''The Rules of Dada'' is the second studio album by the Swedish electronic music duo

Dada Life Dada Life are a Swedish DJ duo formed in 2006, which consists of Olle Cornéer and Stefan Engblom. They have released three albums, a number of singles and remixes and one compilation. The duo had early chart success in Belgium and the Netherlan ...

(Olle Corneér and Stefan Engblom). It was released on October 16, 2012 by Dada Life's

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

So Much Dada and

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

. The album features a very heavily club-influenced

electro house Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 130 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aoki ...

sound, and lyrically it discusses general carelessness with a lighthearted, almost humorous tone. Three of the album's eleven tracks are entirely

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

, the remaining eight tracks feature vocals from various artists such as

Britta Persson Britta Persson is a Swedish indie pop musician from Uppsala, Sweden, who in September 2010 is releasing her third album entitled “Current Affair Medium Rare”. She has gone from making modest and very simple recordings to working with comple ...

Vincent Pontare Fred Vincent Pontare (born 13 May 1980) is a Swedish songwriter, producer, and singer. He is also known by the mononym Vincent. He regularly collaborates with Salem Al Fakir as songwriting, producer, and duo Vargas & Lagola. Together, they have ...

, Michaela Shiloh, as well as Anthony Mills. The album peaked at number 116 on the ''Billboard'' 200 during the week of November 3.

Background and recording

Dada Life stated in an interview it took over a year and a half to produce "Rolling Stones T-Shirt", stating "We tried rock drums, electric guitars and even a strings section. But then we went back and just eliminated all of that. We went back to the original arrangement and added a little electronic bleep." They also noted sampling the sound of a fork being hit against a table on the album as well the sound of someone being punching in the stomach, an attempt to replicate "that ommph sound you get with a good hit."

Release and promotion

"Kick Out the Epic Motherfucker" and "Feed the Dada" were released as singles, both of which charted on the Swedish song charts, peaking at number 18 and number 32 respectively.

Remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (''Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 2007 ...

s of "Kick Out the Epic Motherfucker" and "Feed the Dada" were released on July 2, 2012 and September 10, 2012 respectively, the former featuring remixes by Datsik and

Otto Knows Otto Jettman, better known by his stage name Otto Knows, (born 6 May 1989) is a Swedish DJ, record producer and remixer who has had a number of hits in Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands and has collaborated with artists including Britney Spears, ...

Critical reception

Speaking of Dada Life on ''The Rules of Dada'', David Jeffries of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote "these merry pranksters are as 'Life' as they are '

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

', meaning the

EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...

here is

Deadmau5 Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produces ...

-big,

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( ), is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted "the Greatest DJ of All Time" by '' Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, he was ...

-clean, and crowd-pleasing, big-room stuff built for prime-time", noting "Kick Out the Epic Motherfucker" builds from "literate motivational seminar to lunkheaded

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

riot" and cited "Rolling Stones T-Shirt" as the "singalong highlight", stating it "could have fallen off a

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

album."

Track listing

Charts

Credits and personnel

* Jon Asher –

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

* Adam Baptiste – songwriting * Johanna Berglund –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Olle Corneér – songwriting,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Stefan Engblom – songwriting, production * Daniel Gidlund – vocals * Anton Hård – songwriting, vocals * Niclas Lundin – songwriting * Anthony Mills – songwriting, vocals *

– songwriting, vocals *

– songwriting, vocals * Michaela Shiloh – vocals Credits adapted from ''The Rules of Dada'' liner notes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rules of Dada 2012 albums Dada Life albums