Life Is Peachy


Life Is Peachy is the second studio album by American nu metal band Korn. It was released on October 15, 1996 through both Immortal Records and Epic Records. After the release of Korn's 1994 self-titled debut album, the band asked Ross Robinson to produce and went back to Indigo Ranch to record. Life Is Peachy has fourteen tracks, excluding the hidden track after "Kill You". Korn released three singles from Life Is Peachy: "No Place to Hide", "A.D.I.D.A.S.", and "Good God". All three singles went on the UK Singles Chart. Life Is Peachy features such themes as drugs, social encounters, sex, and revenge. The album's cover art was designed by Martin Riedl and its name is credited to Korn's bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu.
Life Is Peachy was certified gold on January 8, 1997 and was later certified platinum on December 9, 1997. Following the success of Korn's 1994 self-titled debut album, Life Is Peachy was certified double platinum in the United States and 6.5 million copies worldwide. Life Is Peachy debuted and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and peaked at number one in New Zealand. In its first week of being released, the album sold 106,000 copies. Critical reception for the album was mainly mixed, but the album's songwriting and sound quality was praised.
Before the release of Life Is Peachy, Korn toured with many bands. Initially, Korn joined the Sick of It All Tour. Following the Sick of It All Tour, Korn joined the Danzig 4 Tour. Korn also toured with Megadeth, Fear Factory, and Flotsam and Jetsam. After the release of Life Is Peachy, Korn toured solo, and headlined and often sold-out shows. Korn also toured in the Lollapalooza summer tour.

Writing and recording

Writing for the band's second album started immediately after touring their self-titled debut. Guitarist Munky described the writing process as, "we didn't write nothin' for two years then we had creativity build up, like blue balls of creativity." Doug Small, author of The Story of Korn, said that "the band's songwriting method — a sort of collective building process wherein four instrumentalists, with the input of Jonathan Davis|Jonathan , develop each other's ideas until they've created a monster — is truly a group effort." The album's lyrics — for the most part — were primarily written by lead singer Jonathan Davis. Drummer David Silveria told Modern Drummer, "somebody will start playing something and the rest of us will work around it and see where it goes."
After playing at a few gigs with Deftones in California, United States, Korn went back to the studio to start recording Life Is Peachy in April 1996. Korn asked Ross Robinson to produce, and wanted to begin recording at Indigo Ranch, mostly because their first album had been recorded there and was a success. Authors Jason Arnopp and Doug Small, insisted the album was rushed when it was put together. Silveria explained, "We went in really fresh, and we wanted to get it done quickly to capture that moment. So it was probably about sixty percent knowing what I was going to play and forty percent just playing whatever came to mind at that moment, It ended up really good, and it has a kind of energy I probably wouldn't have gotten if I'd worked everything out beforehand." Korn's bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu said, "We wanted that same energy and inspiration we found up in the Malibu Hills."
Jonathan Davis said regarding the writing of the album "Right after we got done touring with Ozzy Osbourne, Ross hooked up with us. We went into a rehearsal studio and started writing. It was faster and thrashier. It was us reacting the vibe that we had to hurry up and get this done. We thought, "Let's do something great, but let's not take a year on it." James "Munky" Shaffer elaborated "Some of the songs and riffs from the first record had been lingering around for years. When it was time to write Life Is Peachy, we went back into the rehearsal studio and we wanted to take the elements that the fans liked and we liked about Korn and elaborate on some of those like Jonathan freaking out. "Twist" came to life. There was that dissonant guitar playing. There was more of a punk rock feel and attitude that the band had. I think a lot of that came from touring so much and the energy of the crowds. We wanted to create a really angry album."

