| "Swan Songs" | |
| Released: | September 2nd, 2008 |
| Recorded: | January - May, 2008 |
| Genre: | Rap rock, nu metal, crunkcore, rap metal, hip-hop, rapcore |
| Length: | 49:35 |
| Label: | A&M/Octone, Polydor |
| Producer(s): | Danny Lohner (executive) Don Gilmore, Deuce |
| Previous ""Hollywood Undead (album)"" |
Next ""Swan Songs B-Sides EP"" |
Swan Songs is the debut album of Hollywood Undead, released through A&M/Octone Records. The album was released on September 2, 2008." The band released four music videos for four songs on the album: "No. 5," "Undead," "Young," and "Everywhere I Go." Swan Songs is the only studio album to feature vocalist Deuce, who was replaced by Danny from the second studio album and on.
Overview[]
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. These songs were "Dead in Ditches," "Turn Off the Lights," and basically the other party-based songs. The band declined the choice of censorship and switched labels to A&M/Octone, which wouldn't require them to censor their songs. The album peaked at #22 on the Billboard 200 and sold 21,000 copies on its debut week. Swan Songs was released by Polydor Records on May 18, 2009 in the United Kingdom with two bonus tracks, which were "Pain" and "Knife Called Lust." After sixty-four weeks, the album fell off of the Billboard Top 200, but returned four weeks later at #154. Swan Songs ended up spending eighty-two weeks in total on the Billboard 200. In 2009, it was certified gold by the RIAA. On January 18th, 2013, it reached the Platinum sales mark.
Reception[]
Allmusic gave the album a 2/5 rating. Artistdirect gave the album a 3.5/5 rating. Rock Sound gave the album a 7/10 ranking. Sputnikmusic gave the album a 3.5/10 ranking.
Additionally, Dave Donnelly of Allmusic stated that the album's lyrics were uninteresting, and the overall theme "was given over to ironic frat-boy party rap," using the singles "Everywhere I Go" and "No. 5" as examples.
Censorship[]
The clean version of the album leaves "lighter" profanities uncensored, while all strong profanity is censored either by back-masking, editing out completely, or replacing the profanity with a cleaner word.
The list of profanities left uncensored are: "ass," "bitch," "shit," "pimp," "bastard," and any reference to violent weapons/acts.
In popular culture[]
The song (and single) "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." According to an e-mail sent out to fans from the official website on April 4, 2011, the album has been re-released on iTunes as a Collector's Edition. This features all the tracks available on the original Swan Songs plus "Swan Songs B-Sides EP," "Swan Songs Rarities EP," and the remix album "Black Dahlia Remixes."
Tracklisting[]
| Title | Length | Total length |
|---|---|---|
| "Undead" | 4:24 | |
| "Sell Your Soul" | 3:14 | |
| "Everywhere I Go" | 3:30 | |
| "No Other Place" | 3:16 | |
| "No. 5" | 3:05 | |
| "Young" | 3:16 | |
| "Black Dahlia" | 3:46 | |
| "This Love, This Hate" | 3:57 | |
| "Bottle and a Gun" | 3:22 | |
| "California" | 3:17 | |
| "City" | 3:34 | |
| "The Diary" | 4:34 | |
| "Pimpin'" | 3:07 | |
| "Paradise Lost" | 3:11 | |
| 49:35 |
Additional tracks[]
| Title | Length | Additional notes |
|---|---|---|
| "Pain" | 2:41 | Bonus track in some areas; featured on the collector's edition |
| "The Natives" | 3:40 | Featured on the collector's edition |
| "Knife Called Lust" | 2:59 | Bonus track in some areas; featured on the collector's edition |
| "The Loss" | 3:15 | Featured on the collector's edition |
| "Bitches" | 3:30 | Featured on the collector's edition |
| "The Kids" | 3:01 | Featured on the collector's edition |
| "Circles" | 3:33 | Featured on the collector's edition |
| "Black Dahlia (Buffalo Bill Remix)" | 3:50 | Featured on the collector's edition |
| "Black Dahlia (Lo Fidelity Allstars Remix)" | 4:32 | Featured on the collector's edition |
| "Black Dahlia (The Pharmacy Remix)" | 3: 46 | Featured on the collector's edition |
Personnel[]
- Hollywood Undead
- Charlie Scene - vocals, lead guitar
- Da Kurlzz - unclean vocals, drums, percussion
- Deuce - vocals, clean vocals, unclean vocals
- Funny Man - vocals
- J-Dog - vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, audio engineering, unclean vocals, bass guitar
- Johnny 3 Tears - vocals
- Production
- Deuce - production
- Don Gilmore - production
- Danny Lohner - engineering, production
- Billy Howerdel - engineering
- Mark Kiczula - assistant engineering
- Ben Grosse - mixing
- Jonas Akerlund - art direction, photography
- Jason Goad - illustrations
- Fox Phelps - assistant illustrations
- Jimmy Yuma - assistant, production
- Jeff Phillips - additional vocals, production
Trivia[]
- Three songs never made it to the album but were still leaked online, either in studio or demo form.
- The three songs are "Turn Off the Lights," "Scene for Dummies," and "Dead in Ditches.