''Vol. II'' is the fourth full-length studio album by the rock band Hurt, and was released on September 25, 2007.

Sound and musical style

This album shares many of the sorrowful and painful themes as '' Vol. I''. However, many songs on this album have slower tempos and more acoustic instrumentation, while still maintaining a hard rock sound. Another change from ''Vol. I'' is the inclusion of different instruments, such as the

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

and

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

, and a lineup of female backup singers.

Background

Before having Eric Greedy mix the album, the band had sent it to a

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

who did not mix the album to the band's satisfaction. J. Loren said of the situation, "...he was a very notable person that we paid a large sum of money to, and he destroyed the record. It sounded so horrible, I actually had a nervous breakdown when I heard the record, and they threw me in a van before the cops came. So, I thought that my life was over, I just literally could not handle the devastation of it." Many of the songs on this album are rerecorded from previous works. The songs "Summers Lost," "Abuse of SID," and "Better" are originally from Hurt's self-titled album. "Alone With the Sea," "Loded," and "Et Al" are originally from ''The Consumation''. "Loded," the second single from this album, was chosen by a poll taken on the band's forum. The band also released alternate mixes to the songs "Talking to God" and "On the Radio" through their MySpace.

Track listing

Personnel

Personnel information from album liner notes. *

J. Loren Wince Hurt was an American rock band formed in Virginia in 2000. The band has released four major label albums. The band first released the independent albums ''Hurt'' in 2000 and ''The Consumation'' in 2003. The band received worldwide acclaim with ...

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 ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, string arrangement *Paul Spatola -

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Josh Ansley Joshua David Ansley was the bass player for the band HURT and the ska bands Catch 22 and Streetlight Manifesto. Raised in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, United States, Ansley was a Ford model and an actor as a tween/preteen. He was in Soci ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

*Evan Johns -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Additional personnel

*Eric Greedy -

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

, mixing *Leon Zervos - mastering *Lenny Castro -

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Valerie Carter Valerie Gail Zakian Carter (February 5, 1953 – March 4, 2017) was an American singer. Biography Carter began her career singing in coffeehouses as a teenager, and eventually became one-third of the country-folk band Howdy Moon. Though they de ...

- additional vocal support *Machan Taylor - additional vocal support * Elaine Caswell - additional vocal support *Eyvonne Williams-Hines - additional vocal support *Lynn Fiddmont - additional vocal support * Novi Novog - string arrangement *Dave Klotz - string arrangement, programming *Larry Tuttle - string arrangement *Brian Winshell - programming *Jason Benham - additional engineering *Cecil Gregory - additional engineering *Tom Gloady - additional engineering *Ted Taylor -

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

Reception

The album was praised by both fans and critics. It did exceptionally well in many professional reviews. It has sold nearly 50,000 copies since its release. On May 12, 2009, Hurt received an award for the song "Ten Ton Brick" during

SESAC SESAC is a for-profit performance-rights organization in the United States. Founded in 1930 as the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, it is the second-oldest performance-rights organization in the United States.

’s 13th annual New York Music Awards.SESAC Holds 13th Annual Music Awards
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Charts

Singles

References

{{Authority control Hurt (band) albums 2007 albums Sequel albums