WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.490 you know um there is this very specific, almost 00:00:03.490 --> 00:00:07.070 cinematic romanticism that we tend to attach 00:00:07.070 --> 00:00:09.669 to the concept of a debut album. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:09.910 --> 00:00:12.529 It's really one of the great myths of music history. 00:00:12.769 --> 00:00:15.230 Right. Like we always picture this group of scruffy 00:00:15.230 --> 00:00:18.570 kids in a garage, maybe in Seattle or Manchester. 00:00:18.629 --> 00:00:20.829 Yeah, with cheap instruments. Exactly. Just making 00:00:20.829 --> 00:00:23.429 noise. And then suddenly they accidentally stumble 00:00:23.429 --> 00:00:26.010 onto a sound that changes the world. It's the 00:00:26.010 --> 00:00:27.929 whole lightning in a bottle narrative. We want 00:00:27.929 --> 00:00:30.350 to believe that great art just, you know, happens 00:00:30.350 --> 00:00:34.920 organically. But today, for this deep dive, we 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:37.460 are going to look at a debut album that completely 00:00:37.460 --> 00:00:40.719 dismantles that romantic idea. Completely. We 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:42.479 are digging into the source material surrounding 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:45.640 the 2017 album Misanthrope by the American band 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:48.420 Dead. And I have to tell you, based on the release 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:50.759 data, the chart history, the personnel credits 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:54.039 from Sure Tone Records. This was no accident. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:57.259 Oh, 100%. This is arguably one of the most calculated 00:00:57.259 --> 00:00:59.600 launches in modern rock history. Yeah. When you 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:01.579 peel back the layers of Miss Antrope, you are 00:01:01.579 --> 00:01:04.060 not finding garage demos. You're finding a master 00:01:04.060 --> 00:01:06.480 class in demographic targeting. And a production 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:08.540 lineup that honestly shouldn't make sense on 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:12.200 paper. Which is why our mission today is to decode 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:14.620 that engineering. Right. We're unpacking how 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:17.000 this specific record fits into the new metal 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.810 genre. looking at the heavy hitter behind the 00:01:19.810 --> 00:01:23.409 console and analyzing the data behind their chart 00:01:23.409 --> 00:01:25.650 success. And before we get into the mechanics 00:01:25.650 --> 00:01:27.590 of all that, we need to anchor ourselves in the 00:01:27.590 --> 00:01:29.769 timeline. The release date we're looking at is 00:01:29.769 --> 00:01:33.969 July 21st, 2017. Which, if you remember the musical 00:01:33.969 --> 00:01:37.349 landscape of 2017, it's a weird time for rock 00:01:37.349 --> 00:01:39.670 music. It is a very weird time. Right. If you 00:01:39.670 --> 00:01:43.170 look at the charts in 2017, Nu Metal, that... 00:01:43.340 --> 00:01:46.000 rhythmic, aggressive, bounce -heavy sound from 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.359 the late 90s and early 2000s that was supposed 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:51.180 to be long dead. Yeah, the trend cycle had totally 00:01:51.180 --> 00:01:53.760 moved on to indie pop and mumble rap. Exactly. 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:56.400 So for a new band to debut with this specific 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.340 sound in the middle of the summer of 2017, it 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:01.359 was technically a massive risk. It's like wearing 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:03.459 bell bottoms in the 90s. You're either way behind 00:02:03.459 --> 00:02:04.980 the curve or you're trying to start something 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:07.379 brand new. And the data suggests they were betting 00:02:07.379 --> 00:02:09.280 on the latter. They were betting on a revival 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:11.639 before it actually happened. So let's look at 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:13.889 who they actually are. Who was in the band dead? 00:02:14.110 --> 00:02:16.370 Because this isn't just a random assortment of 