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Schizophrenic (JC Chasez album)

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Schizophrenic (JC Chasez album)

Schizophrenic is the debut studio album by American recording artist JC Chasez. It was released on February 24, 2004, by Jive Records. The album spanned various musical genres, including New Wave, electronica, rock, disco, soul and reggae. Chasez served as a primary producer, co-writing fifteen of the album's tracks. Two singles were released from the album: "Some Girls (Dance with Women)" and "All Day Long I Dream About Sex".

Though the album had minimal promotion at its time of release and was not met with large commercial success, it has since been retroactively praised by critics for its musical breadth, vocals, production, and electropop sound.

After his group NSYNC went on hiatus following the Celebrity Tour in 2002, Chasez teamed up with producer Dallas Austin to record the song "Blowin' Me Up (With Her Love)" for the soundtrack to the film Drumline. Following the song's success as a single, Chasez began working on a record that he intended to be different from NSYNC's music. Chasez had not intended on embarking on a solo career until Austin convinced him to make an album. Of Austin's encouragement, Chasez said, "He's like, 'You've got too much to say. You know, there's no reason why you shouldn't. You're writing songs anyway.’"

Chasez said the album title is derived "from [its] different styles and attitudes that are on this album. It's gritty, it's noisy, and it is definitely not like anything I've done before." Austin described the music he recorded with Chasez as a throwback "to George Michael and Prince and that '80s era, where even though you had up-tempos, they still had songs to them, they had a lot of attitude.'" Aside from Chasez and Austin, the album features productions from Robb Boldt and Riprock 'n' Alex G, the latter having worked with Chasez on No Strings Attached and Celebrity. Basement Jaxx wrote and produced the song "Shake It" after Chasez lent his vocals to the duo's single "Plug It In."

The release of Schizophrenic was delayed repeatedly, with a planned release date in the summer of 2003 bumped to that fall, and again bumped to January in the following year. When the album was released on February 24, 2004, promotion was further affected by the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy which had occurred earlier that month. Chasez was scheduled to perform "Some Girls (Dance with Women)" at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii a week after the Super Bowl, but due to the NFL's crackdown on what they perceived to be indecent content in the song, organizers demanded Chasez sing "Blowin' Me Up (With Her Love)" instead. Chasez was again asked to make changes to the song, particularly the line: "She was leaning on me/ Getting horny/ Maybe we'll get naughty". Ultimately, Chasez's Pro Bowl appearance was nixed. In addition, radio stations declined to play the single "All Day Long I Dream About Sex" for fear of FCC fines, preventing the song and music video from gaining exposure.

To promote Schizophrenic, Chasez began a mini club tour in December 2003, earning positive reviews from The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle. Marketing for the album fared better in the United Kingdom, where Chasez was an opening act on several dates for Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel tour. Prior to and after his opening dates for Spears, Chasez toured venues in the U.S accompanied by a five-piece band. In a review of his show at New York's Roseland Ballroom, Chasez was described as "a fine singer who performed every song during the brief but explosive 75-minute set. Still, as good as his voice was (especially on the ballad 'Dear Goodbye'), his dancing stole the show."

Devon Powers of PopMatters noted that "Chasez's years of performing multiple nights to crowds ten times as large were put to good use. Complete with dancers, costume changes, lights, and props, Chasez crossed the line from sheer musician to pure entertainer...If the music business is a circus, Chasez set out to produce The Greatest Show on Earth." Powers also praised his vocal talents: "His voice is, without question, a miracle: elastic and tough, it can move from curdling to coddling in an instant, pushing the limits of what one would think is humanely possible."

Jon Pareles (The New York Times) commented "Mr. Chasez is most retro in his rock; like a promising apprentice, he directly mimicked Robert Plant and Prince (singing Prince's 'Let's Go Crazy'), and whipped up a fervor to rival early Sting in his Police imitation, 'Everything You Want.'" Patrick Berkery (The Philadelphia Inquirer) wrote, "Chasez was a bumping and grinding, locking and popping dancing machine as he sang carnally minded jams from his debut solo outing...in a voice that alternated between achy tenor and fluttery falsetto."

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