Who We Are is the fourth album by American rock band Lifehouse, which was released on June 19, 2007.
On April 24, 2007, the band released the first single "First Time" to radio stations for airplay. Initially, the song played as an hourly feature on Star 98.7 in Los Angeles for that day. Then the song was later released to all radio stations.
During the recording sessions for Who We Are, the band recorded several B-sides, such as "Keep the Change", "If This Is Goodbye", "Signs of Life", and "I Want You to Know". Most of these have appeared on various special edition, collector's edition, or international releases as bonus tracks. "If This Is Goodbye" received a proper release on the soundtrack to the motion picture Bratz. Another B-side, "High Away from You", was rumored to be included on the soundtrack to The Simpsons Movie, but these rumors were later identified to be untrue.
"Broken", the album's third single, appeared on the episode "Lay Your Hands on Me" of Grey's Anatomy, "In Birth and Death" of Criminal Minds and in "For Tonight You're Only Here to Know" of One Tree Hill. "Broken" also appeared on the Thanksgiving episode of General Hospital, in the 2009 Apple Movie Trailer "The Time Traveler's Wife", during a montage of Thanksgiving celebrations in Port Charles and during the final goodbye of lovers Nikolas Cassadine and Emily Quartermaine. This song has peaked at #83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The official radio version of the song is available on iTunes.[1]
Following its release, Who We Are debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 14, selling approximately 49,000 copies in its first week.[2] As of December 13, 2008, the album has sold 526,724 copies in the US.[3] Who We Are has been certified Gold by the RIAA on October 22, 2008.[4] It has sold over three million copies worldwide to date.
The album has so far featured two top 40 hits with "First Time" and "Whatever It Takes." This is the band's first album to contain two top 40 hits and their first to have all three singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
Lifehouse held a contest to make a video for the song "Make Me Over".[5] The band gave 60 USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate students a chance to shoot the video. The music video has been made and it premiered at a gala event on December 5, 2008 at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA.[6]
There is a re-release of the album available in stores that contains two discs. The first disc contains all of the songs on the track listing of Who We Are. The second disc contains live versions of First Time, Hanging by a Moment, You and Me, From Where You Are, and Whatever It Takes. [7]
Track listing
| No |
Song Title |
Songwriting Credits |
Time |
| 1 |
"Disarray" |
Jason Wade |
3:45 |
| 2 |
"First Time" |
Jude Cole, Wade |
3:23 |
| 3 |
"Whatever It Takes" |
Cole, Wade |
3:27 |
| 4 |
"Who We Are" |
Cole, Wade |
3:27 |
| 5 |
"Broken" |
Wade |
4:46 |
| 6 |
"The Joke" |
Cole, Wade, Rick Woolstenhulme |
3:56 |
| 7 |
"Easier to Be" |
Cole, Wade |
3:31 |
| 8 |
"Make Me Over" |
Cole, Wade |
3:57 |
| 9 |
"Mesmerized" |
Cole, Wade |
3:13 |
| 10 |
"Bridges" |
Wade |
4:02 |
| 11 |
"Learn You Inside Out" |
Wade |
4:25 |
| 12 |
"Storm" |
Wade |
4:25 |
B-sides
The following songs were recorded during the sessions for Who We Are and appear on various limited-edition releases of the album:
- "I'll Keep the Change" - 4:18
- "I Want You to Know" - 3:25
- "Signs of Life" - 5:21
- "If This Is Goodbye" - 2:55
Album title
Notably, the title "Who We Are" is very similar to Christian rock group Jars of Clay's sixth album Who We Are Instead, which Ron Aniello (who notably, had previously worked with Lifehouse) co-produced.
The words "Who We Are" are the last three words of the previous release, Lifehouse, which was released back in 2005. The line reads "These times when the world falls apart/Make us who we are" from the song "The End Has Only Begun". This was used to illustrate the fact that the self-titled album shows the occurrences and happenings in the world around us and that Who We Are indicates how either society, a person, or a band is affected by these things.
Performance credits
- Jason Wade - guitar, piano, vocals
- Rick Woolstenhulme - drums, percussion
- Bryce Soderberg - bass, background vocals
- Daphne Chen - violin
- Jude Cole - guitar, piano, keyboards, background vocals
- Rocco Deluca - organ
- Richard Dodd - cello
- Mark Goldenberg - guitar
- Eric Gorfain - violin
- Leah Katz - viola
- Pat Leonard - keyboards
- Stephen Lu - conductor, string arrangements
Technical credits
- Florian Ammon - engineering, mixing
- Keith Armstrong - mixing assistant
- Jude Cole - producer
- Scott Faircloff - engineering, vocal producer
- John Fields - producer
- Kunio Hagio - pantings
- Tina Hagio - design
- Ross Hogarth - engineering
- Ted Jensen - mastering
- Erik Johnson - design
- Jenn Johnson - vocal coordination
- Pamela Littky - photography
- Chris Lord-Alge - mixing
- Tim McCloy - assistant
- Dean Nelson - mixing assistant
- Thom Panunzio - mixing, A&R
- Evan Peters - A&R
- Jack Joseph Puig - mixing
- Jeff Rothschild - mixing
- Will Sandalls - engineer
- Mark Somgynari - assistant
- German Villacorta - assistant
Notes