00:02:16.370 --> 00:02:18.990 local musicians. No, and this is where that garage 00:02:18.990 --> 00:02:22.030 band myth really falls apart. The lineup on the 00:02:22.030 --> 00:02:25.289 record is Joe Cotella on lead vocals, David Ludlow 00:02:25.289 --> 00:02:28.289 on guitar and backing vocals, Matt Reinhardt 00:02:28.289 --> 00:02:31.789 on drums, and Kyle Kolsch on bass. It's a pretty 00:02:31.789 --> 00:02:34.189 standard four -piece setup. But this is not their 00:02:34.189 --> 00:02:36.750 first rodeo. I was digging through the related 00:02:36.750 --> 00:02:39.009 artists and category notes in the source material, 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:41.770 and I saw a connection to a band called Greeley 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:45.210 Estates. Right. And this is the first major clue 00:02:45.210 --> 00:02:47.490 that we aren't dealing with rookies here. David 00:02:47.490 --> 00:02:50.270 Ludlow and Kyle Kolsch both came from Greeley 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:52.590 Estates. Which is a completely different vibe. 00:02:52.750 --> 00:02:54.990 Totally. Now, for you listening, if you weren't 00:02:54.990 --> 00:02:57.389 deep in the Warped Tour scene in the mid -2000s, 00:02:57.389 --> 00:03:00.930 Greeley Estates was a metalcore band. And there 00:03:00.930 --> 00:03:03.370 is a massive difference between metalcore and 00:03:03.370 --> 00:03:05.479 nu metal. Huge difference. difference. Greeley 00:03:05.479 --> 00:03:08.360 States was much more in the vein of screaming, 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:12.360 breakdowns, very chaotic, fast -paced, post -hardcore 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:15.180 stuff. It's technical, it's frantic, it is definitely 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:17.300 not music you can dance to in the traditional 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:19.539 sense. Okay, so help me understand the pivot 00:03:19.539 --> 00:03:22.960 here. You've got guys who spent years playing 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:26.740 technical, chaotic metalcore. Why do they suddenly 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:29.840 slow it down, tune the guitars lower, and start 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:32.439 playing new metal as dead? It's a shift in the 00:03:32.439 --> 00:03:36.219 bounce. Metalcore is about speed and chaos, but 00:03:36.219 --> 00:03:39.180 nu metal is about the groove. It's highly rhythmic. 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:42.370 It's accessible. Oh, okay. By transitioning from 00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:45.669 Greeley Estates to Dead, these musicians were 00:03:45.669 --> 00:03:48.629 effectively simplifying their playing to maximize 00:03:48.629 --> 00:03:51.650 the hook factor. They took all their experience 00:03:51.650 --> 00:03:54.430 knowing how to tour, handle gear, be professionals, 00:03:54.569 --> 00:03:57.509 and applied it to a genre that is just inherently 00:03:57.509 --> 00:03:59.770 more radio friendly. That makes a lot of sense. 00:03:59.889 --> 00:04:01.969 They already had their 10 ,000 hours of practice. 00:04:02.030 --> 00:04:03.789 They just changed the vehicle they were driving. 00:04:03.909 --> 00:04:05.789 Precisely. They weren't learning how to play. 00:04:05.849 --> 00:04:07.710 They were learning how to craft a very specific 00:04:07.710 --> 00:04:10.539 sound for a specific market. And radio friendly 00:04:10.539 --> 00:04:12.879 is a key phrase there. Yeah. Because when I looked 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:14.919 at the production credits for Misanthrope, I 00:04:14.919 --> 00:04:16.420 actually laughed out loud. I thought it was a 00:04:16.420 --> 00:04:18.959 typo. Let me guess. You saw the name John Feldman. 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:22.500 I did. And look, I grew up on pop punk. I know 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:24.660 John Feldman is the front man of the ska band 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:27.379 Goldfinger. I know him as the guy who produced 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:30.879 Blink -182, All Time Low, Five Seconds of Summer. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:33.899 Yeah. He is the architect of shiny California 00:04:33.899 --> 00:04:37.540 pop punk. So explain this to me like I'm five. 