the same as the one found on the cover of the album, but zoomed-in and flipped. Linn was not present for the entirety of the photo shoot and had to be edited into some of the photos. Singles and promotion "Cruel Summer" was released as the first single from the album and became a top ten hit, peaking at number ten on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Dance Club Songs charts. The song was promoted in the United States with performances on CBS This Morning and The View, which Linn was present for. "Cruel Summer" received positive reviews from critics, such as Billboard Magazine, who called the song a "potential smash" and Amazon.com, who described the track as a "light, upbeat groove" in their review of the album. Entertainment Weekly was more critical of the song, calling it "pointless" in an otherwise positive album review. A second single, "Whenever You're Near Me", received little attention, and was not even correctly promoted on the Arista website, where it was listed as "Whenever You Need Me" despite fan efforts to get the mistake corrected. A music video for the song was not produced, however the song was promoted with a live performance on Ricki Lake which Linn did not attend. "Whenever You're Near Me" received a positive review from Larry Flick of Billboard Magazine, who noted that the song was "rife with sunny Caribbean percussion and a sweet smattering of acoustic guitar/synth interplay." He also predicted that the single "should saturate airwaves within seconds." Despite this, the song peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent only five weeks on the chart. The track was somewhat more successful in Canada, where it peaked at number 51. Further singles were released from Flowers across Europe, but no further singles were released from Cruel Summer in the United States. "Donnie" was released as a promotional single in Japan. "Everytime it Rains" was later remixed and released as a promotional single from Greatest Hits in April 2000. Critical reception Upon its release, Cruel Summer received generally positive reviews from music critics. Tom Lanham of Entertainment Weekly provided a favorable review, noting that "there isn’t a note out of concordant place, no potential hook overlooked". He compared the album favorably to works of ABBA, describing the album as "perfect pop-Euro-disco balance." Rebecca Wallwork of Amazon.com shared a similar sentiment and described