Conspiracy of One is the sixth studio album by the American punk rock band The Offspring, released on November 14, 2000 through Columbia Records. Following a worldwide tour in support of its previous album, Americana (1998), The Offspring commenced work on a new album. By the time of its release, the band had come out in support of peer-to-peer file sharing, claiming it does not hurt sales. Conspiracy of One was originally planned to be released directly on their website before retail, until their label threatened to sue and the album ended up as a physical release.
Conspiracy of One debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 with around 125,000 copies sold in its first week,[7] and spawned the singles "Original Prankster", "Want You Bad", and "Million Miles Away". The band supported the album with a worldwide tour. Conspiracy of One would end up becoming The Offspring's final studio album with drummer Ron Welty, as he left the band in early 2003 to pursue his career with Steady Ground. Although the album was not as successful as Americana, it went platinum by the RIAA in the United States, and has sold 2.3 million copies.
[edit] Background and recording
The Offspring spent much of 1999 on tour promoting the Americana album. They also appeared at the infamous Woodstock 1999, where their performance was broadcast live on pay-per-view television. After some time off, the members reconvened in early 2000 to begin work on new material, nine songs of which were in the demo phase at the time. Frontman Dexter Holland told Rolling Stone in May 2000 that, "we came home last Christmas and we kind of took a month just trying to recoup and we started thinking, 'Well, do we want to get started on another record right away?'. "We're all pretty excited about the way things have gone so I spent a couple of months trying to come up with some new material and then [started] jamming out these demos."[8] The Offspring officially entered the studio to begin recording sessions for Conspiracy of One in June 2000. For the recording of the album, the band tapped Brendan O'Brien as its producer and recorded the album at NRG studios in North Hollywood, California over a two month period.
[edit] Reception
Conspiracy of One was released on November 14, 2000 and peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200 album chart.[9] Five weeks after its release, the album was certified gold and platinum.[10] The album was also successful in Canada, selling 25,231 copies in its first week and debuting at #4 on the Canadian Albums Chart.[11] The album was certified 2x Platinum by the CRIA in February 2007.[12]
Liana Jonas of Allmusic described Conspiracy of One as The Offspring's "most musically mature collection to date". Jonas praised the music as "tight arrangements, vocal interplay and refined guitar work" and claims the band injected "elements of hip hop, nu metal, and Nirvana-like grunge into a few songs". The album received a rating of three and a half out of five stars, while producing three singles, "Original Prankster", "Want You Bad" and "Million Miles Away", that earned The Offspring its commercial success.[13]
[edit] Track listing
All songs written and composed by Dexter Holland [14].
| 1. |
"Intro" |
0:06 |
| 2. |
"Come Out Swinging" |
2:47 |
| 3. |
"Original Prankster" |
3:42 |
| 4. |
"Want You Bad" |
3:23 |
| 5. |
"Million Miles Away" |
3:40 |
| 6. |
"Dammit, I Changed Again" |
2:49 |
| 7. |
"Living in Chaos" |
3:28 |
| 8. |
"Special Delivery" |
3:00 |
| 9. |
"One Fine Day" |
2:45 |
| 10. |
"All Along" |
1:39 |
| 11. |
"Denial, Revisited" |
4:33 |
| 12. |
"Vultures" |
3:35 |
| 13. |
"Conspiracy of One" |
2:17 |
[edit] Bonus tracks
[edit] Album length
|
(Without bonus track) |
(With bonus track) |
| Total duration of music: |
37:43 |
40:21 |
- First pressings in Australia and UK had the track "Huck It" listed as track 14, later reprints have it unlisted as well as the original Mature audiences rating reduced to a PG rating in Australia.
- The "Intro" track samples a speech made in concert by Mike Love from The Beach Boys.
- "Special Delivery" contains a sample from Blue Swede's version of the song "Hooked on a Feeling".
- This album is also an Enhanced CD and contains the karaoke videos of "Original Prankster" and "One Fine Day", and the previous MTV music videos from Americana.
- This is the only Offspring CD where the word "fuck" is never used, not including the bonus track 'Huck It'.
- First appearance of the Fire Skull logo, which has been the mascot for The Offspring until their 2008 release Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, in which the skull is completely absent.
- "Dammit, I Changed Again" can be heard in the background in the movie "The New Guy".
- "Want You Bad" is played during the introduction credits in the movie Tomcats.
[edit] Chart performance
| Chart (1998–1999) |
Peak
position |
Certification |
Sales |
| Australian Albums Chart[15] |
4 |
2x Platinum[16] |
140,000+ |
| Austrian Albums Chart[15] |
5 |
Gold[17] |
10,000+ |
| Belgium Albums Chart[15] |
18 |
- |
- |
| Canadian Albums Chart[18] |
4 |
2x Platinum[12] |
200,000+ |
| Finnish Albums Chart[15] |
4 |
Platinum[19] |
29,330+[20] |
| French Albums Chart[15] |
3 |
2x Gold |
150,000 |
| German Albums Chart[21] |
8 |
- |
- |
| Italian Albums Chart[15] |
12 |
- |
- |
| Japanese Albums Chart[22] |
2 |
2x Platinum[23] |
400,000+ |
| Netherlands Albums Chart[15] |
32 |
- |
- |
| New Zealand Albums Chart[15] |
11 |
Gold[24] |
7,500+ |
| Norwegian Albums Chart[15] |
11 |
- |
- |
| Polish Albums Chart[25] |
7 |
Gold[26] |
15,000+ |
| Swedish Albums Chart[15] |
8 |
Gold[27] |
20,000+ |
| Swiss Albums Chart[15] |
4 |
Platinum[28] |
40,000+ |
| UK Albums Chart[29] |
12 |
Gold[30] |
100,000+ |
| U.S. Billboard 200[13] |
9 |
Platinum[31] |
1,000,000+ |
[edit] Personnel
[edit] The Offspring
[edit] Additional personnel
Redman - vocals on "Original Prankster"
- Justin Beope – design
- Billy Bowers – engineer
- Nick DiDia – engineer
- David Dominguez – assistant engineer
- Karl Egsieker – mixing
- Ryan Eilliams – mixing
- Sean Evans – art direction
- Alan Forbes – illustrations
- Ross Garfield – drum technician
- Sarkis Kaloustian – design
- Steve Masi – guitar technician
- Eddy Schreyer – mastering
[edit] References
[edit] General references
- (2000) Album notes for Conspiracy of One by The Offspring [CD liner]. Columbia Records.
[edit] External links
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