Wiki
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Release Date
17 September 2020
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Length
15 tracks
Heaven & Hell is the debut studio album by American singer Ava Max. It was released on September 18, 2020, through Atlantic Records.
Following the release of "Sweet but Psycho" in August 2018, Max toured overseas for 30 to 40 days before returning home around Christmas that same year, where she began writing for her then-untitled debut studio album. In April 2019, Max first announced that she would release the album sometime during the year, discussing in an interview with Billboard that "there are some other tracks on there that are like wild cards, and there are a few that I'm being vulnerable in". She recorded over a hundred songs for the album, which she spent several months on deciding what to include. Heaven & Hell was initially completed in early 2019, but was delayed in order to improve the tracklist by adding more songs and removing one.
In December 2019, Max hinted that the album would be released in the upcoming months. She confirmed that it was in the process of being finalized, but was subsequently delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. When asked about the album by MTV News shortly after the release of "Kings & Queens", she stated that the previously released singles with the exception of "Sweet but Psycho" were not included on the tracklist. "So Am I", "Salt" and "Torn" eventually made the final tracklist, which Max added due to fan demand. She also decided to include the introductory track "H.E.A.V.E.N" at the start of 2020, while re-arranging each track on the album based on her instincts. Max announced the release date and title of Heaven & Hell on July 29, 2020, which was accompanied by the release of "Who's Laughing Now" the next day. A tour supporting the album was originally planned for September to October of 2020 in the United States, but was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Max insisted on wanting an upbeat energy to the album so that it would be cohesive, reasoning that she did not want every song to sound the same. She described some songs as "very strong and empowering", while others "are a little bit more emotional". Max refused to include a ballad on the album, as she wanted to include over four ballads without removing any dance tracks. Cirkut, RedOne, Charlie Puth and Bonnie McKee were involved in the album's production.
Heaven & Hell is split into two sides; Side A: Heaven, and Side B: Hell. The former consists of light energetic songs which serve as anthems, while the latter consists of darker and moodier melodies. Max first envisioned the concept before performing at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, after including the album title as a lyric in the bridge of "Torn", eventually placing the song as the album's "purgatory" track. She enlisted creative director Charlotte Rutherford to create visuals for Heaven & Hell through direct messages, where she created the album's cover art, which contains a mirror image of Max's asymmetric blonde and orange hair in two different colors. Max explained that she wanted the album cover to be "pretty simple" as she used several crazy ideas in her previous covers. The back cover and booklet contained photos which depict heaven being in space and hell being on earth, which she described as an "entire world that I created".
On November 18, 2020, Max released the newly conceived "My Head & My Heart " to be included on Heaven & Hell's digital reissue, with the track also serving as the album's 8th single.
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