Jane Doe (album)

Writing and recording

Bannon stated in an interview that many of the songs off Jane Doe came from side-project Supermachiner, the project was claimed to inspire Jane Doe's experimental side. The songs ‘"Jane Doe" and ‘"Phoenix in Flight" were initially intended for the Supermachiner album, Rise of the Great Machine, but Bannon thought "it made sense for Converge to play them."

The band had a higher budget and recorded it differently from previous releases. The album was recorded in thee studios and mixed in two. The album was mostly recorded at Q Division, next door to James Taylor's recording session. However additional recording for the album also took place at GodCity and Fort Apache and took around three years to make. Bassist Nate Newton stated in an interview "I remember all of us wanting to write a hardcore record the kids were going to hate."

Release and promotion

In mid-2000 Converge self-released a three track record titled Jane Doe Demos. The record was released at Converge's 2000 tour and were limited to 100 copies. The CDs contained unreleased demo versions of "Bitter and Then Some" and "Thaw" from the upcoming album, Jane Doe as well as a cover of "Whatever I Do" originally by Negative Approach.

In the Summer of 2001 recording for Jane Doe began. The album was released on September 4, 2001 through Equal Vision Records as a CD and double vinyl which came in multiple colors. Bannon's Deathwish Inc (under exclusive license from Equal Vision) re-released the album on vinyl format. For the first time in over 6 years, the 2XLP is specially packaged in a Deluxe Gatefold sleeve and is accompanied by a stunning 28 page album sized booklet. The double vinyl version of the album officially became available for pre-order at the Deathwish web store on April 1, 2010, and then became available to buy in August 2010. Converge's first in tour in support of Jane Doe was in September, 2001 with Drowningman and Playing Enemy. Drowningman later dropped out of the tour to work on a new album.

Artwork

The artwork for the cover and liner note booklet of Jane Doe was designed and created by Jacob Bannon. The booklet features lyrics for each song on the album, however the lyrics are intentionally scattered and some times hard to read. Bannon stated "Visually, I just wanted to capture that disillusionment with relationships and channel the negatives I felt. I did this in hopes of creating some sort of positive out of all the negative I was experiencing." The result was a mystery created from a variety of media, collage, photography, spray paint, ink—that Bannon then assembled digitally. The cover image "has become Converge's de facto icon". She is not based on any original model.

In an interview Bannon revealed that he abandoned multiple art projects to work on artwork for Jane Doe;

"Abandoning several other ongoing art projects so he could work on 'Jane Doe' exclusively for a month, Bannon applied the same meticulous process in creating all of the companion images that appear in the album's 28-page CD booklet."Once I had the basic images completed, including the cover, I worked on type treatments for the release,"he says. "At first I used old Letraset type but later switched to contemporary typography as the project progressed. My goal was to continue the same kinetic feel of the imagery and make them one and the same.""

"Concubine/Fault and Fracture" music video

In 2002 a music video was released for the track "Concubine/Fault and Fracture" from the album Jane Doe, the music video was directed by Zach Merck. The video was filmed on location in Los Angeles in September. Over a three-day period, longtime friend of the band, Zachary Merck was responsible for bringing Converge's conceptual vision to life. The band stated on their website that "Although it's always difficult to hand over creative control of a project, we can safely say [Zachary Merck] did a commendable job on the project" and Converge also gave special thanks to Ashley for "sitting in a bathtub of blood for over two hours".

Musical style and theme

Bannon stated the album's lyrical themes were born out of a dissolving relationship and the emotional fallout from that experience.

Critical reception

Jane Doe was highly successful (especially when compared to Converge's previous albums). Terrorizer Magazine awarded the record Album of the Year status in 2001.

On July 2, 2002, Christopher Dare of Pitchfork Media said the album was “So full of intelligence, skill and intensity that it’s simply masterful. I don’t know what to call it. That’s probably a good thing.”

In January 2007, Decibel magazine certified the album number 35 in the "Decibel Hall of Fame", and later named it the best album of the 2000s. J. Bennett writes that "Jane Doe was both a semi-melodic milestone ("Hell to Pay", "Thaw", the title track) and a discordant landmark (everything else), far and away the most crucial metallic hardcore record since Cave In unleashed Until Your Heart Stops three years earlier".

On June 11, 2010, Sputnikmusic deemed Jane Doe the best album of the decade, earning the #1 spot on its top 100 albums of the decade list. Loudwire placed the album at #10 on its own albums of the decade list.

In March, 2011, Jane Doe was inducted into the Rock Sound's Hall of Fame. They described the album as "a gamechanger in the entire realm of heavy music".

Jane Live

On January 16, 2017 the band announced they are releasing a live album of their Jane Doe set from the Netherlands Roadburn Festival in 2016. The album was put up for per-order the same day. Deathwish's SoundCloud put the live version of the track "Jane Doe" up for streaming as well. The album, Jane Live was released on March 3, 2017.

The vinyl edition of the record are available with five different variants of artwork, each with their own variant of vinyl colour and shading. Each cover was designed by a different artist, these artists being Ashley Rose, Florian Bertmer, John Baizley, Randy Ortiz, and Thomas Hooper. Ashley Rose Couture’s real life reconstruction of the original cover is used for the release on all formats.

The set is mixed by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studio and mastered by Brad Boatwright at Audiosiege.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Jacob Bannon; all music composed by Converge.

Personnel

Jane Doe personnel adapted from CD liner notes.