Break the Cycle

Break the Cycle
Studio album by Staind
Released	May 22, 2001
Recorded	October 2000 – February 2001
Studio	NRG Studios, Los Angeles, CA, Longview Farm Studios, North Brookfield, MA, Southbeach Studios, Miami Beach, FL and Electric Lady Recording Studio, NYC, NY
Genre	Post-grunge, nu metal, alternative metal
Length	50:49
Label	Flip, Elektra
Producer	Josh Abraham
Staind chronology
Dysfunction (1999) Break the Cycle (2001) 14 Shades of Grey (2003)
Singles from Break the Cycle
"It's Been Awhile" Released: March 20, 2001 "Outside" Released: May 2001 "Fade" Released: September 4, 2001 "For You" Released: December 25, 2001[1] "Epiphany" Released: August 2002

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(55/100)[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Blender	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	C[4]
NME	(2/10)[5]
Q	[2]
Rolling Stone	[6]
Sputnikmusic	[7]
Yahoo! Music UK	[8]

Break the Cycle is the third studio album of the American rock band Staind, released through Elektra Entertainment and Flip Records in 2001. It is Staind's most successful album to date, and was the album that broke them into the mainstream. It was a huge international success for the band, as it spent 3 weeks at number 1 position in the U.S. album charts and many weeks in the top 10 album charts of The Billboard 200, the UK and New Zealand. It sold 4 million copies in 2001. The album was certified 5x platinum by the RIAA. Out of all mainstream bands in 2001, it also became the #1 best-selling U.S. rock album to be released in that year.

A total of 5 singles were released from this album, "It's Been Awhile", "Fade", "Outside", "For You" and "Epiphany", all of which did reasonably well. There were videos made for each of these songs (some of which can be found on Staind's MTV Unplugged DVD). The first four singles had varying degrees of success in the UK, "It's Been Awhile" charting the highest of the four released in both countries. The album also includes a track called "Waste" dedicated to two teenage fans who committed suicide. Like the band's previous effort "Dysfunction", Break The Cycle is a heavy and aggressive alternative metal/nu metal album. However, the album shows the band showing more on its post-grunge sound, which would play a bigger part on the band's future albums. This is evident in the album's hit "It's Been Awhile" and other songs on the album.

There is also a bonus track on the album. In the U.S., the bonus track is an acoustic version of "It's Been Awhile". However on the Australian and European editions, the bonus track is a live acoustic version of "Outside", performed with Fred Durst in Biloxi, Mississippi on the Family Values Tour 1999.

Sales

Break the Cycle debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 with first week sales of 716,003 copies. It remained at the top the following week with 329,299 copies. In the third week it was number 1 again with 244,698 copies. In the fourth week it dropped to number 2 with 221,179 copies. It sold over 1,000,000 copies in the first 3 weeks. As of June 2006, it sold 5,467,000 copies in the U.S.A. alone. Break the Cycle also topped the UK charts, where it was certified platinum, in New Zealand and in Canada, where it had the multi-platinum status. The world sales are around 8 million copies.

Reception

Initial critical response ranged from mixed to average. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 55, based on 9 reviews.^[2]

This album is a victim of the loudness war, the volume is raised on the CD resulting in audio clipping.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Aaron Lewis, all music by Staind, except where noted.

Personnel

Chart positions

Album

References