Alex Clare Three Hearts

A demo earned him a deal with the Island label in the UK. His debut album, The Lateness of the Hour, produced by Mike Spencer and Major Lazer was released in July 2011. The first single from the album was "Up All Night", followed by "Too Close" and "Treading Water".

On 19 May 2011, Reggie Yates made Alex Clare's cover of Prince's "When Doves Cry" his Song of the Day. A day later, the Dutch radio station 3FM announced single "Too Close" to be the '3FM's Megahit of that week.

On 21 June 2011, Clare performed at the Queens' College, Cambridge May Ball. On 14 August 2011, Clare performed at the Summer Well festival in Buftea, Romania.

Following the disappointing performance of the album, Clare was dropped from his record contract with Universal Island in the UK.

In March 2012, Clare's song "Too Close" was featured in several Internet Explorer 9 advertisements. Following its use, the song debuted at #68 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and later reached #7, becoming his first Top 10 hit. Clare saw success on the German charts too, topping the charts at #1. On 16 May, Clare's song peaked at #4 on the UK Singles Chart. Soon after the song appearance in charts, Universal Republic signed Clare to a distribution deal that allowed The Lateness Of The Hour to be released in America in March 2012. In mid-2012 it was announced that Universal Republic was going defunct moving artists from its roster to Republic Records including Alex Clare.

1 Never Let You Go
2 Three Hearts
3 Take You Back
4 Heavy Hands
5 Just A Man
6 The Story
7 Not In Vain
8 Sparks
9 War Rages On
10 Unconditional
11 So Deep
12 Holding On
13 Addicted To Love