Issues is the fourth studio album by KoЯn, released November 16, 1999 through Immortal Records. Since its release, the album has sold over 13,000,000 copies worldwide.
Album information[]
The album featured four different covers each designed by Korn fans as part of an MTV contest (the winning cover was designed by Alfredo Carlos; another album cover for special limited edition of the album features a cartoonish half-caricature for the band).
The first single, "Falling Away from Me", debuted on the hit TV show South Park in an episode titled "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" on October 27, 1999. The band was featured in cartoon form as Scooby Doo-style mystery solvers.
The album includes five short 'interlude' tracks (1, 4, 7, 9 and 14) mixed in with the other regular length songs. Issues is also the first Korn album not to have a hidden track, with only static fading out at the end of the album.
The release of Issues was preceded by the unusual show at New York's historic Apollo Theater and broadcast the concert simultaneously across many radio stations one day prior to release. This performance made Korn only the second white musical group and the first ever rock band to ever perform at The Apollo after the legendary Buddy Holly in the late 1950s.The band has performed the album in its entirety, as well a couple of older songs during the encore. This event incorporated NYPD marching drum and bagpipe band conducted by composer and friend of Jonathan Davis, Richard Gibbs.
The special edition of Issues comes with a bonus EP titled All Mixed Up, which is also available as a separate release.
Reception[]
Although the album received rather mixed reviews on the moment of release, it became a commercial success. The album debuted at #1 selling 575,000 units in its first week of release in US and has gone triple platinum a month after the release. According to the band in the booklet that comes with Greatest Hits, Volume 1 album, they did not want to be part of a popular trend and wanted to do their own thing. Thus the hip hop elements of Follow the Leader were removed moving the band in a more alternative metal and industrial metal sound rather than nu metal. The band admits that with Brendan O'Brien working alongside them, he kept them more focused during recording so far as to not letting them just fool around and party, and that there was a lot less drinking this time around especially in Jonathan's part since he quit drinking a year earlier.
Track listing[]
- "Dead" – 1:12
- "Falling Away from Me" – 4:30
- "Trash" – 3:27
- "4 U" – 1:42
- "Beg for Me" – 3:53
- "Make Me Bad" – 3:55
- "It's Gonna Go Away" – 1:30
- "Wake Up" – 4:07
- "Am I Going Crazy?" – 0:59
- "Hey Daddy" – 3:44
- "Somebody Someone" – 3:47
- "No Way" – 4:08
- "Let's Get This Party Started" – 3:41
- "Wish You Could Be Me" – 1:07
- "Counting" – 3:37
- "Dirty" - 7:50
- The song "Dirty" ends at 3:43 and is followed by 4 minutes and 7 seconds of static.
- In advance versions it ends at 3:46 without the static.