''Villains'' is the second studio album and first major label release by American rock band

the Verve Pipe The Verve Pipe is an American Rock music, rock band from Michigan. They were formed in 1992 in East Lansing, Michigan, East Lansing by Brian Vander Ark (vocals, guitar), Brad Vander Ark (bass), Brian Stout (guitar), and Donny Brown (drums). They ...

. It was released in March 1996. The band received its first hit in "

Photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

", which peaked in the top 10 on the ''Billboard Modern Rock Tracks''. A year after the release of the album, a reformatted version of " The Freshmen" peaked at number 1 on the

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

chart. The single was also the band's sole appearance on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, where it peaked at number 5. The success of the song helped this album go platinum. To date, it is the Verve Pipe's best selling album. The album was originally pressed in a blue case to match the color of the artwork, which included the slower recording of "The Freshmen," before it was later re-recorded and added to subsequent pressings.

Artwork

The artwork includes a toy duck in a darkened background and inverted-like coloring.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Villains'' booklet and liner notes. The Verve Pipe *Brian Vander Ark –

Lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

*Brad Vander Ark –

Bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

*Donny Brown –

Drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, backing vocals *A.J. Dunning –

Lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

, backing vocals *Doug Corella – Keyboards,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Artwork *Sean Mosher-Smith – Art Direction, Design *Aldo Mauro – Band Photography *Slow HEARTH – Bird Photography Management *Doug Buttleman – Management for The Fitzgerald Hartley Company *Fred Bohlander – Booking for Monterey Peninsula Artists *Howard B. Abrams – Legal Production *

Jerry Harrison Jeremiah Griffin Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and entrepreneur. He began his professional music career as a member of the band the Modern Lovers, before becoming keyboardist and guitarist for ...

– Producer * Brian Malouf – A&R *Jason Rio, Philip "Mac" Ward – Coordinators *Douglas Biro & Ria Lewerke – Creative Directors *Karl Derfler –

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

*Doug McKean – Additional Editing *Larry "Hot" Brewer – Additional engineering *Chris Buttleman – Guitar Technician *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' '' Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Early life ...

– Mastering at Sterling Sound, New York, NY *

Tom Lord-Alge Tom Lord-Alge (born January 17, 1962) is an American music engineer and mixer. He began his career at Unique Recording in New York. Subsequently, he was the resident mixer at what used to be known as "South Beach Studios", located on the ground ...

– Mixing *Alvaro Alencar & Mauricio Iragorri – Assistant mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

Certifications

References

1996 albums The Verve Pipe albums RCA Records albums Albums produced by Jerry Harrison {{1990s-alt-rock-album-stub