Oracle (Kittie album)

In November 1999, Kittie released their debut album Spit, through Ng Records. Shortly after the album's release, Ng was acquired by Artemis Records, who gave the album a wider release on January 11, 2000.[2] The album was a commercial success, becoming certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[3] The band toured heavily in support of the album, and made appearances on the Ozzfest and SnoCore tours in 2000 and 2001.[4][5]

Artemis wanted the band to begin recording a new album in September 2000, but the band resisted, as they felt that they weren't finished touring.[6][7] Nevertheless, the band begun working on new material whilst out on the road, and during the band's tours in support of Spit, Kittie debuted the songs "Pain" and "Mouthful of Poison" live.[5] In interviews with NME and The GW Hatchet in early 2001, Kittie's vocalist and guitarist Morgan Lander indicated that the band's next album would be "more aggressive" than Spit.[5][8] Once touring wrapped up in February 2001, the band begun jamming new material together at Morgan and (drummer) Mercedes Lander's parents' house in London, Ontario.[9][8] Whilst the band worked on the music together, Morgan wrote its lyrics.[10] As with Spit, the band would composing the music first, and then using that "as the backdrop behind the vocals."[8] Writing Oracle proved to be difficult and frustrating for Kittie; Mercedes found writing to be particularly hard, as she had not "come into to [her] own for writing songs" at the time.[11] During the album's writing process, co-founding member and guitarist Fallon Bowman left Kittie on May 28, 2001, owing to her struggles to deal with the band's newfound pressures for success and creative differences with Morgan.[12][13][14]

As with Spit, Kittie recorded Oracle at EMAC Recording Studios in London, Ontario with producer Garth Richardson, between July 21 and August 14, 2001.[15] The band chose to work with Richardson again because "He lets us do whatever the hell we want", according to Morgan, who also acted as an uncredited co-producer on the album.[9][16] As a result of Bowman's departure (which would not be announced until August 2001),[17] Jeff Phillips was recruited (although he was not made an official member)[18] to perform additional guitar "bed tracks" on the album.[19] Recording Oracle was easier than its writing process due to Morgan and Mercedes "knowing what they wanted to do", according to Richardson.[20] Oracle also marked the first collaboration between Kittie and Siegfried Meier, an assistant engineer who would go on to produce two of their later albums, In the Black (2009) and I've Failed You (2011).[21]

Oracle has been described by critics as death metal,[22][23][24] nu metal,[25][26] heavy metal,[27] and thrash metal.[28] According to Spin, Oracle "drops its predecessor's alt-rock affections in search of a 'pure metal' sound".[29] The album contains heavy, chopping guitar riffs and percussion,[30][23] and features screamed, growled and clean singing.[31][30][32] The album's sound was also compared to Pantera.[22][33] In an interview with the GW Hatchet, Morgan claimed that the band "haven’t written [new material] in 4 or 5 years", and that the band members were only 14 years old when writing their debut album.[8] She also acknowledged a change in influence from their early days, stating, "Then we listened to bands like Nirvana, Silverchair, and Alice in Chains. Now we listen to stuff like Cannibal Corpse and Nile."[8] In a 2007 interview with the Cleveland Scene, Morgan additionally stated:

"[Oracle] was [an] album that had to be done. It was heavier, faster, more screaming — it was sort of our time to prove that we weren't gimmicks, that we weren't what a lot of critics wrote us off as, that we were a real metal band, and [so] we wrote a real metal album."[34]

The album's lyrics range from "personal politics to metal's classically Germanic themes: Nietzschean angst, schadenfreude, and weltschmerz."[29] "Mouthful of Poison" concerns "professional jealousy", whilst "Severed" is about "feeling hopelessness and abandonment", according to Morgan Lander.[29] "Pain", which Morgan wrote during the Ozzfest tour in the summer of 2000, discusses "the stresses of a grueling [sic] tour schedule".[9] Morgan said that "What I Always Wanted" was "the story of 'be careful what you wish for' ", which was inspired by Kittie's newfound pressures for success.[35] Aside from a cover of Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell", credited to David Gilmour and Roger Waters, the album's tracks were credited to Kittie.[18] The "Run Like Hell" cover was initially recorded for a scrapped Pink Floyd tribute album, and the band decided to include it on Oracle "to get it out of our hair", according to Morgan.[36] Despite its angry tone, the band consciously avoided using swearing on Oracle.[10] Explaining the album title, Morgan stated:

"An oracle speaks of truth, and sort of foresees the future. This album is a coming-into-our-own album. We've found our own sound, and it's our truth. If you're not feeling in your heart what you're putting in to music, it's not worth a thing-I'm all about integrity, and keeping things pure and true, the way you intended them to be. There is a lot of emotion manifested into this really aggressive, raw sort of album, and it comes out in the music. I found out after we named the album that our ears have an oracle, and so do our hearts-So Oracle pertains to music, emotions, your heart. There's a lot that is intertwined."[27]

