Conditions is the debut studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by Australian rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band The Temper Trap

The Temper Trap

The Temper Trap is an Australian indie rock band which formed in 2005. The core members are Jonathon Aherne on bass guitar and vocals, Toby Dundas on drums and programming, Dougy Mandagi on vocals and guitar, and Lorenzo Sillitto on guitar, keyboards and vocals. They are supplemented on tours with...

, released in Australia through Liberation Music

Liberation Music

Liberation Music is a boutique, independent Australasian record company, started in 1999 by Michael Gudinski and Warren Costello. Its stated aim is to find, nurture and then to develop new talent for a world market while remaining independent in the process...

 on 19 June 2009. It was later released in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2009. The album debuted at number nine on the Australian Albums Chart

ARIA Charts

The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...

, where it has been certified platinum, and peaked at number 25 on the UK Albums Chart

UK Albums Chart

The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

, largely due to the success of the debut single "Sweet Disposition

Sweet Disposition

"Sweet Disposition" is a song by Australian indie rock band The Temper Trap.-Charting:Despite The Temper Trap originating from Australia, "Sweet Disposition", the lead single from the debut album Conditions has proved to be more popular in the UK and Ireland, reaching #6 and #8 respectively, while...

", which peaked at number six on the singles chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

. The song "Science of Fear" was featured in the EA Sports game FIFA 10.

Background

After signing a worldwide record deal with Korda Marshall's newly re-launched Infectious Records (previously home to Muse

Muse (band)

Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...

, Ash

Ash (band)

Ash are an alternative rock band that formed in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland in 1992. The band has sold 8 million albums worldwide.-Band beginning, Trailer and 1977 :...

 and Garbage

Garbage (band)

Garbage are an alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1994. The group consists of Scottish singer Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson , Steve Marker and Butch Vig . All four members are involved in songwriting and production...

) and scoring a trailer and soundtrack appearance for the US film (500) Days of Summer, Melbourne band The Temper Trap got together with producer Jim Abbiss (Kasabian, Unkle

UNKLE

Unkle are a British musical outfit founded in 1994 by school friends James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Originally categorized as trip-hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have employed a variety of guest artists and producers.-First incarnation :Lavelle and Goldsworthy were joined...

, Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock band. Formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield, the band currently consists of Alex Turner , Jamie Cook , Nick O'Malley and Matt Helders...

, Adele

Adele (singer)

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins , known professionally as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter. She was the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2008...

) to work on their debut album in early 2009.

Production

The album was completed in March 2009 in a final London Session with Abbiss, following a previous four week stint at Melbourne's Sing Sing Studios with renowned Australian engineer Kalju Tonuma

Kalju Tonuma

Kalju Tonuma is a music producer, engineer, mixer, and occasional performer based in Melbourne, Australia. He played guitar as a member of Deadstar in 1998...

.

Reception

Generally, early Australian reviews for the album were positive. Brisbane's Rave magazine gave the album high praise; "Some bands can only dream of a debut as auspicious as this. The Temper Trap have it for real".

In reference to Mandagi's voice, Michael Hann of The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

noted that; "with his voice, and a band this dynamic, he could get away with singing the racing cards", The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

online wrote that "the lead singer of this Melbourne four-piece, soars across a debut album with a voice that switches without warning into a rasping, edgy tenor with thrilling dynamic impact", whilst Keira Burgess of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 commented that; "Mandagi's falsetto vocal provides the axis around which the rest of the band revolves, displayed both in the often unintelligible 'Love Lost' through to the likes of sing-along synth pop 'Fader'".

However, not all reviews were positive, with music critic site Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

 deciding that the group is "defined by almost any measure except musical creativity or lyrical ingenuity", as well as noting that "when you adopt the trappings of revolutionary significance without showing much interest in advancing beyond the revolutions of twenty years ago, you sound ridiculous".

The album was nominated for the ARIA Album of the Year Award

ARIA Music Awards of 2009

The 23rd Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards took place on 26 November 2009 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. The ceremony was telecast on the Nine Network at 8:30pm that night...

 in 2009.

Promotion and release

In Melbourne, coinciding with the launch of the album, the logo and title of the album were spray painted on pavements, including in Melbourne's central business district. Their debut album was released in Australia through Liberation Music

Liberation Music

Liberation Music is a boutique, independent Australasian record company, started in 1999 by Michael Gudinski and Warren Costello. Its stated aim is to find, nurture and then to develop new talent for a world market while remaining independent in the process...

 on 19 June 2009. It was later released in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2009.

It was released in the United States on 13 October 2009, through Glassnote Records, a label which specializes in alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 music.

Track listing

Chart performance

Chart (2009)	Peak position
Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	175
Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...	9
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	25
Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...	18
Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy....	53
Irish Indie Albums Chart	2

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalogue
Australia	19 June 2009	Liberation Liberation Music Liberation Music is a boutique, independent Australasian record company, started in 1999 by Michael Gudinski and Warren Costello. Its stated aim is to find, nurture and then to develop new talent for a world market while remaining independent in the process...	CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... , digital download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
			CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...	LMCD0056
United Kingdom	10 August 2009	Infectious Infectious Records Infectious Records is a record label whose bands have included Ash, Local Natives, Symposium, My Vitriol, Seafood, The Paradise Motel, General Fiasco and The Subways. Infectious was established by Korda Marshall after leaving RCA, and became part of Marshall's Mushroom Records UK operation in the...
United States	13 October 2009	Glassnote Glassnote Records Glassnote Records is an independent record label launched by American music executive Daniel Glass in 2007. The label primarily has a lineup of indie rock and alternative rock artists...