Living Well Is the Best Revenge is the second studio album by American rock band Midtown. Following the conclusion of the touring cycle of their debut album Save the World, Lose the Girl (2000), the group went to California to work on their next album. Sessions were held at Larrabee East, Los Angeles, California, and Media Vortex, Burbank, California with producer Mark Trombino. It followed the pop punk sound of their debut, and was compared to Good Charlotte and Fenix TX.

Preceded by two songs, and a supporting slot for Face to Face, Living Well Is the Best Revenge was released on Drive-Thru and MCA Records on April 16, 2002. It reached number 90 on the Billboard 200. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, many of which commented on the melodies and harmonies. A music video for "Like a Movie" was released the following month. Throughout the rest of the year, the group toured mainland Europe (as part of the Deconstruction Tour), the US (twice) and the UK.

Background and production

Midtown released their debut album Save the World, Lose the Girl through independent label Drive-Thru Records on February 15, 2000. Initial promotion consisted of supporting slots for New Found Glory, All and Reel Big Fish, and an appearance on that year's Warped Tour. In May 2001, the band released a split EP with Millencolin, which featured two new songs ("Get It Together" and "You Should Know"). Following this, they performed on Warped Tour for the second time in July, before a supporting slot for Blink-182 in July and August. After the conclusion of this trek, the band traveled to California, where they spent three weeks in pre-production working on 20 songs, which had been whittled down from 30.

Recording took place in October and November 2001 at Larrabee East in Los Angeles, California and Media Vortex in Burbank, California. Sessions were produced by Mark Trombino, and engineered by Trombino and Justin Smith. They were assisted by engineers Pete Novak and Dave Ahlert. Trombino mixed the recordings at Extasy South in Los Angeles The song's intro recalled Eric Martin Band's "Sucker for a Pretty Face". is followed by "Perfect", a Weezer-lite ballad that is sung by Saraceno. In January 2002, the band toured across mainland Europe, and returned to the US where they supported Jimmy Eat World. In April and May, the group supported Face to Face on their headlining US tour; the trek included an appearance at Skate and Surf Fest. Living Well Is the Best Revenge was released on April 16 as a joint release between Drive-Thru and MCA Records. Rann mentioned that the sole tie that they had with Drive-Thru at this point was the label being contractually obliged to have their logo on the back cover of the album, and he had not "spoken to any of the people there in over a year".

The following day, the band held an interview with AbsolutePunk where they discussed their disintegrating relationship with Drive-Thru and their appraisal of MCA. It was removed and later reappeared on the website Born Backwards a few days later. When Punknews.org reported on the interview, a firm on behalf of Drive-Thru threatened to sue some of their users for libel if they did not remove specific comments. Shortly afterwards, Drive-Thru posted their response directly on Born Backwards. Rann said the label's response was "really terrible because not only was it a completely different thing about personal things but on top of it, it wasn’t even true". On May 6, the group filmed a music video for "Like a Movie" with director Ross Richardson in Los Angeles. The clip was posted online to the band's website at the end of the month.

In June, the band toured across Europe as part of the Deconstruction Tour, and then trekked through the continent with the Movielife. In September and October, the group went on a headlining US tour, titled the Best Revenge Tour. They were supported by Taking Back Sunday, Recover and Armor for Sleep. To help promote the tour, the band held a contest where a person could win signed memorabilia and a personal phone call. Partway through the trek, Taking Back Sunday were forced to drop off and were replaced by the Reunion Show. Following this, the group embarked on a UK tour with Recover to close the year. In April 2003, the group performed at Skate and Surf Fest. Between early July and early September, the group supported Reggie and the Full Effect on their headlining US tour.

Reception

Living Well Is the Best Revenge charted at number 90 on the Billboard 200, selling 11,153 copies in its first week. It has appeared on best-of emo/pop punk album lists by Houston Press and Loudwire.

Living Well Is the Best Revenge received generally positive reviews from music critics. Modern Fix called it "too poppy", before clarifying that they've "listened to this album way too many times to justify that as a negative comment."

Punknews.org staff member Scott Heisel complimented Trombino's "crystal clear" production, enabling the group to come across "as loud as possible" while still leaving "space for [them] to grow".

Midtown

  • Gabe Saporta – lead vocals, bass
  • Heath Saraceno – backing vocals, guitar
  • Rob Hitt – drums, backing vocals
  • Tyler Rann – backing vocals, guitar

Additional musician

  • Vinnie Caruana – additional backing vocals <small>(track 11)</small>

Production

  • Mark Trombino – producer, mixing, engineer, programming
  • Justin Smith – engineer
  • Pete Novak – assistant engineer
  • Dave Ahlert – assistant engineer
  • Brian Gardner – mastering
  • Mike Bozzi – assistant
  • Tim Stedman – art direction, design
  • Justin Stephens – photography
  • Marco Orozco – design

Charts

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! scope="col"| Chart (2002)

! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position

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References

Citations

Sources

  • AbsolutePunk interview – via Chorus.fm