Simple Plan (album)

Simple Plan
Studio album by Simple Plan
Released	February 12, 2008 (see release dates below)
Recorded	July–September 2007 in New York, US and Montreal, Canada
Genre	Alternative rock, pop punk, pop rock
Length	43:33
Label	Lava, Atlantic
Producer	Dave Fortman Danja[1] Max Martin[1]
Simple Plan chronology
MTV Hard Rock Live (2005) Simple Plan (2008) Get Your Heart On! (2011)
Singles from Simple Plan
"When I'm Gone" Released: October 29, 2007 "Your Love Is a Lie" Released: February 28, 2008 "Take My Hand (digital single)" Released: March 17, 2008 "Save You" Released: August 14, 2008
Original cover
Rejected on December 14, 2007.

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(51/100)[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Alternative Press	[4]
The A.V. Club	D[5]
Billboard	(favorable)[6]
Blender	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	C-[7]
iAfrica	[8]
Q	[2]
Rolling Stone	[9]
Spin	(4/10)[2]

Simple Plan is the self-titled third studio album by French-Canadian pop punk band Simple Plan, released on February 12, 2008. The album was a large musical departure from the band's previous albums, as its theme was more love-based than teen angst. It reached No. 2 on the Canadian album charts, No. 14 on the US Billboard 200 and charted in the top 10 worldwide in countries including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Sweden and Switzerland.

History

Having finished most touring in support of Still Not Getting Any... in March 2006, Simple Plan took some time off and then began work on writing new material with Arnold Lanni, who had produced their first album. On July 1, 2007, they went to the studio and began tracking. They started with drum tracking in Los Angeles after pre-production, then went back to Montreal to finish the rest of the recording process. They also hired David Campbell to arrange and conduct strings for the songs "The End", "What If", "I Can Wait Forever" and "No Love". During September 2007, the band had finished recording and went back to L.A. to mix the album with Chris Lord-Alge. After mixing, the band went to New York to master the album, thus finishing the building of the album. This was announced on October 21.

The CD was originally set for release on January 29, 2008. However, on November 29, 2007, the band announced a two weeks' delay due to production difficulties, and the need to re-record some lyrics from the song "Generation". The released version of "Generation" would be considerably different from that distributed on the review copies of the CD, with the latter beginning "This world's so sad and lonely/Won't you come and spend some time with me?"^[10]

An album cover was released in early December 2007. Soon afterwards, in his MySpace blog, band frontman Pierre Bouvier responded to fan concerns about the cover, defending the artwork. However, on December 12, the band released a second proposed album cover, and invited fan views by email about each, indicating (despite Bouvier's earlier comments) that they were fine with either cover. On December 14, 2007, the alternative cover depicted above was announced as selected over the original one depicted below. In April 2008, the rejected CD was released as a limited-edition CD cover in Australia.

"Your Love Is a Lie" was first publicly performed at a taping for YouTube on December 18, 2007. All the songs on the CD, except "Holding On" were played at a small show in Montreal on January 11, 2008.

The album would also be nominated for the 2008 Juno Awards in the "Best Album" category, but lost to Nickelback's Dark Horse.

The album took more of an alternative rock sound than their previous albums, which usually feature a pop punk style. However pop punk influences are present in the tracks, "When I'm Gone", "Take My Hand", "Generation" and "Time to Say Goodbye".

Singles and notable songs

• The first single from the album was "When I'm Gone", and was released on October 29, by iTunes and lala.com. The "World Premiere" of the song was part of a webcast with band members, in which the band answered fan questions. On October 24, Simple Plan had put up a 25 second preview of "When I'm Gone" on their website. It peaked at No. 11 on the Canadian Hot 100 and No. 26 on the UK Singles Chart.

• The second single "Your Love Is a Lie" was released in February and reached No. 16 on the Canadian Hot 100 and No.8 (108) on the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.

• The third single "Save You" was released on August 14. Lead singer Pierre Bouvier has stated in interviews that the song deals with his brother's battle with cancer. To promote awareness of this issue, the music video featured many famous cancer survivors including Sharon Osbourne and Bif Naked. The song peaked at No. 18 on the Canadian Hot 100.

• Even without being released as a single, in August 2008, "I Can Wait Forever" was chosen as the title track for Animax's original feature-length anime "LaMB". Animax Asia made an animated video for "I Can Wait Forever", released in December 2008.^[11]

• The song "No Love", despite not being released as a single, entered on the Canadian Hot 100 in the issue of March 12, 2009, peaking at No. 77.^[12]

• The song "Generation" was chosen to be the goal song for the 100th season of the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL. Also, despite not being released as a single, it managed to peak at No. 90 on the Canadian Hot 100 in the issue of June 18.^[12]

Track listing

• Track listings on commercial sites refer to "explicit" and "amended" versions, on the latter of which Bouvier's use of "f**ks" in the song "Your Love Is A Lie" is amended.

Release dates

• January 31, 2008 – Argentina^[13]
• February 6, 2008 – Japan
• February 8, 2008 – Germany, Belgium, Netherlands
• February 11, 2008 – France, Portugal, South Africa
• February 12, 2008 – Canada, United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Southeast Asia
• February 13, 2008 – Finland, Sweden
• February 14, 2008 – Malaysia
• February 15, 2008 – Italy
• February 16, 2008 – Australia
• February 17, 2008 – Denmark
• February 18, 2008 – United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, India

Charts

Weekly charts

Sales

References