''Before the Robots'' is the studio follow-up

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Better Than Ezra Better Than Ezra is an American alternative rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and signed with Round Hill Music. The band formed in 1988 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and consists of Kevin Griffin (vocals and guitar), Tom Drummond (bas ...

's 2001 studio release ''

Closer Closer or Closers may refer to: Film and television * ''Closer'' (2000 film), a documentary by Tina Gharavi * ''Closer'' (2004 film), a 2004 adaptation of Patrick Marber's play (see below), directed by Mike Nichols * ''The Closer'', a 1990 mo ...

'' and debut album on

Artemis Records Artemis Records was a New York–based independent record label, founded in June 1999 by Danny Goldberg with Daniel Glass as president, and closed in April 2006. The label was acquired by E1 Entertainment. As of 2006, Artemis Records was owned b ...

. It was released on April 4, 2005, internationally and a day later in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. The band enjoyed their biggest success since 1996's '' Friction, Baby'' on the reworked single "

A Lifetime "A Lifetime" is a song by the American alternative rock band Better Than Ezra. It was originally released on the band's 2001 album '' Closer''. However, a new, re-recorded version (which would become the single) appeared on their 2005 album ''Befo ...

", which first appeared on 2001's ''

''. The tracks "A Southern Thing" and "

Our Last Night Our Last Night is an American post-hardcore band formed in 2004, consisting of brothers Trevor (vocals) and Matthew (guitar, vocals) Wentworth and Timothy Molloy (drums). The band is known for its post-hardcore and alternative metal renditions ...

" also gained some radio airplay. Additionally, the album track "Juicy" was the featured music in promotions for the second season of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

series ''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a tota ...

''. Prior to the album's release, the band offered to autograph all copies of the album pre-ordered through their website. The album title reportedly came to the band's drummer Travis McNabb in a dream. He dreamt of seeing a UK buzz band called Before the Robots. The next day, he asked fellow band members if there was such a band. Upon finding out there was not, they decided to adopt the phrase for this album's title. On January 22, 2010, American country-pop singer

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

covered "Breathless" at a performance at the '' Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief'' event, a charity telethon to benefit the victims of the

2010 Haiti earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (departm ...

. Swift has also been known to cover "Our Last Night" at many of her concerts.

Track listing

All tracks written by

Kevin Griffin Kevin Michael Griffin (born October 1, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Better Than Ezra, with whom he has released nine studio albums. He has also issued one s ...

Personnel

;Better Than Ezra * Tom Drummond –

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 ...

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Travis Aaron McNabb –

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 ...

;Additional personnel *

Tim Palmer Tim Palmer may refer to: * Tim Palmer (film historian) (born 1975), English film historian * Tim Palmer (journalist), Australian journalist * Tim Palmer (1943-1997), British technology journalist * Tim Palmer (physicist) (born 1952), English physic ...

- Mixing * Greg Collins –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

* Jon Gros – B3

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

, Whirly,

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

* Jason Hill –

background 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 u ...

* Brian Karzcig – background vocals * Eric Lucero –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

* Mark Mullins –

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

{{Authority control 2005 albums Better Than Ezra albums Artemis Records albums