Use your brain
| Use your brain | ||||
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| Clawfinger studio album | ||||
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Publication |
March 23, 1995 |
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| Label (s) | WEA Records | |||
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
44 min 30 s |
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| occupation |
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Jacob Hellner & Clawfinger |
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Studio (s) |
Decibel Studios, Stockholm |
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Use Your Brain is the second studio album by the Swedish crossover band Clawfinger . It was released on March 23, 1995 via WEA Records .
Emergence
The band gathered their first ideas for the second studio album during the tour for their debut album Deaf Dumb Blind in the tour bus. Even if, according to guitarist Bård Torstensen, the band had a lot of equipment for recording and arranging, it was hardly used. After the tour ended, twelve songs were written in less than two months, all of which were used on the album.
Like the debut album, Use Your Brain was recorded at Decibel Studios in Stockholm . The work was produced by Jacob Hellner and the band. The album was mixed by Stefan Glaumanm, while Björn Engelman did the mastering . Guest musicians include Ricard Netterman as percussionist and Sleepy as scratcher . The brothers Cederic and Sebastian St. Just can be heard on the song Do What I Say . For the songs Pin Me Down , Do What I Say and Tomorrow were music videos rotated. The album was re-released in 2004 with the bonus tracks Better than This , Three Good Riffs and Armageddon Down .
background
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In contrast to the debut album, the lyrics are "harder". According to the singer Zak Tell, the “social conditions had gotten worse, which would be reflected in art and music [sic!]”. The song Die High was written by singer Zak Tell after a concert where Clawfinger played in the opening act for Pantera . At the beginning of Pantera's performance, a large marijuana leaf was projected onto a wall before their singer Phil Anselmo asked viewers to smoke marijuana and not use condoms during sex.
“Of course, twelve-year-olds think that's cool. All the bands that talk about legalizing drugs have a blast. I don't believe in legalizing drugs, not in a society like ours. This does not solve the problems. "
Do What I Say is about the conflicts between parents and their children. In order to achieve the necessary anger for the children's voices in the chorus, the musicians told the brothers Cederic and Sebastian St. John that they had sold their Game Boys . For the song Wipe My Ass , singer Zak Tell plunged into the depths of his puberty. According to Jocke Skog, the text was "so stupid that the record company originally didn't want to publish it".
The song What Are You Afraid Of , on the other hand, is a pure joke song. According to the guitarist Bård Torstensen, "it would be fun to sing along and bang until your tongue hangs on the floor".
reception
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Reviews
For Markus Kavka from the German magazine Metal Hammer , Use Your Brain would raise the bar in the field of qualified crossover. The album would be “the consistent, even tighter continuation of the already almost flawless debut”. Kavka awarded seven out of seven points because of the “smart texts and cool samples and scratches”. Martin Davey from the online magazine Metal Music Archives lacks the "youthful exuberance" on Use Your Brain . “A few moments of sheer ingenuity” are stifled by an “abundance of filler titles”. The good songs, however, would be "good reasons to give the album a chance". Davey awarded three out of five points.
Chart placements
Use Your Brain reached number six in the Swiss, number seven in the Swedish, number eight in the German and number nine in the Austrian album charts. In the United Kingdom , the album was at number 80, which meant first place in the local album charts. Clawfinger thus establish the highest chart positions in the band's history in Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. The single Pin Me Down was number 28 in the Swedish and number 87 in the British single charts.
success
According to an article in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on the occasion of a Clawfinger concert on December 15, 2017 in Papenburg , Use Your Brain has sold over 250,000 times in Germany alone. For this the band should have received a gold record , which the band has not yet been awarded.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Hanno Kress: Dance music and exorcism . In: Rock Hard , April 1995, p. 30
- ↑ Markus Kavka : Pretty fucking close to OK In: Metal Hammer , April 1995, page 12
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK SE
- ^ Markus Kavka: Clawfinger: Use Your Brain . In: Metal Hammer, April 1995, p. 55
- ^ Martin Davey: Clawfinger: Use Your Brain. Metal Music Archives, accessed September 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Mirco Moormann and Christoph Assies: 1990s cult band "Clawfinger" comes to Papenburg. Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , accessed on September 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Clawfinger. Federal Association of the Music Industry , accessed on September 14, 2018 .
Web links
- Use Your Brain at Allmusic (English)