Artemis Records shipped 400,000 copies of Oracle to stores before its release.[37] It was set to be released on October 30, 2001, but was pushed back to November 13, 2001, for unknown reasons.[38] The album debuted and peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 33,000 copies in its first week.[37][39] The album dropped to number 116 in its second week, selling an additional 22,000 copies.[40][41] The album remained on the chart for five weeks, after which time the album had sold 93,000 copies in the United States.[39][42] By July 2004, the album had sold 220,000 copies in the United States.[43] The album also reached number 91 on the German Offizielle Top 100 Albums chart, and number 121 on the UK Albums Chart.[44]

Three singles were released from Oracle. The lead single "What I Always Wanted" was released on October 9, 2001,[45] and peaked at number 36 on Billboard's Active Rock chart.[39] A music video for the single was released later that month; the Thomas Mignone-directed video, which "concerns the self-destructive consequences of greed",[46] received heavy airplay on the MTV, MTV2, MTVX and MuchMusic channels.[37] "Run Like Hell" was first released as a digital-only single on January 16, 2002,[47] before being serviced to radio outlets. The album's third and final single, "In Winter", was released on May 13, 2002.[48] In addition, Kittie self-financed two live music videos for "Run Like Hell" and "Pain".[1]

Kittie toured internationally in support of the album, with dates in the United States, Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom.[1][49][50] Upon the conclusion of the European touring leg, bassist Talena Atfield left the band on March 2, 2002.[51] In Kittie: Origins/Evolutions (2018), Morgan claimed that Atfield "was becoming disillusioned with being in [Kittie]" during the recording of Oracle,[52] and Mercedes claimed that Atfield "wasn't really around [for recording] to the extent Morgan and I were there, and Jeff [Phillips]. Jeff was there the entire time."[53] The band quickly recruited Jennifer Arroyo as her replacement.[51][54]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	56/100[55]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[22]
Alternative Press	[56]
Blender	[57]
Robert Christgau	[58]
Drowned in Sound	9/10[24]
Kerrang!	[59]
NME	5/10[23]
Q	[60]
Rolling Stone	[30]
Spin	7/10[61]

On review aggregator website Metacritic, Oracle holds a score of 56 out of 100, based on reviews from eight critics, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".[55] Writing for AllMusic, Bradley Torreano called Oracle "an average album by a promising band who needs to find a distinct identity".[22] Similarly, Tom Moon of Rolling Stone wrote: "Kittie sound like they want to pursue harder extremes but can't decide whether to snicker or snarl, to play doomsayer or dominatrix."[30] Robert Christgau cited "Run Like Hell" and "What I Always Wanted" as highlights and assigned the album a one-star honorable rating.[58]

Hit Parader gave the album a B− grade and wrote, "There's no question that this is a better effort in a technical and song-structure sense than [Spit ], but somehow it doesn't seem quite as satisfying".[62] PopMatters praised the album's musicianship and Morgan Lander's vocals, but felt that "its music relies too much on metal formula".[31] Kerrang! said that Oracle was "[t]echnically [...] a great metal record, yet there's barely a riff, shout or double-pedalled beat you haven't heard somewhere else". The review concluded, "you'll be wishing this steel-clawed beast got in touch with its feminine side a bit more."[59]

Imran Ahmed of NME found Oracle to be "plain overbearing", and "a violent marriage of melody and brutality that makes for a highly uneasy listen".[23] Q magazine criticized the album as "one-dimensional" and "uninspired",[60] whilst Ben Mitchell of Blender dismissed it as "Entirely dispensable".[57] Conversely, Alternative Press saw Kittie as having "[moved] from novelty status to bone-crushing legitimacy",[56] and Ollie Appleby of Drowned in Sound lauded the album as "One of the best albums this year, one of the most together albums of the year, [and] one of the most (internally) varied albums of the year."[24]

Oracle placed 20th on Metal Hammer's "Albums of 2001" list.[63] In September 2008, Hit Parader placed Oracle at number 82 on their list of "The Top 100 CDs of the 21st Century".[64]

All tracks are written by Kittie, except "Run Like Hell", written by David Gilmour and Roger Waters.[18]

Adapted from liner notes.[18]

Kittie

• Morgan Lander: vocals, guitar, piano
• Mercedes Lander: drums
• Talena Atfield: bass

Additional personnel

• Jeff Phillips: guitar "bed tracks" (uncredited)

Production

• Garth Richardson - producer, engineering
• Morgan Lander - co-production (uncredited)
• Chris Vaugh-Jones - production co-ordinator
• Randy Staub - mixing
• Robert Nation - engineering
• Siegfried Meier - second engineer
• Howie Weinberg - mastering (at Masterdisk)
• Ben Kaplan - digital editing
• Richard Leighton - guitar tech

Artwork

• Morgan Lander - artwork concept
• Brett Weiss - album artwork and layout (for JSR Merchandising)
• Yvette Conley - photography
• Dr. Matthew Somers - x ray consultant
• Dr. Michael Richardson - x-rays

Citations

Sources

• Oracle on YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)