The Complex is the second full-length album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group is an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring popular music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight...

, released in 2003. The album produced two singles, and debuted at #60 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 charts. The Allmusic review by Robert L. Doerschuk states "Although its inspirations, musical and conceptual, trace as far back as Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...

, The Complex serves as a reminder that modern devices and glistening production values can be applied to the most primal creative instincts, if utilized by the right -- blue -- hands".

Track listing

1. "Above" (Dyas, Goldman, Heinemann, Pai, Perlmutter, Stanton, Wink) – 2:46
2. "Time to Start" (Dyas, Goldman, Stanton, Wink) – 3:43
3. "Sing Along" (Dyas, Goldman, Stanton, Wink) – 3:25
   • featuring Dave Matthews
     Dave Matthews
     David John "Dave" Matthews is a South African–born American musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band...
     
     
4. "Up to the Roof" (Dyas, Gleitsman, Goldman, Heinemann, Perlmutter, Stanton, Wink) – 3:51
   • featuring Tracy Bonham
     Tracy Bonham
     Tracy Bonham is an American alternative rock musician best known for her 1996 single "Mother Mother".Raised in Eugene, Oregon, Bonham is a classically-trained violinist and pianist...
     
     
5. "Your Attention" (Dyas, Goldman, Heinemann, Pai, Perlmutter, Stanton, Wink) – 4:09
6. "Persona" (Dyas, Gleitsman, Goldman, Stanton, Wink) – 4:30
   • featuring Josh Haden
     Josh Haden
     Josh Haden is an American jazz musician. He is the founder, bassist and singer of the group Spain. Josh Haden is the the son of Charlie Haden....
     
     
7. "Piano Smasher" (Dyas, Golden, Goldman, Perlmutter, Stanton, Wink) – 3:00
8. "White Rabbit
   White Rabbit (song)
   "White Rabbit" is a song from Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It was released as a single and became the band's second top ten success, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100...
   
   " (Grace Slick
   Grace Slick
   Grace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
   
   ) – 2:54
   • featuring Esthero
     Esthero
     Esthero ,born Jenny-Bea Englishman, is a Canadian singer-songwriter who currently lives in Los Angeles, California. The name Esthero refers both to the singer and formerly to the two-person team of herself and producer Doc McKinney...
     
     
9. "The Current
   The Current (song)
   "The Current" is a song by Blue Man Group, released as the first single from their 2003 concept album, The Complex. The song features the guest vocals of Gavin Rossdale of Bush, and was featured in the film, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines....
   
   " (Dyas, Gleitsman, Goldman, Stanton, Wink) – 3:48
   • featuring Gavin Rossdale
     Gavin Rossdale
     Gavin McGregor Rossdale is an English musician, known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Bush as well as an actor. Following Bush's separation in 2002, which lasted for eight years, he was the lead singer and guitarist for Institute, and later began a solo career. He...
     
     
10. "Shadows, Pt. 2" (Dyas, Gleitsman, Goldman, Perlmutter, Stanton, Wink) – 2:56
    • featuring Tracy Bonham and Rob Swift
      Rob Swift
      Rob Swift is an American hip hop DJ and turntablist. Swift is a former member of the turntablist group The X-Ecutioners as of late 2005 and as of 2006; with Mike Patton’s project Peeping Tom.-Early life:...
      
      
11. "What Is Rock" (Dyas, Gleitsman, Goldman, Stanton, Wink) – 3:11
    • featuring Arone Dyer and Peter Moore
12. "The Complex" (Dyas, Gleitsman, Goldman, Heinemann, Stanton, Wink) – 6:25
    • featuring Peter Moore
13. "I Feel Love" (Bellotte, Moroder, Summer) – 5:13
    • featuring Annette Strean of Venus Hum
      Venus Hum
      Venus Hum is an electronic pop music group from Nashville, Tennessee, consisting of vocalist Annette Strean and multi-instrumentalists Kip Kubin and Tony Miracle. Miracle has a rare heart condition which results in perpetually hearing his own heartbeat in his ears...
      
      
14. "Exhibit 13
    Exhibit 13
    "Exhibit 13" is the last song on the Blue Man Group's album The Complex. The song's title comes from a scorched piece of paper which blew into the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York on September 11, 2001 immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Center...
    