Booklet

Korn's bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu came up with the title Life Is Peachy. The name came from Fieldy's Pee Chee folder. Fieldy often wrote the words "Life Is" in front of the brand name, which he found amusing. Fieldy said, "I used to doodle all over it . I drew long hair on the character and put guitars in their hands. I used to sketch stuff all the time. I eventually knew my scribbles might someday pay off. I thought that visual would make a really cool album cover." Korn contacted the Pee Chee file folder company and asked for permission to use the file folder's image for an album cover, offering twenty thousand dollars, resulting in the company turning the offer down. The name Life Is Peachy was agreed by band members to be a "great" name for the album, and kept the name but didn't add Fieldy's file folder cover.
The front cover of Life Is Peachy depicts a boy looking in the mirror, seeing a much larger person behind him. The photo was taken by Martin Riedl. The design and concept were by Scott Leberacht. Other pictures in the booklet were taken by Stephen Stickler. Doug Small said that it "continued the threatened child theme as depicted on Korn's artwork." The cover is mostly black and white, with a little boy, hair combed, straightening his tie in a gilt mirror; behind him looms a larger, shadowed presence." Life Is Peachy is, to date, the only album by Korn to feature their name spelled in a different font.
The booklet, along with every other album by Korn, does not feature printed lyrics to the songs. The band has explained that the reason the booklets do not feature this is because Davis believes fans should not rely on printed lyrics because it limits the experience in listening to the music. As Davis told MTV's Serena Altschul, "I think music is something that every individual has their own meaning to the song. They can come up with whatever the hell I'm saying and that's the beauty of it and that's what I wanna keep there."

Touring and promotion

Korn resumed intensive touring immediately after recording sessions for Life is Peachy ended. The band released a promotional disc in 1997 called Life Is Peachy Tour Sampler, with Incubus and The Urge, as both bands supported Korn on their headlining European tour in early 1997. The album featured 3 tracks, "Chi" by Korn, "All Washed Up" by The Urge, and "Hilikus" by Incubus. The promo was released after Life Is Peachy, and lasts for twelve minutes and seventeen seconds. Korn toured solo in 1997, and headlined at often sold-out shows. Helmet and Limp Bizkit also toured with Korn to promote Life Is Peachy in 1997.
In mid-1997, Korn played in the Lollapalooza summer tour with Tool, Snoop Dogg, Jane's Addiction, The Prodigy, and others. Korn secured the Lollapalooza slot at the beginning of the year. During the prior year's Lollapalooza, there was controversy over the inclusion of marquee, big name artists such as Metallica and Soundgarden, which founder Perry Farrell considered a "bastardization" of Lollapalooza, leading him to walk out on the tour. Davis said "Last year... wasn't like a real Lollapalooza vibe. Because it seems to me that Lollapalooza's been about cutting-edge bands, ones on the underground, and that's what I think he based that whole thing on and last year really just wasn't all about that. And this year, now that he's back on, you can tell, there's so many different, diverse music groups here."
On July 18, not even a month into the tour, the group was forced to cancel the remainder of their Lollapalooza appearances due to guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer recent diagnosis with viral meningitis. Jonathan Davis issued a written statement about Shaffer's illness saying, "We love our fans. This is the last thing we want to do, but it's the only decision to make at this time. It just doesn't feel right without ." The statement also acknowledged fans that "there is no suitable replacement for during his recuperation."
Aside from touring, Korn also released three singles following the album's release. "No Place to Hide" was the album's first single. The single features "Proud", a song that would later be included on the soundtrack for I Know What You Did Last Summer. Other versions include both original and remixed versions of songs featured on Korn. The song "A.D.I.D.A.S." was released as a single on March 4, 1997. The song's music video was directed by Joseph Kahn in Los Angeles during January 1997. Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu said that "It was one of the hardest videos we ever made because we all had to lie still on cold metal slabs for hours, pretending to be dead. We wore dirty blue contacts in our eyes that made us partially blind while they were in."

Tour dates

Most of these entries came from setlist.fm.

