Swan Songs

Swan Songs
Standard Japanese
Released:	September 2, 2008
Recorded:	January - May, 2008
Length:	49:35
Label:	A&M/Octone, Polydor
Producers:	Danny Lohner (executive) Deuce, Don Gilmore
Billboard:	22
Singles:	No. 5, Undead, Everywhere I Go, Young, This Love, This Hate, Black Dahlia
Previous:	Hollywood Undead
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.

Tracklisting

No.	Title	Length
1.	Undead	4:24
2.	Sell Your Soul	3:14
3.	Everywhere I Go	3:30
4.	No Other Place	3:16
5.	No. 5	3:05
6.	Young	3:16
7.	Black Dahlia	3:46
8.	This Love, This Hate	3:57
9.	Bottle and a Gun	3:22
10.	California	3:17
11.	City	3:34
12.	The Diary	4:34
13.	Pimpin'	3:07
14.	Paradise Lost	3:11

Bonus Tracks

No.	Title	Length
15.	Pain	2:41
16.	The Natives	3:40
17.	Knife Called Lust	2:59
18.	The Loss	3:15
19.	Bitches	3:30
20.	The Kids	3:01
21.	Circles	3:33
22.	Black Dahlia (Buffalo Bill Remix)	3:50
23.	Black Dahlia (Lo Fidelity Allstars Remix)	4:32
24.	Black Dahlia (The Pharmacy Remix)	3:46

Personnel

Hollywood Undead

Charlie Scene

• vocals (Bitches, Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, California, City, Everywhere I Go, Knife Called Lust, No Other Place, No. 5, Pain, Pimpin', The Loss, The Natives, Undead)
• guitars

Da Kurlzz

• drums (Bitches, Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, City, Knife Called Lust, No. 5, The Loss, The Natives)
• percussion (Bitches, Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, City, Knife Called Lust, No. 5, The Loss, The Natives)
• vocals (Bitches, Bottle and a Gun, California, City, Everywhere I Go, Knife Called Lust, No. 5, Sell Your Soul, The Natives, Undead, Young)

Deuce

• bass guitar
• engineering (Bitches, Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, Circles, City, Knife Called Lust, No Other Place, No. 5, Pain, Pimpin', Sell Your Soul, The Diary, The Kids, The Loss, The Natives, This Love, This Hate, Undead, Young)
• keyboards
• mixing (Bitches, Circles, Knife Called Lust, Pain, Pimpin', The Kids, The Loss, The Natives)
• programming (Bitches, Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, Circles, City, Knife Called Lust, No Other Place, No. 5, Pain, Pimpin', Sell Your Soul, The Diary, The Kids, The Loss, The Natives, This Love, This Hate, Undead, Young)
• synthesizer
• vocals

Funny Man

• vocals (Bitches, Bottle and a Gun, No Other Place, No. 5, Pimpin', The Natives, Undead)

J-Dog

• keyboards (Bitches, Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, City, Knife Called Lust, No. 5, The Kids, The Loss, The Natives)
• vocals (Bitches, Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, California, City, Knife Called Lust, Pimpin', Sell Your Soul, The Kids, The Loss, The Natives, Undead, Young)

Johnny 3 Tears

• vocals (Bitches, Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, California, Circles, City, No. 5, Pain, Paradise Lost, Pimpin', Sell Your Soul, The Diary, The Loss, The Natives, Undead, Young)

Additional

Josh Freese

• drums (City, Undead, Young)

Don Gilmore

• engineering (California, Everywhere I Go, Paradise Lost)
• programming (California, Everywhere I Go, Paradise Lost)

Ben Grosse

• mixing (Black Dahlia, Bottle and a Gun, California, City, Everywhere I Go, No Other Place, No. 5, Paradise Lost, Sell Your Soul, The Diary, This Love, This Hate, Undead, Young)

Billy Howerdel

• engineering (City, Sell Your Soul, Undead, Young)

Shady Jeff

• vocals (Knife Called Lust, The Kids)

Mark Kiczula

• engineering (California, Everywhere I Go, Paradise Lost)

Danny Lohner

• engineering (City, Paradise Lost, Sell Your Soul, This Love, This Hate, Undead, Young)
• guitars (Paradise Lost, Sell Your Soul, This Love, This Hate)
• programming (City, Paradise Lost, Sell Your Soul, This Love, This Hate, Undead, Young)

Paul Palavo

• guitars (Young)

Fox Phelps

• programming (California, Everywhere I Go, Paradise Lost)

Dean Saenz

• drums (Sell Your Soul)

BC Smith

• programming (California, Everywhere I Go, Paradise Lost)

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 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.

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.