''Bittersweet'' is the first studio album by Life On Planet 9, the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

used by American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band

Lo-Pro Lo-Pro is an American rock band formed in 2002 by Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey after the disbandment of their previous band, Ultraspank, in 2001. After attracting the attention of Aaron Lewis of Staind, the band signed to a major record label, ...

when releasing music of a more experimental nature.http://ampkicker.com/2012/01/life-on-planet-9/ The album was released on August 20, 2011. The album's origins trace back as far as 2007, when Lo-Pro participated in an acoustic tour with

Staind Staind ( ) is an American rock band from Springfield, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The original lineup consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Aaron Lewis, lead guitarist Mike Mushok, bassist and backing vocalist Johnny April, and dr ...

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Aaron Lewis Aaron Lewis (born April 13, 1972) is an American musician who is best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and founding member of the nu metal band Staind, with whom he released seven studio albums. Since 2010, he has pursued a solo ca ...

. Tracks started as

acoustic rock Acoustic music is music that solely or primarily uses instruments that produce sound through acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means. While all music was once acoustic, the retronym "acoustic music" appeared after the adven ...

material, but as they developed, they gained further ambient and electronic elements. The sound strayed so far from their original hard rock sound that they decided to release it under another name.

Writing and recording

formed after members Pete Murray and

Neil Godfrey Lo-Pro is an American rock band formed in 2002 by Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey after the disbandment of their previous band, Ultraspank, in 2001. After attracting the attention of Aaron Lewis of Staind, the band signed to a major record label, ...

started making music together after the breakup of their prior band,

Ultraspank Ultraspank was an American metal band from Santa Barbara, California, United States. They released two albums, a self-titled album in 1998, and a follow-up, ''Progress'', in 2000. The band disbanded shortly after the release of ''Progress'' in 20 ...

. Under the Lo-Pro name, they started recording demo material, which attracted the attention of

frontman

, who was able to get them signed to

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

. However, after the release of their first album, ''

'' in 2003, and recording a short 3 track acoustic CD for exclusive release on

Napster Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Shawn ...

, they were dropped from the label in 2004. The band would stay together, but the band would be relatively quiet for a number of years. In 2007, the band began to focus on a more acoustic-driven songs. Upon Aaron Lewis wrapping up touring in support Staind's ''

Chapter V Chapter five refers to a fifth chapter, but the term may also refer to: Albums * Chapter 5: Letter, a 2002 album by g.o.d. * Chapter 5: Underrated, a Syleena Johnson album, 2011 * ''Chapter V'' (Staind album), 2005 * ''Chapter V'' (Trey Songz albu ...

'' album, Lo-Pro joined him for a short acoustic tour. The band debuted a number of songs in acoustic form, including "Letting Go", "Hang On", "Today", and "All I Have". Additionally, the band started another Myspace page up under the name of "Lo-Pro Acoustic", and streamed several new acoustic studio tracks, including "Clean the Slate", the otherwise unreleased "This is Not Goodbye", and a cover of

Filter Filter, filtering or filters may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream * Filter (video), a software component tha ...

's song " Consider This".Lo-Pro Acoustic Myspace
/ref> In early 2008, Murray announced that the band had been working on recording a full-fledged acoustic album, and intended to release it in early 2008. However, at this point, the band had been out of the public eye for a number of years, and felt their comeback album should be closer to their original sound.Markunas, Jim:
Lo-Pro - Interview with Pete Murray
" ''CWG Magazine.com.'' Apr 16, 2010. As such, they decided to proceed with another electric album, delaying the release of the acoustic album. Unfortunately, the band would be unhappy with the end product of the electric album, feeling it sounded more like a polished demo, prompting them to have further recording sessions through 2008 and 2009 with

Angus Cooke The Ataris are an American punk rock band from Anderson, Indiana. Formed in 1996, they released five studio albums between 1997 and 2007. Their best-selling album is ''So Long, Astoria'' (2003), which was certified gold. Their high-charting s ...

, pushing the acoustic album even farther out. Upon the release of their second studio album, ''

The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge ''The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge'' is the second full-album by Lo-Pro, originally scheduled to be released was May 25, 2010, but was delayed to June 8, 2010,ambient and

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

directions as well. As such, the band decided to record it under a new name, called Life On Planet 9, a name very similar to Lo-Pro, but Murray confirmed it to be what the "Lo-Pro acoustic album" evolved into, and that it was recorded entirely by Lo-Pro members; Pete Murray, Pete Ricci, and Neil Godfrey. The track "Wheels" was actually demoed as a Lo-Pro track back in 2002 when Murray and Godfrey first started creating Lo-Pro demos in an effort to attract the attention of record labels, although the track had had an

industrial rock Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Cromagnon, Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten a ...

sound and was ultimately not one of the tracks selected to be re-recorded for their self-titled debut album.

Sound and composition

Despite being billed as their " acoustic" record, the album also contains many elements of

electronic rock Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...

as well. While its sound moved into ambient directions as well later in recording, the electronic touches were even present in the band's early 2007 b-side material "This is Not Goodbye" and "Consider This". The album features emotional downtempo elements with

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

s with electronic beats, ambient keyboard textures and dreamy vocals. While the sound is driven by acoustic guitars, songs frequently feature clean

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

tones in the background or climax of a number of tracks. "When" and the closing three tracks additionally feature minimal

distorted guitar Distortion and overdrive are forms of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a "fuzzy", "growling", or "gritty" tone. Distortion is most commonly ...

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...

s, but more as a backing beat than a prominent feature. Songs sometimes veer into a

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

-like sound as well.

Release

The band streamed the first track from the album's final sessions, "Sweet Silence", on to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in December 2010. A clip of the track "C U Soon NY" was released a little prior to the album's release in August as well. The full album would be released later on August 20, 2012, physically at a concert in

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, and digitally on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. The show was the second annual benefit concert in support of Aaron Lewis's "It Takes a Community" charity foundation, where the band performed along with Lewis himself and

Corey Taylor Corey Todd Taylor (born December 8, 1973) is an American musician, songwriter and actor. He is the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Slipknot (band), Slipknot, in which he is designated #8, as well as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the ...

of Slipknot and

Stone Sour Stone Sour is an American rock band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1992. The band performed for five years before disbanding in 1997. They reunited in 2000 and since 2015, the group has consisted of Corey Taylor (lead vocals, guitar), Josh Rand ...

. No formal singles were released, although an official video for the track "Line Stepper" was released by the band.

Reception

The album has received largely positive reviews. ''Melodic'' praised it as a "wonderful album that grows with every spin", comparing it favorably to "...ambient, dreamy, epic and acoustic based songs that breathes the prog of

Camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

, the melancholy of

Vast Vast or VAST may refer to: * ''Vast'' (novel), a 1998 science fiction novel by Linda Nagata * ''Vast'' (2011 film), a Dutch film, winner of the 2011 Golden Calf for Best Television Drama * Vast Broadband, an American cable and internet compan ...

and the electronic rock of

". The album closer "Line Stepper" has been noted as a standout track.

Track listing

;B-sides *"This is Not Goodbye" *"Consider This" (Filter cover) *"This Way" *"Clean the Slate" (Two separate acoustic recordings were streamed in 2007 and 2010 by the band, although the track was ultimately only released in electric full band form on ''The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge''.)

Personnel

* Pete Murray - vocals, electronic programming *Neil Godfrey - guitars *Pete Ricci - guitars

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Lo-Pro albums