Innocent; Convicted

"Innocent; Convicted"
File:CurriculumInnocentConvictedDownloadCover.png "Innocent; Convicted" cover
Promotional single by Curriculum
Released	2 January 2012
Format	Digital download
Recorded	2011
Genre	Alternative Indie pop
Length	3:40
Label	Blacklight
Writer	Gregory Preston Athanasiadis Dana Breckenridge
Producer	Shawn Middlesbrough
Curriculum chronology "So Mainstream" (2011) "Innocent; Convicted" (2012) "At A Party" (2012)

"Innocent; Convicted" is a song by American indie pop band Curriculum. Released on 2 January 2012 as the band's second ever promotional single and their third release overall, the song was meant to "promote" the band's second official single "At A Party". The song was written by Gregory Preston Athanasiadis and Dana Breckenridge and talks about being wrongly jailed for a crime that one did not commit; it was produced by Shawn Middlesbrough, who gave the song an "odd disco feel" to it and has since been heavily compared to the band's previous promotional single, "All I Need (All I Don't)", in terms of style and structure.

Aside from the noted similiarities to "All I Need (All I Don't)", the song was criticized for having sparse lyrical content. Athanasiadis, who co-wrote the song, blamed Breckenridge who wanted to keep the song "simple, easy, and catchy". "Innocent; Convicted" became the band's first charting promotional single in the UK and has debuted, and so far peaked, at #13 on the UK Downloads Chart.

Background

"Innocent; Convicted" was announced as the band's second ever promotional single, with it being their first to be released in the UK, following the scrapped promotional UK release of "All I Need (All I Don't)". "Innocent; Convicted" was meant to promote the band's second official single "At A Party", which subsequently was pushed back from its intended 16 January 2012 release date.

When talked about what the song was going to be about, group member Phillip Mandelbaum said that the song was "about something we were accused of something we didn't do! Plus the police were meanies to us! They made me wanna cry!". This comment caused a little bit of controversy as many people speculated that the band might've had something to do with scandalous death of pop singer Mitch, which was dominating headlines at the time the comment was made and eventually when the single was released. The group made no further comments on the matter but police did not list any of the boys as possible suspects, seeing as they did not know Mitch personally and was not invited to a party that was being thrown by pop singer Kleo where his murder took place.

Writing, inspiration, and composition

The topic of the song deals with being wrongfully accused and convicted of a crime that was not committed by the supposed and alleged suspect. Inspiration for the song did come from an actual event when all of the band members were accused of shoplifting from a bookstore that was located on the college campus of Columbia University. The boys were cleared when someone else came forward and admitted to the crime. The incident inspired Athanasiadis to look up other cases of people who were wrongly accused and was eventually inspired to write this song. He and Breckenridge were the only ones who wrote on this song instead of traditionally involving all of the members (with the exception of Middlesbrough, who never writes but always produces the group's material). Breckenridge is credited - and later blamed - for the song's simplicity as it was his idea to add little lyrics to the song as possible to make it "simple, easy, and catchy but effective".

Middlesbrough produced the song and made the song disco-inspired. Musically though, it is still an indie-pop based song though. Middlesbrough added that he gave the song "an odd disco feel" to make the song's background music sound happy and to also contradict the grim, dark, and serious lyrics of the song.

Promotion, release, and artwork

The song was intended as a promotional tool to promote their second official single "At A Party" and was released apparently "at the last minute" on 2 January 2012. The song was released only on the digital download format.

The artwork was revealed as soon as the promotional single was released and showed a simplistic design: a slightly crooked orange streak going through a white background with the band's name and the song title (also in orange) being positioned slightly above the streak. Widespread (minor) coverage of the single was revealed the following day after the promotional single's release.

Critical reception

The song received mixed to negative reviews, with many criticisms going towards the song's sparse lyrical content. Athanasiadis, who co-wrote the song, blamed Breckenridge for coming up with the idea for having and making the song to be "simple and too easy". One critic sarcastically stated "AHHHH! So many words! So many big intelligent words! So indie!".

Chart performance

Despite it becoming a slight critical failure for the group and its rush release to the public, the song surprisingly debuted at #13 on the UK Downloads Chart. Its their first promotional single to chart on the UK Downloads Chart (not the mention its their first promotional single in the UK ever). The following week, the song fell to #16. It stayed on the UK Downloads Chart for two weeks, before falling off. The single sold over 22,000 copies in total.

Track listing

• Digital download

1. "Innocent; Convicted" - 3:40

Charts

Charts (2012)	Peak position
UK Downloads Chart (URAPS)	13