Army of Two (Olly Murs song)

"Army of Two" is a song by English recording artist Olly Murs, from his third studio album, Right Place Right Time (2012). The song was released as the second single from the album on 10 March 2013. "Army of Two" was co-written by Murs, Wayne Hector, Iyiola Babalola, Darren Lewis and was produced by Future Cut.

"Army of Two"
A black-and-white image of Murs on a dark red background. The artist's logo is on the top-left corner of the cover and the song title appears below it made up of the song title itself, both colored in white and black respectively.
Single by Olly Murs
from the album Right Place Right Time
Released10 March 2013 (2013-03-10)
Recorded2012
Genre
Length4:47
LabelEpic
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Future Cut
Olly Murs singles chronology
"Troublemaker"
(2012)		 "Army of Two"
(2013)		 "Dear Darlin'"
(2013)

Background

"Army of Two" is the opening track on Right Place Right Time, and in its original form on the album is almost five minutes in length. The radio mix of the single is about a minute shorter, with a more condensed sounding ending than the album version. Murs wrote the song as a tribute to his fans, who he affectionately refers to as the 'Murs Army' (hence the title of the song). It also served as the opening song on his UK and Ireland arena tour for the album in March 2013.

Speaking about the song, he said he was influenced by both Take That and Coldplay whilst writing it, saying, 'I wanted to write a song about my fans that have been amazing to me through the last three years ... it felt amazing writing this song, and I can't wait to sing it live!'[1]

At the album's launch party in November 2012, Murs said that the song had actually been intended to be released as the first single from the album in August that year, with "Troublemaker" following in November, however this was scrapped due to his international promotion commitments in Europe and America.[2]

On 22 February 2013, to tie in with promotion of the single, Murs launched an application on his Facebook page inviting fans to become members of the 'Olly Murs Army'. On submitting their details via the application, fans are given an official 'Murs Army' membership ID and a certificate pledging their oath as a fan of Murs. The membership IDs from registered fans were subsequently used in a fan video of the song that can be found on Murs' YouTube account.[3]

Critical reception

"Army of Two" was one of the three songs that was previewed prior to the album's release. Robert Copsey of Digital Spy gave the song a positive review commenting, "the whole thing is extremely well crafted." He furthered praised the song's chorus for its "instantly catchy lyric." He ended his review writing, "It's probably our favourite of the five tracks we've heard because it feels big, fresh and exciting without taking away what we already like about Olly's music."[4] 4Music's Trent Maynard also complimented the song's chorus and compared it with songs of Maroon 5.[5] John Aizlewood of BBC Music described the song as a "pop thumper of the highest order."[6] Matthew Horton of Virgin Media wrote that "Opener 'Army Of Two' is astonishing, an epic cousin to Tears for Fears' Beatles pastiche 'Sowing the Seeds of Love', and it actually works."[7] Yahoo! contributor Chris Smith wrote that "Olly can indeed pull off big ballads when doing them on his own terms."[8] Fiona Sheperd of The Scotsman commented that the song is a "solid but uninspiring stomping pop song Williams could have done with on his new album."[9]

Chart performance

"Army of Two" made its first chart appearance on the Irish Singles Chart on 7 February 2013 at number 93, based solely on sales of the download from the album. It climbed to number 43 in its second week, then to another new peak of #23 in its third week.[10] It then debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 89 on 17 February 2013, again, based solely on downloads from the album. The following week it climbed to a new peak of number 23, and then again the week after to #19, and is now Murs' eighth UK top 20 single in three years. Its current peak as of March 2013 is now #12. The song has also performed well on the UK radio airplay chart, becoming Murs' fourth #1 airplay hit.[11] The song is now also Murs' second top 20 hit in Australia, having peaked at #19 in April 2013.

Music video

The official music video was premiered on Valentine's Day 2013 on Murs' official Vevo account.[12] It was directed by Vaughan Arnell and post production handled by Framestore.[13] The music video is set in an underground car park in ExCeL London. Murs opens the video walking alone in the set, before slowly being joined by more and more clones of himself. The clones perform alongside Murs while marching to the song's chorus. The video ends with the clones beginning to leave before Murs goes back the way he came. Throughout the video Murs is wearing "a smart tweeted waistcoat and black turtle-neck top."[12]

Murs has said that he got the idea for the video from the video to George Michael and Mary J. Blige's version of As.

