Gray announced the album on her website, stating that it had been a work in progress since 2008. She wrote:
Since November 2008, I've been working hard on my fifth album and am so excited for you to hear it. It is called "The Sellout." It's about all the mountains I've been climbing to be where I want to be in my personal and professional life. It is most certainly my best work and we are almost finished. The album is produced by Myself, Jared and Whitey, Caviar, Kaz James and Rodney Jerkins. It includes a duet with the legendary Bobby Brown and performances by the best musicians I've ever known. Check in daily for updates on the progress of the record and songs from the record that you will hear here first. - Macy
Release and promotion
The album was originally intended to be released on May 18, 2010, but for unknown reasons its release was pushed to June 22, 2010.
Singles
The first US single is "Beauty In The World", which has been on three Billboard charts, including the Adult Contemporary and its remix on the Hot Dance Club Songs. The first UK single is "Lately", released on June 14, but failing to reach the UK Singles Chart. It charted better on the Billboards Hot Dance Club Play, so far, reaching the top-ten. The second US single, "Kissed It" was released on May 24, and is the featured song on Bravo's summer campaign.
Critical reception
The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 58, based on 17 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". At AnyDecentMusic?, that collates critical reviews from more than 50 media sources, the album scored 6.0 points out of 10. Andy Gill of The Independent gave it 3 out of 5 stars and wrote that it "suffers much of the same frustrating patchiness, that distinctively emotive voice squandered on material that simply doesn't deserve it". Allmusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting. MusicOMH writer Talia Soghomonian gave the album 2½ out of 5 stars and wrote "While there is plenty of soul in the sound, there is a lack of body in both delivery and melody". Q gave it 2 out of 5 stars and called it "her blandest record yet: it drifts from nondescript disco-pop and cloying R&B to woefully ersatz glam stomp". However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production and wrote that it "sands off the edges that have been key to Gray’s appeal". Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating and praised Gray for "effortlessly combining classic pop with flamboyant chart-frippery". Entertainment Weeklys Simon Vozick-Levinson gave The Sellout a B- rating and stated "Nothing here will dramatically alter the arc of Gray's career, but The Sellout yields several jams worth hearing". In his consumer guide for MSN Music, critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A- rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks".
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number #38 on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart, selling 11,000 copies, less than half the number of copies her last album, Big, sold in the same time-frame. It dropped to number #133 on its second week.
