Cry Baby is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Melanie Martinez, released on August 14, 2015, through Atlantic Records. Between September and December 2012, Martinez rose to prominence upon participating in the third season of the American edition of The Voice. After the show's completion, the singer began working independently on original material, which she^{[lower-alpha 1]} says she spent the majority of 2013 writing.

The album was supported by the release of three singles. "Pity Party", was released on June 2, 2015,^[1] and, "Soap", was released on July 10, 2015. The third and final single, "Sippy Cup" was released July 31, 2015. Cry Baby is a visual concept album about a character named Cry Baby, who is a fantasy version of Martinez.

Musically, Cry Baby is primarily an alternative pop,^[2] electropop,^[3] and indie pop^[4] record, and received generally positive reviews from critics. In the United States, the album was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, after earning 2 million album-equivalent units (sales, streaming, and track sales). In 2020, the song "Play Date", went viral on video-sharing platform TikTok, causing the album to re-enter charts globally. Amongst fans and a handful musical critics, the album is popularly referred to and regarded as an album that “defined a generation”.

Martinez had an extended play completely done around 2013, which she began recording soon after she was eliminated from The Voice and was ready to put it out. However, after creating her song "Dollhouse" in September 2013, she decided not to release the aforementioned extended play. She began conceptualizing her debut album, which differed from the sound of the 2013 EP. In May 2014, Melanie put out her Dollhouse EP, and announced that summer that she hoped to have her album out around October. When October came, Melanie released the video for "Carousel" and postponed her release date for her album, and stated that she hoped to have it out in spring. That spring, Kinetics & One Love announced that all of the vocals for Melanie's album were finished, and Melanie officially announced that her album would be titled Cry Baby. Melanie began teasing some titles for tracks. The first single was "Pity Party" and was confirmed on May 27, 2015. The music video was accidentally leaked by Melanie herself on May 29, but she later tweeted that she was happy and excited for the fans who had seen it and promised there was "more to come" during her live stream on June 1. It was officially released on the day of the live stream. During the live stream, Martinez announced that the release day of Cry Baby would be in August. The second single, "Soap", was confirmed in late June, and it was announced soon before it was to be released on July 10. It leaked a day earlier. The one-shot music video came out the same day.

On July 16, the album art and release date were leaked on Amazon, although the release date was false. On July 17, the album art was officially revealed, and merchandise bundles were available to pre-order on Martinez's website, with the digital pre-order on July 24. Before the 24th, the track list of the album was leaked, although the websites that leaked it replaced "Tag, You're It" with "Jump Rope" and "Play Date" with "Half Hearted". The track list was officially revealed on the 24th with the pre-order. Starting on July 27, Melanie released a snippet of each song (apart from the ones on the deluxe edition) on her Instagram page. On July 28, Melanie released the snippet for "Sippy Cup" and announced that it would be released on July 31. On July 30, Spin premiered the video, and "Sippy Cup" was released the day after. The album was released on August 14. The CD was packaged as a storybook, with jewel case CDs available later. Both a picture disk and a standard black vinyl were released in the future. Cassettes were then released, advertised as being in yellow, blue, and pink. There is also a less common green cassette. All physical copies of the album are the standard explicit, with the deluxe and clean being digital exclusives.

The album was released on August 14, 2015, by Atlantic Records, through digital download, CD, vinyl, and audio cassette.^[6] The vinyl and CD have special packaging, which includes a storybook that follows the album by illustrator Chloe Tersigni. ^[7] Cry Baby debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200 with 41,000 units sold in its first week; it also debuted at the top of the Alternative Albums Chart. It was announced on August 2, 2016, that the album had sold 263,050 copies.^[8] On February 24, 2017, the album was certified Platinum, having sold 1,000,000 copies in the US.^[9][10]

"Pity Party" was released as the first single. The music video was released on Vessel by Martinez on May 29, 2015, for early access users. It was then released three days later, on June 1, 2015, on YouTube. It was certified Platinum by RIAA.

"Soap" was released as the second single. It was released on July 10, 2015, along with a music video. It was certified Gold by RIAA. As of the end of 2017, "Soap" became an online trending song on the application TikTok (formerly known as Musical.ly), and a challenge known as the "Soap Challenge" gained speed, which saw users play Martinez's song while using liquid dish soap on makeup wipes to blow a stream of foam with their mouth.

"Sippy Cup" was released as the third single on July 31, 2015, with a music video. It was the darker sequel to the music video of her 2014 single, "Dollhouse".

More information Review scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[22]
ABC News	[3]
Billboard	[23]
Outlet Magazine	[24]
Popdust.com	4/5[2]
Spin	8/10[25]
Under the Gun Review	9.5/10[4]

Close

Cry Baby received generally positive reviews from music critics. Allan Raible at ABC News gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, describing it as "a jarring, affecting record that will stick with you days after listening. It's not for passive listening. It is a rare pop record that is both catchy beyond belief and an artistic triumph."^[3] Jason Scott at Popdust.com described the album as "13 tracks of pure hypnotic bliss [that] tests the absolute bounds of alt-pop, puncturing and bleeding out of [Martinez's] Lesley Gore and Purity Ring influence," highlighting "Sippy Cup", "Mrs. Potato Head", "Soap", "Cry Baby" and "Alphabet Boy".^[2] AllMusic's Matt Collar compared Martinez to Björk and Beyoncé, and said that "her songs also fit nicely next to the work of contemporaries like Lorde and Lana Del Rey." Emma Guido at Under the Gun Review gave the album a 9.5 out of 10, calling the album "a journey with Martinez’s creepy alter ego as she battles her demons and obsessions", calling her songwriting methods "expressional, passionate and marvelously creative" and writing that "the haunted carnival-esque ambience of Cry Baby...takes on a new form of indie-pop music that the world has been waiting to hear."^[4]

Spin named the album number 22 on their list of "The 25 Best Pop Albums of 2015".^[26]

Notes

• ^[a] signifies an additional producer.
• "Pity Party" samples Lesley Gore's "It's My Party", written by Wally Gold, John Gluck, Herb Wiener, and Seymour Gottlieb.

• Melanie Martinez – vocals

Production

• Mitch McCarthy – mixing on all tracks except "Dollhouse", "Carousel" and "Pity Party" at Owl Foot Ranch
• Manny Marroquin – mixing on "Pity Party"
• Chris Gehringer – mastering
• JL Brown – mixing on "Training Wheels"

Cry Baby's Extra Clutter EP is the third extended play by American recording artist Melanie Martinez, released on November 25, 2016. The EP is a physical vinyl release and her first EP without a digital release of the three bonus tracks from Cry Baby as well as the limited-release 2015 Christmas single, "Gingerbread Man".^[87][88] The vinyl was only available for purchase via Urban Outfitters and Martinez's website.^[89] The EP's cover art was drawn by Chloe Tersigni.

The Cry Baby Tour was the second concert tour by American singer Melanie Martinez, in support of her first studio album Cry Baby. The tour consisted of nine legs and 124 shows, beginning on August 26, 2015 in Charlotte, North Carolina,^[92] and concluded on April 2, 2017 in Santiago, Chile.^[93]