Early Life is Peachy shows

European Tour 1996

Life is Peachy Tour '96

Metallica's Poor Touring Me

European Tour (Leg I)

North American Tour

Australia/New Zealand Dates

European Tour (Leg II)

Lollapalooza

Music and lyrical themes

Life Is Peachy opens with the forty-nine second prelude "Twist", which is made up of improvised scat singing done by Davis. Doug Small described the singing as "spitting out the twisted rantings of a madman", and said that it was fit for the album's introduction. An a cappella version of "Twist" is included as a hidden track after "Kill You". "Chi" is named after former Deftones bassist Chi Cheng. Davis said that the song "Chi" is "about a lot of alcohol and drug abuse". The song was named after Cheng for the sole reason that Cheng liked reggae and had taken it into his head that the song "Chi" was actually a reggae song. "Swallow" is about drug-induced paranoia. "Mr. Rogers" is about Fred Rogers. Davis said: "As a kid, he told me to be polite, and all it did was get me picked on. I fucking hate that man. Thanks for making me polite and trusting everyone, and easy to take advantage of." "K@#Ø%!" is about women who have hurt Davis. The song is noted for its heavy use of vulgarisms throughout all the lyrics, because of this Munky said that band had intended to jokingly submit it to rock radio stations as a joke because they "knew they wouldn't play it, then follow up about a week later with the real thing". "A.D.I.D.A.S." is an Acronym for "All Day I Dream About Sex". Davis explained the background behind "Good God": "Ass Itch" is about Davis' difficulty with songwriting. "Kill You" is about Davis' ex-stepmother. Davis explained:
Considered nu metal, the album features a more prominent hip hop influence than the band's self-titled debut, with James "Munky" Shaffer recalling "We were listening to a lot of hip hop, I was probably listening to a lot of Mr. Bungle, hip hop like early Outkast and The Pharcyde, Sepultura records, and Rage Against the Machine, just to name a few."

Critical reception

Life Is Peachy received mainly mixed reviews from critics. Q Magazine said the album is "Harsher and harder than their groundbreaking debut." AllMusic wrote: "Korn add enough elements of alternative rock song structure to make the music accessible to the masses, and their songwriting has continued to improve." iTunes commented that "Regardless of the musical textures, Life Is Peachy is unified in its focus." Entertainment Weekly said that the album left the "impression that frontman Jonathan Davis is turning his well-publicized childhood traumas into a cheap marketing device". They gave it a C- and said that it "may be of interest to mental-health professionals." Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote: "Korn has learned more than a few tricks from Nine Inch Nails, and it's not above using invective for simple shock value. But the chip on its shoulder sounds genuine." Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club panned Life is Peachy, calling the album "nothing but plain old, ham-fisted, butt-stupid heavy metal". Adrian Bromley of Chronicles of Chaos wrote that he was "impressed with the strength and sound quality" Korn "has been able to magnify with 'Life Is Peachy'".
In 2000 it was voted number 869 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.

Commercial performance

"No Place to Hide" earned the band a second Grammy nomination in the Best Metal Performance category in 1998. The single peaked at number twenty-six on the UK Singles Chart. The album's second single, "A.D.I.D.A.S.", peaked at number twenty-two on the UK Singles Chart, while also making an appearance at number forty-five in Australia. In April 1997, "A.D.I.D.A.S." went to number 13 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. "Good God", the album's third and final single, peaked at number twenty-five on UK Singles Chart, and number eighty-one on the ARIA Charts. The album peaked at number one in New Zealand. The album also peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, and number thirty-two on the UK Albums Chart. Life is Peachy sold 106,000 copies in its first week of being released. Released on October 15, 1996, Life is Peachy was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on January 8, 1997. On December 9, 1997, the album was certified platinum by the RIAA. On November 10, 1999, Life is Peachy was certified 2× platinum.

Track listing

Chart positions

;Album
Chart Peak
position
Billboard 2003
Australian Albums Chart26
Austrian Albums Chart21
Belgian Albums Chart 36
Belgian Albums Chart 25
Canadian Albums Chart32
Finland Albums Chart24
German Albums Chart85
Dutch Albums Chart87
New Zealand Charts1
Norwegian Albums Chart24
Swedish Albums Chart36
UK Albums Chart32

;Singles
YearSong---
YearSongAUS
UK
US
1996"No Place to Hide"—26—
1997"A.D.I.D.A.S."4522—
1997"Good God"8125—

Personnel

Credits taken from the CD liner notes.
Korn
Technical