Swan Songs (Hollywood Undead album)
Swan Songs is the debut studio album by American rap rock band Hollywood Undead. It was released through Octone Records and Polydor Records on September 2, 2008. "Everywhere I Go" was the first single to be released, it was a web single and was available for download only on iTunes. The band released four music videos for four songs on the album, "No. 5", "[Undead (Hollywood Undead (Hollywood Undead song)|Undead song)|Undead]", "Young", and "Everywhere I Go". When purchased through Amazon.com and at some other retailers, the album includes a bonus track and an option to unlock music videos. It is their only album to feature Deuce as a member of Hollywood Undead, as he departed the band in 2009 due to creative differences.
Background
Swan Songs was supposed to be released on the band's original label, MySpace Records in 2007, however it was postponed by the record label when they requested to have some of the songs removed and others censored. The band declined and switched labels to Octone which would not require them to censor their songs.The song "Undead" is featured in the video games UFC Undisputed 2009 and Madden NFL 09. The song "Young" is featured as downloadable content for Rock Band 2.
Music and lyrics
Some of the album's material has been described as "ironic frat-boy party rap" by AllMusic. The vocals have drawn comparisons to Marshall Mathers. "Funny Man" sings in the baritone range. The album's lyrics contain pejoratives considered to be misogynist and homophobic.Critical reception
Swan Songs received mostly mixed reviews. Dave Donnelly of AllMusic gave the album a 2 out of 5 stars, saying that the lyrics were uninteresting and that the album was "given over to ironic frat-boy party rap".Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 22 on the US Billboard 200 selling 21,000 copies in its first week.Track listing
All tracks are written and performed by Hollywood Undead, with specific writers detailed for each track.Personnel
Credits for Swan Songs adapted from Allmusic.Hollywood Undead
- Aron "Deuce" Erlichman – lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, executive production, engineering, programming, [Audio Audio mixing (recorded music)|mixing (recorded music)|mixing], guitar
- Jordon "Charlie Scene" Terrell – vocals, guitars
- Jorel "J-Dog" Decker – vocals, keyboards
- George "Johnny 3 Tears" Ragan – vocals
- Dylan "Funny Man" Alvarez – vocals
- Matthew "Da Kurlzz" Busek – vocals, drums, percussion
- Jeffrey "Shady Jeff" Phillips – vocals
- Josh Freese – drums
- Danny Lohner – guitars, engineering, production
- Paul Pavao – guitar
- Dean Saenz – drums
- John Tempesta – drums
- Don Gilmore – production
- Billy Howerdel – engineering
- Mark Kiczula – assistant
- Ben Grosse – mixing
- Dave McNair – mastering
- Jonas Åkerlund – art direction, photography
- Jason Goad – illustrations
- Fox Phelps – assistant
- Jimmy Yuma – assistant, production
Charts
Weekly charts
| Chart | Peak position |