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''Underclass Hero'' is the fourth studio album by Canadian rock band Sum 41. It is the first album by the band not to feature former guitarist Dave Baksh since he left a year early to focus on Brown Brigade and is also the first recorded as a trio. The album was first released July 18, 2007 in Japan. It was released under the Island Records label and distributed worldwide by Universal Records, by Aquarius Records. The album cover features a photo with singer Deryck Whibley spitting. This album features more alternative rock songs than their previous albums. The album's lyrics have been described as more mature and personal than in some of the band's previous records. It was written as a concept album focusing on lead vocalist Deryck Whibley's outlook on life, covering subjects such as politics, atheism and family life. The album has more of a pop punk sound in comparison to the alternative metal style of their last album, ''Chuck''. The album was a commercial success, peaking at number 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart and at number 7 on the U.S. Billboard 200. It received generally mixed reviews from critics, with some critics praising its mature subject matter and style, while others criticized it for being unoriginal. The album would become the band's last release for four years until 2011's ''Screaming Bloody Murder''. It is also Sum 41's last release on Aquarius. ==Background== In 2004, Sum 41 released Chuck, which became a success upon release, gaining high success on the charts and receiving praise from critics. The album had a more heavy metal-influenced sound, and the band gained multiple awards for the album. The band spent most of 2005 and some of 2006 touring in the support of Chuck until the band stopped touring to deal with some problems. In mid 2006, the band's lead guitarist Dave Baksh had left the band in 2006 due to arguing with Deryck about the band's musical direction afterwards. Deryck wanted to go to an "artistic pop punk style" while Baksh wanted to play in a more heavy metal-styled band. Baksh left to form his own band Brown Brigade. Deryck didn't want to have to produce the album, and admitted to "not looking forward to it". However, since they were unable to find a producer, Deryck had to take this upon himself. Deryck found himself writing several songs, each in different ways. "Usually, the first things I come up with are terrible, so I continued writing and told myself that most of them would suck", Deryck said. "So I showed everyone what I wrote and then I looked through them all and picked the best ones in the end." Deryck also admitted to being paranoid of writing, and was worried how it would turn out in the end, and Deryck referred to this as "writer's block". He said "I sometimes felt surprised once I finished writing and thought to myself 'How did that happen?'. And the writing for the album took a long time, I think I took around ten months to write these songs". Deryck decided to be original with the songwriting, and said that "the only way to be completely be original is to write about myself. So I decided to look into my thoughts that I'd never even touched and came up with all of these topics that were very deep and personal." Drummer Steve Jocz said that Deryck "spent a lot of time to himself" and that he didn't "open up". Jocz went on to say that the things Deryck wrote were so personal that even the band members didn't know about them in the past. He also mentioned that Deryck "doesn't open up with anyone outside the band". Jocz and McCaslin were often surprised by Deryck's songwriting, as it was more personal than the band's previous work. Deryck thought that writing more personal songs would make people like the album more because it's more "honest". McCaslin felt that writing like this was a big move because "letting the whole world know about things like Deryck not knowing his father seemed hard things to write about." The album title's similarity to John Lennon's hit "Working Class Hero" is not a coincidence, according to the band's front man Deryck Whibley, who in an interview with Sun Media claimed Lennon as his favorite songwriter. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Underclass Hero」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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