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:40.899 Why does a band called Dead releasing an album 00:04:40.899 --> 00:04:43.980 called Misanthrope, which literally means a hatred 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:47.000 of humanity, hire the guy who writes songs about 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.800 pizza to produce their heavy metal record? It's 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:53.319 brilliant, actually. If you analyze nu metal 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:55.800 musically, it actually has way more in common 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:57.920 with pop music than it does with extreme death 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:00.860 metal. Really? Yeah. It relies heavily on verse 00:05:00.860 --> 00:05:03.199 -chorus structures. It needs big anthemic hooks 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:05.439 that get stuck in your head. And John Feldman 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:07.720 is a master of the airworm. So he brings the 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:09.620 structure. He brings the polish and the discipline. 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:12.420 Feldman treats a heavy guitar riff the exact 00:05:12.420 --> 00:05:15.420 same way he treats a pop synthesizer. He compresses 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:17.300 it, makes it punchy, and ensures it doesn't get 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:19.220 muddy. Right, because a lot of debut metal albums 00:05:19.220 --> 00:05:22.060 sound messy. The drums drown out the vocals or 00:05:22.060 --> 00:05:24.920 the guitars are just too fuzzy. Exactly. But 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:27.199 Feldman's production on Misanthrope is clinically 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:31.019 clean. Every vocal part is audible. Every chorus 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:33.120 hits at the exact same volume. It sounds expensive. 00:05:33.379 --> 00:05:36.100 Because that was the goal. He turned their aggression 00:05:36.100 --> 00:05:39.199 into a product. He ensured that even though the 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:41.600 aesthetic was dark and heavy, the songs were 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:44.939 fundamentally catchy. It's sort of a spoonful 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:47.639 of sugar approach to heavy music. That is such 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:49.920 a fascinating way to look at it. It's like putting 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:52.120 a feral dog in a designer suit. That's a perfect 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:55.279 analogy. It's still dangerous, but it looks great 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:58.079 on TV. And speaking of looking great on TV, that 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.279 brings us to the second pillar of their rollout. 00:06:00.360 --> 00:06:03.040 You have the pop polish from Feldman, but you 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:05.360 can't lose your street cred. Right, you can't 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:07.699 look soft to the metal crowd. Exactly. Enter 00:06:07.699 --> 00:06:10.399 the man in the red backward cap. Fred Durst. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:13.089 Yep. The sources highlight that the official 00:06:13.089 --> 00:06:16.149 music video for their breakout single, Anti -Everything, 00:06:16.430 --> 00:06:19.410 wasn't just directed by some hired gun. It was 00:06:19.410 --> 00:06:22.629 produced and directed by Fred Durst. The frontman 00:06:22.629 --> 00:06:26.709 of Lip Bizkit. which is huge now fred durst is 00:06:26.709 --> 00:06:29.430 a polarizing figure sure people either love him 00:06:29.430 --> 00:06:31.949 or they really don't but in the context of nu 00:06:31.949 --> 00:06:34.870 metal he is the godfather he's the aesthetic 00:06:34.870 --> 00:06:37.750 standard bearer by getting durst to direct the 00:06:37.750 --> 00:06:40.110 video dead wasn't just getting a director they 00:06:40.110 --> 00:06:43.160 were buying a cosign stamp of approval Exactly. 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.360 It was a signal to every Limp Bizkit fan, every 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:49.759 Korn fan, anyone who missed the year 1999 saying, 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:53.139 hey, it is okay to like this band. The boss approves. 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:55.120 And visually, you can totally see it. I watched 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:57.620 the video for the prep. It's gritty. It's chaotic. 