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Swan Songs
Swan Songs2
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: 3 Song Sampler
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
Da Kurlzz
Deuce
Funny Man
J-Dog
Johnny 3 Tears

Additional

Josh Freese
Ben Grosse
Billy Howerdel
Shady Jeff
Mark Kiczula
Danny Lohner
Paul Palavo
Fox Phelps
Dean Saenz
B.C. Smith

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

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