''You Will Never Know Why'' is the third album by American

experimental pop Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental techniques such as musique concrète, al ...

act Sweet Trip, released on September 28, 2009, by

Darla Records Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis. Background The music of the artists on the ...

. It marks a departure from the electronic sounds of their previous releases, featuring more traditional song structures and a more mainstream

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

sound throughout.

Background

After the release of their second album, '' Velocity : Design : Comfort'', Sweet Trip took a nearly three-year hiatus from performing and recording, lasting from 2004 to 2006. Roberto Burgos used this hiatus to improve his guitar playing, so that future recordings of songs would not need to rely so heavily on effects to hit the notes and chords he was aiming to play. In 2006, the band reformed, with founding member Viet Le leaving and Rob Uytingco joining to contribute live drums to performances and recordings. Songs for the album developed from practice sessions where the band would play with just guitar alone, with them deciding that the more "raw and bare and simple" songs would be what they would focus on for their next album; the band agreed an attempt to recreate the sound of ''Velocity : Design : Comfort'' in particular would be a disservice to that album. The band also focused on making more traditional verse-chorus structured songs, whereas previous releases had the band building a songs as they went, leading to long and unconventionally structured songs. Burgos and Valerie Cooper have gone on record stating some of the songs had been in the works for many years prior to the album's release, with the song "Air Supply" written around the same time as "Dsco" from ''Velocity : Design : Comfort'', which itself debuted live in 1999, four years prior to that album's release. Also written years earlier were the songs "Milk" and the intro and outro for "Acting", both of which were created around the same time as ''Velocity : Design : Comfort''. The song "Silence", a bonus track from the 2021 remaster, was performed solo by Cooper at the 1999 wedding of the

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ous Darla of

; the owner of March Records, who was in attendance, told her that the band should write more songs like that, and that "it's better, people will like that better".

Artwork

The original cover artwork for ''You Will Never Know Why'' features a razor blade, drawn by Aaron Porter. Burgos and Cooper were not sure what to do for the artwork, and eventually Porter drew the razor after much indecision, which the band went with for the final cover. Burgos has stated neither he nor Cooper were fans of the original artwork, nor the association with the razor and self-harm, so the band chose to create entirely new artwork alongside a short comic for the 2021 remaster. The remaster's artwork features drawings of Burgos and Cooper lying around a portrait of a vampire, from the comic included in physical editions of the album. This artwork was met with criticism from fans, leading to Darla Records repressing versions of the remaster with the original razor artwork.

2021 Remaster Comic

Physical editions of the 2021 remaster of ''You Will Never Know Why'' come with a short comic, with the story written by Cooper and artwork done by YobKiss. It follows an unnamed vampire, who sees an in-comic counterpart of Cooper writing her suicide note, about to kill herself with a razor with her name on it (based off the design of the razor on the original cover art). The vampire then flies through Cooper's window, biting her and turning her into a vampire, then taking her razor. He then places the razor in a case also containing a razor with Burgos's name on it, implying the same had happened to him too. The comic ends with Burgos and Cooper happily dancing together, both now vampires.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Sweet Trip * Roberto Burgos – vocals, guitar, synthesizer, programming * Valerie Cooper – vocals, guitar, synthesizer Production * Sweet Trip –

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 ...

, mastering Additional personnel * Aaron Porter – bass, artwork * Rob Uytingco – drums

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2009 albums Sweet Trip albums Darla Records albums