Birds of Pray is the sixth studio album by Live, released in 2003. The first single, "Heaven" became the band's most successful single in several years, reaching number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100. Birds of Pray was Live's final release on Radioactive/MCA. They signed with Epic in 2005.
Background
Ed Kowalczyk's lyrics on this album return to the spiritual territory of The Distance to Here. Guitarist Chad Taylor explained that the tensions between Kowalczyk and the other three members that eventually caused the band to split from him surfaced in 1999, and had grown worse during the album's recording sessions. "I wasn't sure how our rocker fanbase would feel about the lyrics." He expressed his frustration with the album by adding, "Jim Wirt (producer) worked really hard to fashion a contemporary album, but it never felt like the Live I loved."
Reception
Birds of Pray debuted at number 28 on the Billboard 200, selling over 37,000 copies in its first week of release. By August 2005 it had sold 273,000 copies in the US.
| 73
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|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)
| 199
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|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (2003)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 59
|-
! scope="row"| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 40
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"| Song
! colspan="8"| Peak chart positions
|- style="font-size:smaller;"
! width="45"|US
! width="45"|US<br />Mod.
! width="45"|AUS
! width="45"|BEL<br />(FL)
! width="45"|NED
! width="45"|NZ
|-
| align="left"|"Heaven"
| 59
| 33
| 19
| —
| 30
| 16
|-
| align="left"|"Sweet Release"
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|-
| align="left"|"Run Away"
| —
| —
| —
| —
| 41
| —
|-
| colspan="12" style="font-size:85%"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart
|}
- A: "Heaven" did not chart on the Flemish Ultratop 50, but peaked at number 6 on the Ultratip chart.