    " (Banks, Dyas, Goldman, Heinemann, Parrulli, Stanton, Wink) – 8:51
    • Actual length is – 4:01
    • Includes a hidden track
      Hidden track
      In the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
      
       - Mandelbrot No.4, length: – 4:19

Concept

The Complex is a concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 that takes place in two separate worlds, a world of rock as in the song "Time to Start," and the urban isolation world, as in the songs "Sing Along," "The Current", and "The Complex." Both worlds are then tied together in the song "What Is Rock," which combines the ideals of the rock concert with the ideals of urban isolation.

Personnel

• Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, Chris Wink (CMP) - founders
• Chris Dyas - baritone guitar, e-bow, guitar, harsichord, zither
• Larry Heinemann - bass, chapman stick, guitar, pressaphonic, tubulum, zither
• Todd Perlmutter - drums, narrator (2,5,11), percussion programming
• Blue Man - airpoles, anvil, backpack tubulum, big drum, cimbalom, cuica, dogulum, drumulum, dulcimer, dumpster, mandeldrums, mellotron cello, paddle tubulum, percussion, piano smasher, PVC instrument, tubulum, 1981 casiotone and kazoo.
• Tracy Bonham - vocals (4,10)
• Arone Dyer - vocals (11)
• Esthero - vocals (8)
• Josh Haden - vocals (6)
• Dave Matthews - vocals (3)
• Peter Moore - vocals (11,12), keyboards (15)
• Gavin Rossdale - vocals (9)
• Annette Strean/Venus Hum - vocals (13)
• Dave Anania - percussion (11)
• Chris Bowen - tubulum (13), voiceover (11)
• Nels Cline - guitar (6,8-10,13)
• Dan the Automator - programming (3,9)
• Jeffrey Doornbos - tubulum (13)
• Byron Estep - dobro guitar (5)
• Brooke Ferris - start voice (2), "words on the left" (5)
• Avram Gleitsman - guitar (9)
• Spalding Gray - "words on the right" (5)
• Kid Koala - samples (11)
• Elvis Lederer - zither (5,15)
• Ian Pai - percussion (1,2,5,10,15)
• Jeff Quay - percussion & double drum kit (5,6,12,15)
• Brian Scott - tubulum (13)
• Dave Steele - guitar (4,8,9,12), zither (4,12)
• Rob Swift - turntable (5,10)
• Chris Traynor - guitar (9)
• Jeff Turlik - guitar (1,2,5,8,9,12-15), zither (14,15)
• Todd Waetzig - percussion (11)
• Jordan Cohen, Matthew Kriemelman, Jeff Tortora, Vince Verderame, Todd Waetzig, Nick White - Vegas Drum Army (1,2,5,6,7 & 13)
• Dave Anania, Chris Bowen, Wes Day, Jeffrey Doornbos, Randall Jaynes, Josh Matthews, Ian Pai, Crag Rodriguez, Pete Simpson, Pete Starrett, Clem Waldman - NY Drum Army (2,5,15)

Production

• Producers: Todd Perlmutter, Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, Chris Wink
• Executive producer: Jeff Skillen
• Engineers: Bill Bookheim, Joe Hogan, Joe O'Connell, Todd Perlmutter, Andrew Schneider
• Mixing: Rich Costey, Andrew Schneider
• Mastering: Bob Ludwig
• Production supervisor: Jeff Levison
• Production coordination: Jaime Ramírez
• Product development: Michael Quinn, Jeni Ardizzone West
• Programming: Dan the Automator, Todd Perlmutter
• Computer engineering: Larry Heinemann
• Vocal producers: Kip Kubin, Tony Miracle, Venus Hum
• Sampling: Kid Koala
• Arrangers: Peter Moore, Ian Pai, Dave Steele, Jeff Turlik
• Studio assistant: Mike Napolitano
• Art consultant: Dan the Automator
• Technician: Mike Napolitano
• Drum technician: Carl Plaster
• Art direction: Marcus Miller, Charles Tyler Ensemble
• Design: Jen Graffam Wink
• Artwork: David Bell
• Cover image: Jen Graffam Wink

Album

Chart (2003)	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...	60
Billboard Top Internet Albums	60

Songs

Year	Song	Chart	Position
2003	"Sing Along"	Adult Top 40	37
2004	"I Feel Love"	Hot Dance Club Play Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...	7