Decemberunderground


Decemberunderground is the seventh studio album by American rock band AFI. The album was released on June 6, 2006, through Interscope Records. The album was supported by three singles, "Miss Murder", "Love Like Winter" and "The Missing Frame".

Recording

Recording took place at Conway Recording Studios and Sage & Sound Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California. Sessions were produced by Jerry Finn with Joe McGrath handling recording. They were assisted by engineers Seth Waldmann, Jason Gossman, Kevin Mills, Eric Weaver, Dimitar Krnjaic and Keith Armstrong. In addition to Puget's programming and keyboards, Ronan Harris of VNV Nation and Dave McCracken contributed additional programming and keyboards. Finn and Chris Lord-Alge mixed the recordings at Conway Studios and Resonate Music. Ted Jensen mastered the recordings at Sterling Sound in New York City.

Music

Usually described as an alternative rock, emo and post-hardcore album, Decemberunderground contains a variety of genre elements in the various songs, including EDM, new wave, gothic rock, hardcore punk, synthwave and synthpop. Ed Thompson of IGN compared the album to bands such as U2, the Cure, the Smiths, Depeche Mode and Alphaville. Alternative Press compared the album to 1980s synthwave music.
Regarding the album's title, lead singer Davey Havok said, "Decemberunderground is a time and a place. It is where the cold can huddle together in darkness and isolation."
The album's title is derived from a lyric in the song "The Interview".

Release

The album's lead single "Miss Murder" was given a thirty-second preview on LIVE 105 on April 11, 2006, and due to an overwhelming response, Interscope Records gave the station permission to play the entire track. "Miss Murder" was released to radio on April 25. The full track listing of the album was announced on the same day. Decemberunderground was released on May 29 in the United Kingdom, June 6 in the United States, and June 16 in Mexico. Customers who pre-ordered the album at special pre-listening events received a CD of the "Miss Murder" single, which also contained a cover of INXS's song "Don't Change". The first pressing of the CD in the United States contained a limited edition insert with one of four band member portraits. "Love Like Winter" was released to radio on September 26. The album was re-released on November 7, 2006, on 6 "icy clear" 7" vinyl. The individual record sleeves featured band member portraits, as well as a portrait of the band's manager Smith Puget.
In March 2007, the band went on a brief west coast tour of the U.S.
AFI held their last concert in promotion of the album at Download Fest in October 2007. Havok and Puget then began to promote their side-project Blaqk Audio before beginning work on the eighth AFI album, Crash Love.

Reception

Commercial performance

It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 182,000 copies in its first week of being released. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on August 30, 2006 and has sold at least 993,000 copies in the United States as of September 2009. The album was eligible for platinum certification in 2007 and received it from RIAA in 2013.

Critical response

Decemberunderground received generally positive reviews. The review aggregator Metacritic awarded the album a 72 out of 100, based on 15 reviews.
Entertainment Weekly awarded the album a grade of B+, and called it a further development of the band's earlier shift to "an eerie, metal-edged Cure sound", with Decemberunderground representing "the most melodically acute distillation of that style yet," unlike their previous studio album Sing the Sorrow, which they awarded a D. AllMusic awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars, saying the band's "ever-evolving goth-punk" sound is present on Decemberunderground in a "tighter and lighter" form, showing that the "core of AFI's sound never strays too far from what listeners have grown to love about them in the first place."
Rolling Stone awarded the album 3 out of 5 stars, one less star than their review of Sing the Sorrow, and claimed that "something isn't right in the world of AFI," because of their pop-rock musical structure "that would be at home on the soundtrack to the next Spider-Man movie".

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for Decemberunderground adapted from the album liner notes.
AFI
Additional musicians
Production
All tracks recorded during the Decemberunderground sessions unless otherwise noted.

Certifications