Wikipedia

Little Hell (album)

(Redirected from The Grand Optimist)
This article is about the City and Colour album. For the Marissa Nadler album, see Little Hells.

Little Hell is the third album by City and Colour, released on June 7, 2011. Besides Dallas Green who recorded the majority of the instrumentals himself, contributing musicians on the record include Daniel Romano of Attack in Black, Dylan Green and Scott Remila of Raising the Fawn, Nick Skalkos of The Miniatures, Misha Bower of Bruce Peninsula and Anna Jarvis and Jordan Mitchell of The Rest. The album art is an illustration of Allard Schager's photograph "Fields of Gold", taken in a tulip field outside Alkmaar in North Holland.[8]

Little Hell
Studio album by
City and Colour
ReleasedJune 7, 2011
RecordedJanuary – February 2011
StudioCatherine North Studios, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Genre
Length47:27
LabelDine Alone, Vagrant
ProducerAlex Newport
City and Colour chronology
Bring Me Your Love
(2008) 		Little Hell
(2011) 		The Hurry and the Harm
(2013)
Singles from Little Hell
  1. "Fragile Bird"
    Released: April 5, 2011
  2. "Weightless"
    Released: 2011
  3. "The Grand Optimist"
    Released: 2012
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic78/100[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AbsolutePunk86%[4]
AllMusic[5]
Blare[6]
Rock Sound8/10[2]
Spin7/10[7]

The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[3] The track "Sorrowing Man" was used as the opening theme song of the Thandiwe Newton series Rogue during its second season, and was also used in the One Tree Hill ninth-season episode, "A Rush of Blood to the Head". Album cover art work inspired by the 1976 film Futureworld. In the film once the cast enters the simulation the art work hanging on the wall at the 27:53 time stamp can be seen however not identical to the album cover the inspiration is revealed.

Promotion and release

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Green began performing the songs "O' Sister" and "Silver and Gold" live on his Canadian tour in September 2009, while most of the album was already written, although it was not recorded until January 2011. Although "O' Sister" had been confirmed by Green to be the first single, "Fragile Bird" was released instead, on April 5, 2011.[9] The music video of "Fragile Bird" was premiered on Dallas' YouTube channel on May 26, 2011.[10] On February 23, 2011, Green revealed the album's name as Little Hell.[11] On March 23, 2011, Green revealed the album's track listing and release date on his MySpace blog.[12] On May 31, 2011, a week before the release, the album was streamed for free through the websites of MTV and MuchMusic for Canadian residents. The album debuted at number 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling over 20,000 copies in its first week,[13] and at number 28 on the US Billboard 200.

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Dallas Green

No.TitleLength
1."We Found Each Other in the Dark"4:22
2."Natural Disaster"3:50
3."The Grand Optimist"4:05
4."Little Hell"4:43
5."Fragile Bird"4:17
6."Northern Wind"4:16
7."O' Sister"4:16
8."Weightless"3:32
9."Sorrowing Man"4:32
10."Silver and Gold"4:40
11."Hope for Now"4:57
iTunes bonus tracks[14]
No.TitleLength
12."Weightless" (Demo)2:11
13."O' Sister" (Live)4:05
14."At the Bird's Foot" (Vocal)4:15

Personnel

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City and Colour

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  • Dallas Green – vocals, guitar, piano
  • Daniel Romano – guitars, bass guitar, harmonies, pedal steel, organ, piano
  • Dylan Green – drums, percussion
  • Scott Remila – bass guitar, harmonies

Additional musicians

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  • Nick Skalkos – drums on "Fragile Bird" and "Weightless"
  • Misha Bower – harmonies on "Weightless"
  • Anna Jarvis – cello on "Northern Wind" and "Silver and Gold"

Charts

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Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[24] Gold 35,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ Hogan, Mike (June 8, 2011). "REVIEW: City And Colour – Little Hell". Boston: Under The Gun Review. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Bangs, Amy (June 3, 2011). "City And Colour – Little Hell: Reviews: Rock Sound". Rock Sound. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  3. ^ a b "Little Hell Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 11, 2011. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  4. ^ Gardner, Ryan (June 6, 2011). "City And Colour – Little Hell – Album Review". Absolute Punk. Archived from the original on July 3, 2021. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  5. ^ Monger, James (June 6, 2011). "City And Colour – Little Hell – Album Review". AllMusic. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  6. ^ Khan, Joshua (5 June 2011). "REVIEW: City And Colour – 'Little Hell'". Blare. Toronto. Archived from the original on 17 November 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2011.
  7. ^ Young, Jon (June 2, 2011). "City And Colour, 'Little Hell' (Vagrant)". Spin. New York. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  8. ^ One, Allard (April 20, 2009). "Fields of Gold |". Flickr. Archived from the original on September 6, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  9. ^ "The 1st single,..." Facebook. Archived from the original on July 3, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
  10. ^ "City and Colour – Fragile Bird". YouTube. Archived from the original on August 23, 2013. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  11. ^ "Dine Alone Records". Dine Alone Records. Archived from the original on 2011-07-10. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  12. ^ "Little Hell Release Date and Track Listing Announced van city and colour op Myspace". Myspace.com. June 7, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  13. ^ Williams, John (June 15, 2011). "City and Colour shines on charts". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on September 16, 2011. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  14. ^ "Little Hell by City and Colour". Itunes.apple.com. Archived from the original on July 3, 2021. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
  15. ^ "Australiancharts.com – City and Colour – Little Hell". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  16. ^ "City and Colour Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  17. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  18. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  19. ^ "City and Colour Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  20. ^ "City and Colour Chart History (Top Alternative Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  21. ^ "City and Colour Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  22. ^ "City and Colour Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  23. ^ "Top Canadian Albums – Year-End 2011". Billboard. Archived from the original on June 22, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  24. ^ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2012 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
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