable melody or any other kind of unique selling point." He also criticised the songs "Feel It All" and "Waiting on the Heart", describing them as "lifeless".

All tracks produced by Howe Gelb & KT Tunstall, except where noted.

All tracks are written by KT Tunstall, except where noted..

In the UK, the album debuted and peaked at number 14 and stayed 11 weeks in the top 100, longer than the previous album Tiger Suit.

In Europe, the album entered the Belgian charts at number 106 in Flanders, and 137 in Wallonia, and climbed to the 51st and 72nd position in its second week, surpassing Eye to the Telescope and Drastic Fantastic; it stayed in the top albums for four weeks. It peaked at number 84 in Netherlands, but failed to enter the German Albums Chart. On its first week of release, it reached 240 in France and 56 in Switzerland while the iTunes European Top 100 albums ranked Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon 50th. In Ireland, the album peaked atnumber 30.

The album was released on 6 August in the US, and peaked at 64 on the Billboard 200 and at 16 in both the Billboard Tastemaker albums and Rock Albums charts. The album peaked at 183 in the Japanese Album Charts but, like its predecessor, Tiger Suit, it failed to chart in the Australian and New Zealand top 50.

• KT Tunstall - vocals, guitar, vibraphone, piano, flute
• Howe Gelb - piano, keyboards, guitar, pedal, delay swell, vocals(10, 14).
• Luke Bullen - drums, percussion
• Brian Lopez - guitar, backing vocals
• Gabriel Sullivan - guitar, vibraphone, accordion
• Thøger Tetens Lund - bass guitar, guitar, cello, bow
• Will Houchin - euphonium, tuba
• Jon Rauhouse - pedal steel guitar
• Marco Rosano - clarinet
• Andrew Bird - whistle, master stroke
• John Parish - steel drums, percussion, timpani, guitar, drums
• Asger Christensen - violin
• Iris Marie Jakobsen - viola
• Erick Gardner - drums, percussion
• Nicholas Coventry - strings
• Chris Black - string arrangement
• Chris Schultz - waterphone
• Martin Terefe - additional electric guitar