in a 2012 interview, The Used bassist Jeph Howard said that "A Box Full of Sharp Objects" is probably his favorite song by the band.
A few years ago, while preparing to send the album art for b-side collection Shallow Believer to his record label, Bert McCracken scrawled the word “Artwork” across its cover in silver ink. The sentiment, which, to Bert and his bandmates in The Used, resonated with both extreme simplicity and indescribable complexity, said everything without really having to say anything. Now, the Utah band has titled their fourth full-length album with that very word: Artwork.
The group started writing the album after finishing the Taste of Chaos International tour in 2007, slowly collecting and jamming out ideas with no concrete intention beyond making the songs as dirty as possible. The Used, whose last album, 2007’s Lies For the Liars, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Top 200, spent the first half of 2008 in LA exploring and refining these ideas, eventually piecing tangential riffs and melodies into a scattering of songs that contained a surprisingly cohesive sensibility. The band members dubbed the music they were writing “gross pop,” their own new genre of hook-laden numbers that pushed the boundaries of the grotesque. Tracking for the album began in June of 2008 with producer Matt Squire and eventually concluded in February of 2009, primarily at LA studios The Lair and NRG. Between a few sporadic tours, the band spent about three months total recording with Squire where they allowed their creativity to dictate when they worked on something.
“I wouldn’t say it was hard to make any of the record but it definitely was time consuming,” Bert says. “We worked on our time table. The band allowed me to create when I was able to create, which was a good thing. I didn’t feel pressure to force things. There was no specific time I had to do anything. If we were in the studio and I’d been working on lyrics for five hours and nothing came out, we would just try again tomorrow.”
In the studio Squire approached the recording process with a laid-back attitude the band both appreciated and needed. The decision to work with a new producer after establishing a longtime relationship with producer John Feldman, who was at the helm of the band’s past three albums (Lies For the Liars, as well as 2004’s In Love and Death and 2002’s The Used, both of which were certified gold), was derived from a simple desire for change. The Used wanted to see what would happen if they entered the studio with someone different, a process guitarist Quinn Allman compares to “breaking up with your girlfriend not because you don’t love her but because you need to try something new.”
“It wasn’t that we absolutely didn’t want to work with Feldman or that we absolutely wanted to work with Squire,” Bert explains. “It was more that the band needed a change. We wanted to try something different and have it sound a lot different. It took a few weeks for us to get a vibe for each, but once we got used to it, it was really easy. Squire brought in this willingness to try anything and an open mind and a good attitude. I feel like he was really in touch with what the band wanted to do and he was really supportive of our ideas.”
The result is a raw collection of twelve songs that not so delicately teeter the line between being aggressively discordant and charmingly hooky. The first single “Blood On My Hands,” which Quinn describes as the song that “sums up everything about The Used,” is confined chaos, brutally thrashing one moment and proffering a pop-driven, sing-along chorus the next. “Empty With You,” a track Bert says is “about feeling empty and lonely but as long as you have someone who can feel lonely with you then everything’s okay,” surges with passion and gripping honesty, while “Cut Yourself” balances the album’s predilection for propulsive rage with its quieter, piano-driven exploration of what it means to have someone to lean on.
“This record is more sincere,” Quinn says. “It’s got a sound more reminiscent of the first record. Lyrically, it completely engulfs you and makes you feel safe but it’s all about feeling alone and empty and knowing there’s always a light. If you’re frustrated that much it means you care that much. The lyrics carry you through the record and you’re right with Bert and where he’s at. The music isn’t showing off. It’s just being what it is. I think the fans will appreciate all that.”
“This record is about coming together,” Bert adds. “Whether it’s through positivity or negativity, it’s about coming together through anything.”
Artwork encapsulates the past eight years of a band that’s played tours and festivals like Warped Tour, Ozzfest, Projek Revolution, Give It a Name, Reading and Leeds and SxSW, and sold over two million albums in the States alone, while simultaneously urging them forward. It’s a collaborative effort that drew The Used closer together during its creation. It’s about love and mortality and the basic human emotions we all experience every day. It’s biting and gritty, and it’s melodic and catchy. It’s a new chapter for a band that’s constantly sought to redefine the bounds of pop music—and have always successfully done so. It’s a reminder, as Bert says, “we’re all artists creating our own art just by living it.”
“I Come Alive” is the first single from The Used's fifth album, Vulnerable. It is the first release on the band's own label, Anger Music Group, an imprint of Hopeless Records. The song was released on January 17, 2012. (I Come Alive Songfacts).
Hard to Say
The Used Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The singer sheds a tear
Fear of falling out
And It's hard to say how I feel today
For years gone by
And I cried
It's hard to say that I miss you
Since you've been gone it's not the same
My worries weigh the world
How I used to be and everything
(I'm so cold)
Seems a plague in me
And its hard to say how I feel today
For years gone by
And I cried
It's hard to say that I was wrong
It's hard to say I miss you
Since you've been gone its not the same
Its hard to say I held my tongue
It's hard to say if only
Since you've been gone it's not the same
Worse than a lie you told a thousand times before
Worse than a fear it's the knife
And its hard to say how I feel today for years gone by and I cried
Its hard to say that I was wrong
It's hard to say I miss you
Since you've been gone it's not the same
It's hard to say I held my tongue
It's hard to say if only
Since you've been gone its not the same.
The song "Hard to Say" by The Used portrays the aftermath of a painful breakup. The song begins with a description of how the singer sees the girl he once loved, walking out after their final song. As he sings, he sheds a tear and fears that he will fall apart. Then the chorus kicks in, and the singer conveys how difficult it is to express his feelings, even though he has cried for years since the breakup. He repeatedly emphasizes the difficulty of admitting that he was wrong, misses his significant other, and held his tongue. It becomes clear that he regrets what he had done that caused the relationship to end.
In the second verse, the singer talks about how the pain has affected him. He feels weighed down by his worries and mourns the loss of how he used to be. The line "I'm so cold" implies that he is feeling empty and numb because of his grief, and he seems to be struggling to overcome his sadness. In the final part of the song, the singer points out that the pain of the breakup is worse than any lie that his ex-partner may have told him before. He is left with a sharp sense of loss and heartache.
Overall, "Hard to Say" is a raw and emotional song that showcases the difficulty of dealing with heartbreak. It portrays the complexity of the situation, the feelings of guilt, regret, and sorrow that may linger on long after the event.
Line by Line Meaning
The singer finished singing and she's walking out
The performance ended and the singer is leaving the stage
The singer sheds a tear
The singer is crying
Fear of falling out
A fear of losing someone/ being abandoned
And It's hard to say how I feel today
I'm having trouble expressing my emotions
For years gone by
It has been a long time
And I cried
I am feeling sad
It's hard to say that I was wrong
Admitting fault is difficult
It's hard to say that I miss you
Expressing feelings of nostalgia is challenging
Since you've been gone it's not the same
Things have changed in your absence
My worries weigh the world
My anxieties are overwhelming
How I used to be and everything
Reflecting on the past and all that has changed
(I'm so cold)
I am feeling emotionally distant
Seems a plague in me
My negative feelings are consuming me
It's hard to say I held my tongue
Keeping quiet about something is challenging
It's hard to say if only
Thinking about what could have been is difficult
Worse than a lie you told a thousand times before
Something hurts more than being lied to repeatedly
Worse than a fear it's the knife
Something is more painful than being afraid
Lyrics © THE BEST MUSIC COMPANY, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: QUINN ALLMAN, JEPH HOWARD, ROBERT MCCRACKEN, BRANDEN STEINECKERT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind