Blender is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Collective Soul, released in October 2000. This was their final and least successful album with Atlantic Records, though it did achieve Gold certification. None of its three included singles entered the Billboard charts.
Contents
Release
"Why, Pt. 2" was released as the first single from Blender on September 12, 2000. Written by singer/guitarist Ed Roland, the song did not chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart but did reach No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The "Pt. 2" in the title refers to an earlier track by the band, "Why", which was initially created during the band's Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid era, and was used as a b-side to the single "Breathe" in 1994.
The second single, "Perfect Day", was released in 2000 and features Elton John. "Vent", the third and final single, was released on January 16, 2001. It was originally titled "Prick", but was changed to "Vent" due to concern from the band's record label, Atlantic Records. The song is supposedly about the band's tension with the label. The band left the label in 2001, and created their own independent label, El Music Group.
Reception
In a retrospective review for Allmusic, Steven McDonald described Blender as commercially oriented and polished to the point of being bland, soulless, and too lacking in distinction to be of interest even as a curiosity. He also derided the boy band/Y2K pop cover art as being an obviously inappropriate image for Collective Soul, who were all in their late 20s or early 30s at the time of release.
Track listing
All songs written by Ed Roland, except where noted.
Personnel
Collective Soul
Ed Roland – lead and backing vocals, keyboards, guitar
Ross Childress – lead and rhythm guitars
Shane Evans – drums, percussion
Dean Roland – rhythm guitar
Will Turpin – bass guitar, percussion
Additional musicians
Mike Lawler – Hammond organ
AJR – keyboards, programming, turntable
Lindsey Kris Roland – intro vocal (track 1)
Jerald Jackson – clavinet (track 2)
Shawn Mullins – intro vocals (track 2)
Elton John – lead and backing vocals (track 8), piano (track 8)
Jake Shapiro – cello (track 8)
Antonio "L.A." Reid and Jeff Lanahan – handclaps (track 8)
Butch Walker and Jayne Fincher – backing vocals (track 10)
Megumi Higashiguci and Chika Goto – spoken word (track 10)
Production
Ed Roland – production
Anthony J. Resta – production
Jack Joseph Puig – mix engineer (tracks 1, 3, 5, 11)