00:06:57.860 --> 00:07:00.500 It uses those fisheye lens angles that were everywhere 00:07:00.500 --> 00:07:02.980 in the late 90s. It's pure nostalgia marketing. 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:06.100 In 2017, we were just starting to see the 20 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:09.439 -year nostalgia cycle for Nu Metal kick in. And 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:12.089 Dead positioned themselves at the absolute front 00:07:12.089 --> 00:07:13.990 of that wave. So we've established the product 00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:17.069 is engineered perfectly. Veteran musicians, a 00:07:17.069 --> 00:07:19.949 pop producer, an icon directing the video. But 00:07:19.949 --> 00:07:22.629 all that dies without distribution. Right. I 00:07:22.629 --> 00:07:24.250 want to look at the singles strategy because 00:07:24.250 --> 00:07:26.129 the timeline and the source material tells a 00:07:26.129 --> 00:07:29.230 story of extreme patience. It was a classic drip 00:07:29.230 --> 00:07:31.509 feed strategy. They did not just dump the album 00:07:31.509 --> 00:07:33.310 and hope for the best. Let's trace it for the 00:07:33.310 --> 00:07:37.970 listener. The album drops July 21st, 2017. But 00:07:37.970 --> 00:07:39.930 when does the public actually first hear Dead? 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:44.480 December 23rd, 2016, seven full months prior, 00:07:44.699 --> 00:07:48.959 they dropped the track FMFY. Which stands for, 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:50.980 well, we'll let you figure that one out. It's 00:07:50.980 --> 00:07:53.220 very polite. Very polite. And notice, they didn't 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:56.040 do a full music video for this first track. The 00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:58.399 notes specifically say it started with a lyric 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:00.339 video. Which is a crucial distinction, right? 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:03.180 A full video costs tens of thousands of dollars. 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:05.620 A lyric video is a fraction of that. Exactly. 00:08:06.019 --> 00:08:08.819 Releasing FMFY as a lyric video first was them 00:08:08.819 --> 00:08:11.259 testing the waters. It's a low -risk hello to 00:08:11.259 --> 00:08:13.660 build the brand without breaking the bank. And 00:08:13.660 --> 00:08:16.399 FMFY is a very aggressive track. It establishes 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:18.120 the attitude, but it wasn't really the radio 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.399 hit. No, it's just the appetizer. The main chorus 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:23.860 came in February 2017. February 25th, specifically. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:26.930 Anti -everything. the second strike with the 00:08:26.930 --> 00:08:29.889 fred durst video so look at that pacing december 00:08:29.889 --> 00:08:33.610 is the teaser february is the massive single 00:08:33.610 --> 00:08:36.389 with the celebrity director they let that marinate 00:08:36.389 --> 00:08:39.110 for months then in june right before the album 00:08:39.110 --> 00:08:41.669 drops they released dead to me and they don't 00:08:41.669 --> 00:08:44.440 stop there the sources list Remember the Enemy 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:48.120 in September 2017 and Hate Me way later in January 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:50.980 2018. This strategy keeps the band in the conversation 00:08:50.980 --> 00:08:54.059 for well over a year. Most bands drop a record, 00:08:54.220 --> 00:08:56.779 put out a video, and disappear. Right. But dead 00:08:56.779 --> 00:08:58.779 and sure -tone records ensure there was a new 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:00.620 reason to talk about them every three or four 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:02.720 months. Which extends the life cycle of the whole 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:05.399 project. Instead of being old news by August, 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:07.980 they're pushing singles the next calendar year. 