Conspiracy of One

For the In the Heat of the Night episode, see Conspiracy of One (In the Heat of the Night).

Conspiracy of One
Studio album by The Offspring
Released	November 14, 2000
Recorded	June–August 2000 at NRG, North Hollywood, California
Genre	Punk rock, skate punk, pop punk, alternative rock, post-grunge[1]
Length	37:43
Label	Columbia
Producer	Brendan O'Brien
The Offspring chronology
Americana (1998) Conspiracy of One (2000) Splinter (2003)
Brazilian limited edition
from MTV Brazil's contest: "Design The Offspring's album cover" [2]
Singles from Conspiracy of One
"Original Prankster" Released: 2000 "Want You Bad" Released: 2001 "Million Miles Away" Released: 2001

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Kerrang!	[citation needed]
Robert Christgau	[4]
Rolling Stone	[5]

Conspiracy of One is the sixth studio album by the American punk rock band The Offspring, released on November 14, 2000 through Columbia Records. Following a worldwide tour in support of its previous album, Americana (1998), The Offspring commenced work on a new album. By the time of its release, the band had come out in support of peer-to-peer file sharing, claiming it does not hurt sales. Conspiracy of One was originally planned to be released directly on their website before retail, until their label threatened to sue and the album ended up as a physical release.

Conspiracy of One debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 with around 125,000 copies sold in its first week,^[6] and spawned the singles "Original Prankster", "Want You Bad", and "Million Miles Away". The band supported the album with a worldwide tour. Conspiracy of One would end up becoming The Offspring's final studio album with drummer Ron Welty, as he left the band in early 2003 to pursue his career with Steady Ground. Although the album was not as successful as Americana, it went platinum by the RIAA in the United States, and has sold 2.3 million copies.

Background and recording

The Offspring spent much of 1999 on tour promoting the Americana album. They also appeared at the infamous Woodstock 1999, where their performance was broadcast live on pay-per-view television. After some time off, the members reconvened in early 2000 to begin work on new material, nine songs of which were in the demo phase at the time. Frontman Dexter Holland told Rolling Stone in May 2000 that, "we came home last Christmas and we kind of took a month just trying to recoup and we started thinking, 'Well, do we want to get started on another record right away?'. "We're all pretty excited about the way things have gone so I spent a couple of months trying to come up with some new material and then [started] jamming out these demos."^[7] The Offspring officially entered the studio to begin recording sessions for Conspiracy of One in June 2000. For the recording of the album, the band tapped Brendan O'Brien as its producer and recorded the album at NRG studios in North Hollywood, California over a two month period.

Reception

Conspiracy of One was released on November 14, 2000 and peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200 album chart.^[8] Five weeks after its release, the album was certified gold and platinum.^[9] The album was also successful in Canada, selling 25,231 copies in its first week and debuting at #4 on the Canadian Albums Chart.^[10] The album was certified 2x Platinum by the CRIA in February 2007.^[11]

Liana Jonas of Allmusic described Conspiracy of One as The Offspring's "most musically mature collection to date". Jonas praised the music as "tight arrangements, vocal interplay and refined guitar work" and claims the band injected "elements of hip-hop, rap-metal, and Nirvana-like grunge into a few songs". The album received a rating of three and a half out of five stars, while producing three singles, "Original Prankster", "Want You Bad" and "Million Miles Away", that earned The Offspring its commercial success.^[12]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by The Offspring. 

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Intro"	0:06
2.	"Come Out Swinging"	2:47
3.	"Original Prankster"	3:42
4.	"Want You Bad"	3:23
5.	"Million Miles Away"	3:40
6.	"Dammit, I Changed Again"	2:49
7.	"Living in Chaos"	3:28
8.	"Special Delivery"	3:00
9.	"One Fine Day"	2:45
10.	"All Along"	1:39
11.	"Denial, Revisited"	4:33
12.	"Vultures"	3:35
13.	"Conspiracy of One"	2:17

Bonus tracks

Australian and European bonus track
No.	Title	Length
14.	"Huck It"	2:38

Vinyl bonus track
No.	Title	Length
14.	"80 Times"	2:07

Album length

	(Without bonus track)	(With bonus track)
Total duration of music:	37:43	40:21

Notes

• First pressings in Australia and UK had the track "Huck It" listed as track 14, later reprints have it unlisted as well as the original Mature audiences rating reduced to a PG rating in Australia.
• The "Intro" track samples a speech made in concert by Mike Love from The Beach Boys.
• "Special Delivery" contains a sample from Blue Swede's version of the song "Hooked on a Feeling".
• This album is also an Enhanced CD and contains the karaoke videos of "Original Prankster" and "One Fine Day", and the previous MTV music videos from Americana.
• This is the only Offspring CD where the word "fuck" is never used, not including the bonus track 'Huck It'.
• First appearance of the Fire Skull logo, which has been the mascot for The Offspring until their 2008 release Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, in which the skull is completely absent.
• "Dammit, I Changed Again" can be heard in the background in the movie "The New Guy".
• "Want You Bad" is played during the introduction credits in the movie Tomcats.

