Artificial Heart

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Artificial Heart
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Artist: Jonathan Coulton
Tracks: 18
Release date: September 2, 2011

Artificial Heart is Jonathan Coulton's eighth studio album, produced by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. The CD packaging and related merchandise were designed by graphic designer Sam Potts.

History

In 2010, Jonathan Coulton announced that his long hiatus from recording new material was ending. After Coulton opened for They Might Be Giants earlier that year, John Flansburgh suggested working together on Coulton's new material. The collaboration helped push Coulton outside his comfort zone, and he frequently commented on being excited and terrified by the process. As a result, Artificial Heart represents a significant departure from Coulton's earlier albums. Not only is it the first Coulton album to be produced by someone besides Coulton himself, it's the first to be recorded in an "actual studio" (owned by They Might Be Giants' long time producer, Patrick Dillett), and the first to be written for a full band. In addition to the drummer and bassist who frequently appear in Coulton's live shows, Artificial Heart features over a dozen guest musicians and several tracks with guest lead vocals.

Coulton and his collaborators recorded Artificial Heart between September 2010 and June 2011. The album was released in late August 2011, with an official release party on September 2.

Live versions of some tracks debuted as early as July 2010, so there are many concert recordings that predate the official release date. Fans on the JoCo Forums compiled some of the best bootlegs into a project called Artificial Artificial Heart while waiting for the studio version to be released.

Track Listing

  1. Sticking It To Myself
  2. Artificial Heart
  3. Nemeses
  4. The World Belongs to You
  5. Today With Your Wife
  6. Sucker Punch
  7. Glasses
  8. Je Suis Rick Springfield
  9. Alone at Home
  10. Fraud
  11. Good Morning Tucson
  12. Now I Am An Arsonist
  13. Down Today
  14. Dissolve
  15. Nobody Loves You Like Me
  16. Still Alive
  17. Want You Gone
  18. The Stache

Credits

Production

Additional musicians

Availability

Artificial Heart CDs were first made available to the public at PAX Prime 2011, but the official release party was September 2, 2011, at a show in Atlanta. Online pre-orders and digital downloads of the album are available from his website as of August 30, 2011, though it temporarily became unavailable at midnight PST on October 5, 2011.

In addition to the album itself, the pre-order page offers several merchandise packages featuring t-shirts, posters, USB keys and other extras. The ordering experience features graphics and copy text to match the album's theme, likely designed by Sam Potts.

Diagnostic Metrics

On the back of the Artificial Heart CD, the track listing also includes Diagnostic Metrics symbols from Tucson Diagnostics. The track listing and diagnostic metrics are:

Track Title   Metric A     Metric B     Metrics C, D, and E  
1. Sticking It To Myself
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2. Artificial Heart
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3. Nemeses
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4. The World Belongs to You
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5. Today With Your Wife
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6. Sucker Punch
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7. Glasses
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8. Je Suis Rick Springfield
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9. Alone at Home
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10. Fraud
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11. Good Morning Tucson
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12. Now I Am An Arsonist
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13. Down Today
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14. Dissolve
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15. Nobody Loves You Like Me
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16. Still Alive
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17. Want You Gone
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18. The Stache
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The titles of the columns of diagnostic metrics are not specified on the CD cover or in the liner notes. The names used above for the Metric columns are arbitrary and only for reference here.

Interpretation of the Diagnostic Metrics

There are 18 symbols in the Diagnostic Metrics and 18 songs on the album. In the track listing, each symbol appears exactly once in the Metric A and Metric B columns.

The relationship between the Metric A and Metric B columns is symmetric. That is, if a song has a Metric A symbol of X and a Metric B symbol of Y, then the song with Metric A symbol of Y has a Metric B symbol of X.

Using the names of the Diagnostic Metrics symbols, one possible interpretation is that Metric A represents the primary theme of the song, Metric B represesnts the opposite of the primary theme, and Metrics C, D, and E represent secondary themes.

For example, consider the symbols for the song Still Alive:

  • Its Metric A symbol, or primary theme, is Success
  • Its Metric B symbol, or opposite theme, is Ruin (which is the Metric A symbol for Dissolve)
  • Its Metric C, D, and E symbols, or secondary themes, are Betrayal, Rebirth, Confidence

Consider also the artwork on the front of the Level 4 Participant shirt, which shows arrows between several symbols:

References

Artificial Heart
1. Sticking It To Myself · 2. Artificial Heart · 3. Nemeses · 4. The World Belongs to You · 5. Today With Your Wife · 6. Sucker Punch · 7. Glasses · 8. Je Suis Rick Springfield · 9. Alone at Home · 10. Fraud · 11. Good Morning Tucson · 12. Now I Am An Arsonist · 13. Down Today · 14. Dissolve · 15. Nobody Loves You Like Me · 16. Still Alive · 17. Want You Gone · 18. The Stache