''Memories of a Beautiful Disaster'' is the debut studio album of American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

musician

James Durbin __NOTOC__ James Durbin FBA (30 June 1923 – 23 June 2012) was a British statistician and econometrician, known particularly for his work on time series analysis and serial correlation. Education The son of a greengrocer, Durbin was born in W ...

, released on November 21, 2011 through

Wind-up Records Wind-up Records, LLC (legally known as Wind-up Entertainment Inc. until 2004) was an American record label founded by Alan and Diana Meltzer in 1997. It was based in New York City and was distributed by BMG Distribution. Wind-up's best-selling ...

Recording

The name of the album was announced in late September 2011 by Durbin via a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

post, and the cover was revealed on October 7. The album was released on November 21, 2011 on

Howard Benson Howard Michael Benson (born July 20, 1956) is an American record producer from Havertown, Pennsylvania. He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2007 and 2008, among two wins and 16 total nominati ...

was the producer. Guitarist

Mick Mars Robert Alan Deal (born May 4, 1951), known professionally as Mick Mars, is an American musician best known as the former lead guitarist and co-founder of the Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, being the oldest of the four origin ...

is a guest on one song from the album. Other musicians involved with the album include songwriter

Marti Frederiksen Martin Harold "Marti" Frederiksen (born July 1, 1962) is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician. He writes and produces music primarily in rock, country, and pop. He is best known for his work with many artists and bands incl ...

, Swedish band

Hardcore Superstar Hardcore Superstar is a Swedish Rock music, rock band from Gothenburg, formed in 1997. They have released eleven studio albums. History The first ten years (1997–2007) 1997–2004 Hardcore Superstar was formed in Gothenburg, Sweden in ...

and Sixx:A.M. members

James Michael James Andrew Michael is an American record producer, sound engineer, mixer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was the lead singer of the rock band Sixx:A.M. Early life He took piano lessons while growing up and sang in Holland High Scho ...

, and

DJ Ashba Daren Jay Ashba (born November 10, 1972) is an American musician, guitarist, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer. He was the lead guitarist of Sixx:A.M. He is also known for his work with hard rock bands BulletBoys, Beautiful Creatu ...

Singles

Two singles were initially released from the album. "Love Me Bad" was leaked online on October 19, 2011, but was officially released on

Ryan Seacrest Ryan John Seacrest (born December 24, 1974) is an American television presenter and producer. Seacrest is the host of '' Wheel of Fortune'', having hosted since replacing long-time host Pat Sajak in September 2024. Seacrest co-hosted and ser ...

's radio show on November 2. The second single, "Stand Up", was originally written for ''Official Gameday Music of the NFL Vol. 1'' and was released to rock radio stations.

Track listing

The track listing for the album was revealed on October 19, 2011.

Reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave ''Memories of a Beautiful Disaster'' a rating of three out of five stars, and said that while the album was "much more pop than rock," in contrast to Durbin's ''American Idol'' performances, it "does deliver the vocal goods here on material that should appeal to his ''AmIdol'' fan base."

Chart performance

The album debuted on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart at number 36 with first-week sales of 28,000. The album has sold 123,000 copies in the US as of January 2017.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums James Durbin (singer) albums