Chart performance

Chart (1998–1999)	Peak position	Certification	Sales
Australian Albums Chart[13]	4	2x Platinum[14]	140,000+
Austrian Albums Chart[13]	5	Gold[15]	10,000+
Belgium Albums Chart[13]	18	-	-
Canadian Albums Chart[16]	4	2x Platinum[11]	200,000+
Finnish Albums Chart[13]	4	Platinum[17]	29,330+[18]
French Albums Chart[13]	3	2x Gold	150,000
German Albums Chart[19]	8	-	-
Italian Albums Chart[13]	12	-	-
Japanese Albums Chart[20]	2	2x Platinum[21]	400,000+
Netherlands Albums Chart[13]	32	-	-
New Zealand Albums Chart[13]	11	Gold[22]	7,500+
Norwegian Albums Chart[13]	11	-	-
Polish Albums Chart[23]	7	Gold[24]	15,000+
Swedish Albums Chart[13]	8	Gold[25]	20,000+
Swiss Albums Chart[13]	4	Platinum[26]	40,000+
UK Albums Chart[27]	12	Gold[28]	100,000+
U.S. Billboard 200[12]	9	Platinum[29]	1,000,000+

Personnel

The Offspring

• Dexter Holland - Lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Noodles - lead guitar, backing vocals
• Greg K. - bass, backing vocals
• Ron Welty - drums

Additional personnel

Redman - vocals on "Original Prankster"

• Justin Beope – design
• Billy Bowers – engineer
• Nick DiDia – engineer
• David Dominguez – assistant engineer
• Karl Egsieker – mixing
• Ryan Eilliams – mixing
• Sean Evans – art direction
• Alan Forbes – illustrations
• Ross Garfield – drum technician
• Sarkis Kaloustian – design
• Steve Masi – guitar technician
• Eddy Schreyer – mastering

References

General references

• (2000) Album notes for Conspiracy of One by The Offspring [CD liner]. Columbia Records.

Notes

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]^{[dead link]}
3. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r505619
4. ^ Robert Christgau: CG: the offspring
5. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/theoffspring/albums/album/227119/review/6209777/conspiracy_of_one
6. ^ By Joe D'Angelo (2003-12-17). "Ruben Debuts At #1 But Can't Match Clay's First-Week Sales - Music, Celebrity, Artist News". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1482928/20031217/studdard_ruben.jhtml. Retrieved 2010-12-19. 
7. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (May 1, 2000). "Offspring Prep for Next Album". Euro.Real.com. http://www.euro.real.com/music/artist/The_Offspring/articles/367507/-related-articles-page-4/. Retrieved 2010-08-19. 
8. ^ "Conspiracy of One's entry at Billboard.com". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?pid=23138&aid=451291. Retrieved 2007-12-20. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "RIAA Certification (type in "Offspring" in the artist box)". RIAA. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH. Retrieved 2007-12-20. 
10. ^ "'Beatles 1' debuts at #1 in Canada". Jam!. http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/B/Beatles/2004/12/01/781154.html. Retrieved 2011-04-03. 
11. ^ ^{a b} "Gold & Platinum Certification - February 2007". Canadian Recording Industry Association. http://www.cria.ca/gold/0207_g.php. Retrieved 2011-04-03. 
12. ^ ^{a b} "Conspiracy of One". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r505619. Retrieved 2007-12-20. 
13. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} "Conspiracy of One - Chart Positions" HitParade.ch.
14. ^ "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2000 Albums" Australian Recording Industry Association.
15. ^ "IFPI - Austria - Search for Offspring" IFPI Austria.
16. ^ "The Offspring - Charts & Awards - Billboard Albums" allmusic.
17. ^ "IFPI - Finland - Search for Offspring" IFPI Finland.
18. ^ "The Offspring Albums - Total Sales and Certifications" IFPI Finland - Certifications.
19. ^ "Media Control Charts - The Offspring" Media Control Charts.
20. ^ "Oricon Album Charts Search for The Offspring" Oricon.
21. ^ "RIAJ Database - Search for The Offspring - Conspiracy of One" Recording Industry Association of Japan.
22. ^ "RIANZ Charts - Search for The Offspring's Conspiracy of One" Recording Industry Association of New Zealand.
23. ^ "Polish Charts Database - Search for The Offspring - Conspiracy of One" Polish Albums Chart.
24. ^ "ZPAV Database - Search for OFFSPRING" IFPI Norway.
25. ^ "IFPI - Sweden - Search for Offspring" IFPI Sweden.
26. ^ "IFPI - Switzerland - Certifications for The Offspring" Hitparade.
27. ^ "Chart Log UK (1994–2006) The O – Ozric Tentacles" Zobbel.
28. ^ "BPI Database - Statistics - Certified Awards - Search for Offspring" British Phonographic Industry.
29. ^ "RIAA Database Search for Offspring" Recording Industry Association of America.

External links

• Official page for the album