Live performances

On 4 February, Murs uploaded a live performance of "Army of Two" to his official Vevo account.[14] He was backed "with violins, guitars, drums and dancing backing singers to boot."[14] Chris Younie of 4Music liked the performance commenting, "with his cheeky-chops smile and ever so tight trousers making a return into our lives, our day just brightened up considerably."[14] The performance is included on the deluxe edition of Right Place Right Time, on the second disc.[15] Murs performed the song on the seventh live show of the eighth series of Dancing on Ice, The Graham Norton Show and This Morning.

Track listing
Digital download
No.TitleLength
1."Army of Two"4:48
Digital EP[16]
No.TitleLength
1."Army of Two" (Radio Edit)3:45
2."Army of Two" (Westfunk & Steve Smart Remix)5:18
3."Army of Two" (Kat Krazy Remix)4:58
4."Army of Two" (Live Version)4:33
CD single[17]
No.TitleLength
1."Army of Two" (Radio Edit)3:45
2."Army of Two" (Westfunk & Steve Smart Remix)5:18

Charts and certifications

Radio and release history
Country Date Format Label
United Kingdom[30] 10 March 2013 Impact day Epic Records
Germany[31] 7 June 2013 CD single

References
  1. Olly Murs | United Kingdom | Biography Archived 17 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Ollymurs.com. 2012-10-08. Accessed on 2013-02-14.
  2. "Olly Murs 'Right Place Right Time' Album Listening Party". UStream. 21 November 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
  3. Olly Murs Army on Facebook. Facebook. 2013-02-22. Accessed on 2013-02-24.
  4. Copsey, Robert (8 October 2013). "Olly Murs's new album 'Right Place Right Time': First listen". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  5. Maynard, Trent (14 November 2012). "news: Olly Murs releases Right Place Right Time album sampler". 4Music. (Channel 4 / The Box). Archived from the original on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  6. Aizlewood, John (11 November 2012). "Music – Review of Olly Murs – Right Place, Right Time". BBC Music. BBC. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  7. Horton, Matthew. "Olly Murs: Right Place Right Time Album Review – Reviews – Music". Virgin Media. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  8. Smith, Chris (27 November 2012). "Review: Olly Murs- Right Place Right Time". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  9. Shephard, Fiona (26 November 2010). "CD Reviews: Little Mix, Olly Murs". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
  10. "Chart Track: Week 10, 2013". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  11. The UK Radio Airplay Chart – Week 08 | Sun 17 Feb to Sat 23 Feb inclusive. UK Airplay Chart. 2013-02-24. Accessed on 2013-02-24.
  12. "Olly Murs Unveils Music Video For New Song 'Army Of Two' – Video". The Capital FM Network. 14 February 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
  13. "Olly Murs 'Army of Two'". Framestore. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  14. Younie, Chris (5 February 2013). "News: Olly Murs Premieres Army Of Two Live Vide". 4Music. (Channel 4 / The Box). Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  15. "Music – Right Place Right Time (Deluxe Edition) – Album by Olly Murs". iTunes Store (Great Britain). Apple. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  16. Army of Two: Olly Murs: Amazon.co.uk: MP3 Downloads. Amazon.co.uk. 2013-03-11. Accessed 2013-03-12.
  17. Army of Two: Olly Murs: Amazon.de: Musik. Amazon.de. 2013-06-07. Accessed 2013-05-10.
  18. "Olly Murs – Army of Two". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  19. "Olly Murs – Army of Two" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  20. "{{{artist}}} – {{{song}}}" (in Dutch). Ultratip.
  21. "ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – RADIO – TOP 100 and insert 201318 into search.
  22. "Olly Murs – Army of Two" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts.
  23. "Olly Murs – Army of Two". Top 40 Singles.
  24. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  25. "ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 201316 into search.
  26. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  27. "End of Year Charts 2013" (PDF). Ukchartsplus.co.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  28. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2013 Singles" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association.
  29. "British single certifications – Olly Murs – Army of Two". British Phonographic Industry.
  30. Copsey, Robert (14 January 2013). "Olly Murs announces new single 'Army of Two'". Digital Spy. Hearst Corporation. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  31. "Army of Two [Single]". Amazon.com, Inc (DE). Retrieved 31 July 2013.
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