Burn Burn is the seventh studio album by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace, released in North America on July 21, 2009. The album's title is based on a quote by Jack Kerouac from his 1957 novel On the Road. The album, recorded at vocalist Raine Maida's home studio in Los Angeles between 2007 and 2009, was released independent of any major label under the band's longtime management company Coalition Entertainment. Sony Music distributed the album in Canada, and WMG's Independent Label Group did so in the United States. Burn Burn is Our Lady Peace's first album not to have involved collaboration with an outside producer, having instead been produced by band vocalist Raine Maida. The album's release marked the longest gap between Our Lady Peace studio albums to date, with their previous album, Healthy in Paranoid Times, having been released in August 2005. At 38 minutes, Burn Burn was the band's shortest album until the release of Somethingness in 2018.
Album history
Production on Burn Burn began in February 2007, several months before the release of bandleader Raine Maida's solo albumThe Hunter's Lullaby. According to Maida, Burn Burn is a "proper rock album"—featuring a return to the raw originality of the band's first album Naveed, though a "little more mature". Maida produced the album himself, noting how he was excited to "not have anybody intrude on sessions". The band had previously worked with producer Bob Rock for their two preceding albums, as well as Arnold Lanni for their first four albums. Having been defunct since 2007, the official Our Lady Peace fansite was relaunched on March 11, 2009 in anticipation of Burn Burn. The album's original cover was revealed with the relaunch, and on May 1 was officially changed to portray a darker and more simplistic tone than the original. Burn Burn finished production in early March 2009, and the first single "All You Did Was Save My Life" was released on May 25. The album, as well as a deluxe edition entitled Burn Burn Burn, was released in North America on July 21, 2009. Burn Burn debuted at #3 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling over 11,000 copies in its first week.
Critical reception
Burn Burn received generally favourable reviews, with PopMatters calling it "their most intimate, immediate album to date". Allmusic compared the album's sound to latter-day Goo-Goo Dolls and 1980s U2, but also noted that the album "remain deficient in hooks and melodies", and that the music "simmered" instead of having "boiled with indignation" as it did in the band's previous albums. Billboard praised the seventh track "Never Get Over You" as a "killer ballad", but ultimately criticized the album for being too "ballad-heavy" and "one dimensional".Burn Burn doesn't particularly sound like anything Our Lady Peace has done in the past, according to Sputnikmusic, but "maybe that is what is so exciting about ".
Charts
Songs
The album contains 10 tracks of the 16 that were composed—and is approximately 38 minutes in length. Lyrics were mostly written by Raine Maida, and the first track was co-written by Maida and former The Nixons vocalist Zac Maloy. The official track listing for Burn Burn was released in May 2009, but was altered in early June to replace the track "The Right Stuff" with "The End is Where We Begin". Sequencing of remaining tracks was also affected by the change. A Deluxe Edition of the album was also released, retitled Burn Burn Burn, with bonus tracks "The Right Stuff" and "Time Bomb" included, as well as a bonus DVD with studio performance footage and music videos for All You Did Was Save My Life and bonus trackThe Right Stuff.
Single chronology
In April 2009, the music video for Burn Burns first single, "All You Did Was Save My Life", was filmed in an undisclosed wooded area near Ancaster, Canada. The video features Canadian actress Shenae Grimes, of ' and 90210 fame; and model Ronnie Flynn of Courtice, ON. The video was leaked prematurely to Canadian viewers through MSN's website on May 22, and was officially unveiled on the May 25 episode of MuchMusic's Much On Demand. The audio track was released to radio stations and iTunes on May 25 in Canada, and was released on June 9 in the United States.
Burn Burn's second single, "The End is Where We Begin,''" was officially released on September 14 in Canada.
"Dreamland" was released as the band's third single on May 23, 2010, almost exactly one year since the release of the first single, "All You Did Was Save My Life". The song reached #6 on Canada's Active Rock charts.
