You Fail Me

Writing and recording

Converge began writing for You Fail Me after they recorded Jane Doe, they wrote on the road during sound checks of shows. Much of the material was worked out in a live setting for some time before the band entered the studio. Bannon stated "it definitely added a new level of refinement to the album material." Recording for the album was started in March 2004 mainly at GodCity Studio, however additional recording took place at The Magpie Cage and Witch Doctor Studio.

Release and promotion

On September 20, 2004 Converge released their fifth studio album You Fail Me. Converge's first headlining tour in support of You Fail Me started in September 2004 with Cave In and Between the Buried and Me. On this tour Converge sold copies of Bannon's side-project's album, Supermachiner Rise of the Great Machine, the album was limited to 50 copies. On February 14, 2005 a music video was released for the track "Eagles Become Vultures" from the album You Fail Me, the music video was directed by Zach Merck.

Musical style and theme

Jacob Bannon explained the theme of the album when asked in an interview with Magnus Jaschke "what's the concept or theme of it?"

"Lyrically/Thematically: After Jane Doe was recorded and released, I thought I was going to feel the emotional burden I was carrying lift from my shoulders. I had all the puzzle pieces there in front of me. Outlets bring closure, or at least that's what I thought. With that, I put myself out on the line looking for an emotional resolve with "Jane..." and it never came. When the album was released I didn't feel any better, nothing was changed. My depression kept collapsing on itself. At that point I stopped hoping and searching and I took a long hard look at my life and at my heart. I did a huge amount of soul searching and found so much failure within myself. That discovery was a massive realization. As I started to see clear again, I also saw the failure in friends and loved ones around me. How we fail each other, and how we fail ourselves. These are songs of failure. And ultimately, surviving self destruction and tragedy we all face in our lives. Musically our only goal was to write an album that moved us and challenged us. We feel we accomplished that."

Bannon states the lyrics are "opinionated" and that there is definitely a rage in the writings that are not apparent in previous albums.

Critical reception

Joe Pazner of Stylus Magazine said that "Converge has emerged an impeccably pared-down case study in calculated cruelty, resourcefulness and cunning tempered by desperation. More than any record in their expansive catalog, You Fail Me stands as testament to the brutal necessities Converge has created to ensure its survival."

Adam Turner-Heffer of Sputnikmusic said that "They are as important as Botch and Palehorse in their own genres, and with [You Fail Me], they are here to prove it.

Sam Ubl of Pitchfork Media complimented the album by stating "Not only have Converge retained (even sharpened) their razorblade cut, they're now bolstered by a brawny low-end".

Charts

It was the band's first album to chart commercially, reaching number 171 on the Billboard 200. It also charted at number 12 in the Top Heatseekers chart and number 16 in the Independent Albums listings.

You Fail Me Redux

On June 17, 2016, Converge reissued the album under the name You Fail Me Redux through Epitaph/Deathwish. The band had "never quite content with the original mix" and had guitarist Kurt Ballou remix the album and Alan Douches remaster it. You Fail Me Redux also features updated cover artwork with an inverted color scheme, a black-outlined hand on a white background. The redux had the same track list as the vinyl version of the original album.

Kurt Ballou explained in an interview with Noisey why he felt that the album needed to be remixed/remastered:

"Probably since we did No Heroes [in 2006]. You Fail Me was the last time Converge did a record where I wasn’t involved in the entire engineering process. The record that followed You Fail Me, which was No Heroes, was the first time that I both recorded and mixed a Converge record, with the exception of The Poacher Diaries, which was an EP or a split. Upon completing No Heroes and managing to make my bandmates happy with the work I did on that record, I thought that I’d really like to go back and remix You Fail Me. I recorded that one, but Matt Ellard, who did most of the engineering work on Jane Doe, was the one who mixed it. But it was also mixed under less than ideal circumstances."

"Jane Doe was mixed at Fort Apache on a console that Matt was familiar with, and we had sufficient time to do those mixes. With You Fail Me, he came up and mixed in my studio, which he’d never worked in before, and it was an unfamiliar console. He’s a very malleable engineer and can work anywhere, but it probably wasn’t his top choice to mix at my place. We also kept having power outages during the mixes. I can’t remember the exact details, but I think we booked six days of mixing with him, but he ended up having to do it in about three because he’d come in, work for half an hour, and the power would go out. It was mixed in the summer under brownout conditions, so we’d have electricity in the morning while it was still relatively cool but then as things heated up in the afternoon we’d lose power. So he spent a lot of time lying on the couch waiting for the power to come back on. I still think it turned out great, but there was something about the lack of consistency from song to song and a few other details that made me want to remix it. Sonically, I wanted to make it fit more logically between Jane Doe and No Heroes."

Track listing

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

Personnel

You Fail Me personnel adapted from CD liner notes.