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:10.580 Vital in the modern streaming era, you have to 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:13.210 constantly remind people you exist. I want to 00:09:13.210 --> 00:09:15.990 pivot to how the market actually reacted, because 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:18.389 strategy is great, but did anyone actually buy 00:09:18.389 --> 00:09:20.230 it? The charts are where the rubber meets the 00:09:20.230 --> 00:09:22.690 road. And for a debut in 2017, the numbers are 00:09:22.690 --> 00:09:25.169 genuinely impressive. Let's start with the album 00:09:25.169 --> 00:09:27.909 charts. Misanthro peaked at number three on the 00:09:27.909 --> 00:09:30.409 U .S. Heatseekers albums chart. Now, for the 00:09:30.409 --> 00:09:32.769 listener who doesn't track Billboard, what is 00:09:32.769 --> 00:09:35.820 a heatseeker? Think of the Billboard 200 as the 00:09:35.820 --> 00:09:38.539 major leagues. That's Taylor Swift, Drake, Metallica. 00:09:38.940 --> 00:09:41.240 The Heatseekers chart is the minor leagues. It 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:43.720 tracks acts that have never cracked the top 100 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:46.519 of the main chart. So it's the definitive measure 00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:49.559 of the next big thing. Precisely. Hitting number 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:51.659 three means they were effectively the bronze 00:09:51.659 --> 00:09:53.940 medalists of all new breaking artists in the 00:09:53.940 --> 00:09:57.200 U .S. that week. That shows genuine organic growth. 00:09:57.379 --> 00:09:59.460 Right. And they actually made it to number 16 00:09:59.460 --> 00:10:01.840 on the independent albums chart and number 80 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:05.139 on top album sales. Which in 2017, getting people 00:10:05.139 --> 00:10:07.460 to buy a physical album and not just stream it 00:10:07.460 --> 00:10:09.980 is a big deal. But the real driver for rock bands 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:12.740 is radio play. And this is where the singles 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:15.440 performance really shines. You're talking about 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:17.340 the active rock charts. Let's run the numbers. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:21.360 Anti -Everything peaked at number 18 on US Mainstream 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:24.340 Rock and number 20 on Active Rock. Breaking the 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:27.940 top 20 on your first real push is massive. It 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:30.299 puts you in rotation next to bands like Disturbed 00:10:30.299 --> 00:10:32.799 and Korn. That validates your festival booking 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:34.940 fees. Yeah, you're not playing the parking lot 00:10:34.940 --> 00:10:37.220 stage at noon anymore. Exactly, you're on the 00:10:37.220 --> 00:10:39.740 main stage. And they followed it up. Remember 00:10:39.740 --> 00:10:42.340 the Enemy hit number 21 on Mainstream Rock and 00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:46.210 20 on Active Rock. Hate Me hit 32. That consistency 00:10:46.210 --> 00:10:48.309 proves they weren't a one -hit wonder. Right. 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:51.070 Radio programmers saw the audience reacting to 00:10:51.070 --> 00:10:53.590 the band's overall sound, not just one catchy 00:10:53.590 --> 00:10:55.789 track. I want to shift gears and talk about the 00:10:55.789 --> 00:10:57.950 architecture of the album itself. The physical 00:10:57.950 --> 00:11:00.370 makeup of the record. The very first thing I 00:11:00.370 --> 00:11:03.370 noticed was the runtime. 37 minutes and 24 seconds. 00:11:03.690 --> 00:11:05.929 That is incredibly tight for a metal album. Just 00:11:05.929 --> 00:11:08.769 11 tracks. It is, and I think it's perfect. Listener 00:11:08.769 --> 00:11:12.110 fatigue is very real with heavy music. If you 00:11:12.110 --> 00:11:13.889 have an hour of screaming and heavy guitars, 00:11:14.090 --> 00:11:16.730 by track eight, you're exhausted. By keeping 00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:19.529 it under 40 minutes, Did ensures you listen to 00:11:19.529 --> 00:11:21.690 the whole thing. It's all killer, no filler. 00:11:21.929 --> 00:11:25.169 Get in, say your piece, get out. And the track 00:11:25.169 --> 00:11:27.470 walkthrough is fascinating. They front load it 00:11:27.470 --> 00:11:29.629 so aggressively. Oh, they put almost every single 00:11:29.629 --> 00:11:32.090 right at the top. Right. You've got architect, 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:36.129 then anti -everything, dead to me, FMFY, remember 00:11:36.129 --> 00:11:39.250 the enemy. Is that confidence or is that just 00:11:39.250 --> 00:11:42.600 adjusting to the streaming era? It's pure streaming 00:11:42.600 --> 00:11:44.919 strategy. If a listener gets bored in the first 00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:47.500 three minutes on Spotify, they click away. You 00:11:47.500 --> 00:11:49.480 can't save the best for last. You have to hit 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:51.480 them with the hooks immediately. Exactly. By 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:53.080 the time you get to the back half of the album, 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:56.360 tracks like Disassociate, Rope, Inside, I Exist, 00:11:56.460 --> 00:11:58.720 you're already hooked. And the back half gets 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:02.360 pretty dark fanically. It does. But they save 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:05.100 one surprise for the end. The final track is 00:12:05.100 --> 00:12:07.740 simply called Beautiful. Which is such an interesting 00:12:07.740 --> 00:12:10.480 juxtaposition. You have this record called Misanthrope, 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:13.620 full of angst and songs about alienation, and 00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:15.820 it ends on beautiful. It provides catharsis. 00:12:16.059 --> 00:12:18.919 After 30 -something minutes of aggression, it 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:21.860 acts as a release valve. And again, that's Feldman's 00:12:21.860 --> 00:12:24.279 production genius, building an emotional arc 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:27.759 into a heavy framework. It really is a case study 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:30.820 in adaptation. You have metalcore musicians adapting 00:12:30.820 --> 00:12:33.990 to new metal. a pop producer adapting to heavy 00:12:33.990 --> 00:12:37.909 rock, and a rollout adapting 90s nostalgia for 00:12:37.909 --> 00:12:40.789 2017. And it worked. They proved Nu Metal wasn't 00:12:40.789 --> 00:12:43.710 dead. It just needed a facelift. So as we wrap 00:12:43.710 --> 00:12:46.509 this up, what's the core takeaway for you from 00:12:46.509 --> 00:12:48.669 all these sources? For me, it's the power of 00:12:48.669 --> 00:12:51.169 the right team. You can have great songs, but 00:12:51.169 --> 00:12:53.590 without Feldman's polish and Durst's cosign, 00:12:53.769 --> 00:12:56.190 they might have stayed local. Dead understood 00:12:56.190 --> 00:12:59.490 that music at this level is a team sport. That's 00:12:59.490 --> 00:13:01.429 a great point. For me, it's the sheer efficiency 00:13:01.429 --> 00:13:04.629 of it. 37 minutes, multiple charting singles, 00:13:04.889 --> 00:13:08.049 a steady drip feed of content. It was a machine 00:13:08.049 --> 00:13:10.070 perfectly built for its moment. Absolutely. But 00:13:10.070 --> 00:13:12.090 I want to leave you, the listener, with a final 00:13:12.090 --> 00:13:15.230 thought to chew on. The album title is Misanthrope. 00:13:15.590 --> 00:13:18.289 A misanthrope is someone who actively dislikes 00:13:18.289 --> 00:13:20.990 humankind and avoids society. Right. It's the 00:13:20.990 --> 00:13:24.230 ultimate antisocial statement. Yet, this album 00:13:24.230 --> 00:13:26.740 was produced by a pop -it maker. promoted with 00:13:26.740 --> 00:13:28.899 a high -budget video directed by a celebrity 00:13:28.899 --> 00:13:31.600 and specifically engineered to reach millions 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:33.879 of people on mainstream radio. It's quite the 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:36.240 paradox. It really is. Yeah. So you have to wonder, 00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:39.779 was the anti -everything attitude a genuine reflection 00:13:39.779 --> 00:13:43.279 of the band's worldview? Or was misanthropy simply 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:45.460 the most marketable product they could sell to 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:48.940 a frustrated rock audience in 2017? Were they 00:13:48.940 --> 00:13:51.159 truly misanthropes or were they just giving you 00:13:51.159 --> 00:13:53.440 the exact soundtrack you needed to feel like 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:55.799 one? The chart data might just answer that for 00:13:55.799 --> 00:13:58.279 us. It just might. That's it for this deep dive. 00:13:58.440 --> 00:13:59.980 Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you on 00:13:59.980 --> 00:14:00.440 the next one.