Better Of Me / Havoc & The Haven

"Better Of Me / Havoc & The Haven" is a double A-side single by alternative-rock duo Dresden & Bareilles. The double A-side was the fifth single lifted from the band's debut album "Havoc & The Haven". The single was released on April 19th, 2010, entering the charts at #4. The single spent 6 weeks on chart, and is their second-lowest selling single to date, only ahead of debut single "The Reject".

Background
"Better Of Me" was written by Jean-Luc Bareilles; it was the first song that he wrote on his own, after having learned the craft of songwriting from Gabriel. It was chosen as the fourth single in both the US and in Australia, where previous singles "Money On Your Tongue / Vicodin & Wine" were not released. "Havoc & The Haven" was the final song written for the album, and was penned by both Jean-Luc and Gabriel. Amidst constantly changing plans for the re-release of the duo's album, "Havoc & The Haven" was always intended as the final single from the album. When it was decided that there would be no re-release, "Havoc & The Haven" was added onto the release of "Better Of Me", which was originally being released on its own. The single would later prove not to be the last of the era, as a further two singles were released as well as the originally-proposed re-release, albeit in a different variation from than originally intended. Unlike their previous few singles, "Better Of Me" did not receive a radio mix, instead an edit of the album version was used for alternative radio airplay, while a remix by Jason Nevins was serviced to mainstream radio stations. A re-recorded version served as the radio mix for "Havoc & The Haven", although the promo CD also featured the album version and a trance remix. Gabriel again revisited material from his unreleased solo album, with the songs "Lost" and "No Way, No How" being re-recorded by the band and released as b-sides on the two CD single formats. "Havoc & The Haven" was given new remixes for a digital re-release to coincide with the eventual re-release of the band's debut album.

Reception
"Better Of Me" was originally intended to be released only in the US and Australia, but with positive reception it was decided by Saturdays Records that they would capitalise on the band's success and release it in the UK as well. The single was moderately received by UK audiences, some believing that the band needed to slow down with their releases; as this was the fifth release for the UK. When "Havoc & The Haven" was added onto the release, the single was met more positively. "Havoc & The Haven" was later released individually as the 5th single in the US and Australia. The general public kept up with the band's wave of success, helping the band achieve another top 5 hit on the UK singles chart (their 4th consecutive top 5) although neither song performed to the same level as their previous singles on airplay, with "Havoc & The Haven" becoming their worst-performing single with radio stations, prior to the soundtrack single "Losing My Religion" released later that year. In the US, "Better Of Me" became a top 40 hit on the Hot 100, and "Havoc & The Haven" became their second top 20 hit, peaking just one spot short of "Someone To Believe In". In Australia, both singles took the band back into the top 10 on the ARIA singles chart.

'Better Of Me' Promo CD

 * 1) Better Of Me (Radio Edit)
 * 2) Better Of Me (Jason Nevins Rhythm Edit)
 * 3) Better Of Me (Instrumental)

'Havoc & The Haven' Promo CD

 * 1) Havoc & The Haven (Radio Mix)
 * 2) Havoc & The Haven (Album Version)
 * 3) Havoc & The Haven (Tom Novak Radio Edit)

CD1: Better Of Me

 * 1) Better Of Me
 * 2) Lost
 * 3) Better Of Me (Venus’s Flashlights & Spaceships Electro Mix)
 * 4) Better Of Me (IP’s Haitian Refugee Megamix)
 * 5) Better Of Me (DJ Double Garage's Can't Do No Worse Remix)

CD2: Havoc & The Haven

 * 1) Havoc & The Haven
 * 2) No Way, No How
 * 3) Havoc & The Haven (Retta’s Twisted Strings Hip-Hopera Remix)
 * 4) Havoc & The Haven (Moodring’s Split Personality Mix)
 * 5) Havoc & The Haven (Butterscotch’s Gonna Eat You Dub)

Digital EP: Better Of Me / Havoc & The Haven

 * 1) Better Of Me
 * 2) Havoc & The Haven
 * 3) Lost
 * 4) No Way, No How
 * 5) Out Of My Mind (ft. Danelle Becker) (DF&DG Version)
 * 6) Better Of Me (Aftershock’s Broken Pacifist Mix)
 * 7) Havoc & The Haven (IP’s Jukebox Junkie Vocal Dub)
 * 8) Better Of Me (Jason Nevins Club Mix) (US Only Bonus Track)
 * 9) Havoc & The Haven (Tom Novak Progressive Trance Mix) (US Only Bonus Track)

Digital EP: Havoc & The Haven Re-Release

 * 1) Havoc & The Haven (Radio Mix)
 * 2) Havoc & The Haven (Celldweller Remix)
 * 3) Havoc & The Haven (MSTRKRFT Remix)
 * 4) Havoc & The Haven (The Crystal Method Extended Remix)
 * 5) 150 dB Mini-Mix
 * 6) Havoc & The Haven (Music Video)

Better Of Me
The video opens showing a woman collapsed on a beach; there are people crowded all around her, and it looks like this woman has crashed the middle of a wedding with her fainting spell. As the scene reveals itself in reverse, we find that it is Jean-Luc's wedding to a girl with long blonde hair. As we see a performance shot of Gabriel singing, we see him in a full suit, drenched to the bone, running along a walkway in a seemingly lock bunker. In reverse, we see him going back down the stairs where he ran up, and down into the flooding water he was climbing out of. We see performance shots of Jean-Luc this time, as we see the fainted woman revived and happy, enjoying the proceedings as we see the wedding winding back from the nearlyweds standing before the priest. We see the bride walking backwards down the makeshift aisle as Jean-Luc watches her. Back with Gabriel, we see him flailing in the water as he approaches the stairs to climb out. In reverse, we see him getting further away from the stairs and struggling to stay afloat before gasping as he sinks back into the water. We find that he was floating unconscious underneath the water surface before waking up and trying to escape.

In the earlier parts of the bands' respective stories, we see Jean-Luc, his fiancee and his family sitting down to a rehearsal dinner for the wedding. Although the action is all seen in reverse, everyone seems to be having a good time and all appear to be healthy as they wish the couple all the best. As for Gabriel, we see what's going on in his head as he's unconscious in the water; we see he was having a dream about playing one-on-one hockey against a professional hockey player. Starting from Gabriel being helped up by the hockey player, we see in reverse as Gabriel is sprawled out on the ice having taken a slip on his skates and falling backwards. We see more performance shots of Gabriel, this time in a different setting. In the next part of the video we see Jean-Luc driving to his rehearsal dinner alone in his car, still shown in reverse. Gabriel meanwhile is in the middle of his hockey game, and he seems to be relishing the chance to play against who appears to be a sporting idol for him, as he can only be seeing smiling throughout the match. We see the game in progress all the way back to when it begins. We see more performance shots of Jean-Luc.

Next up we see what appears to be a circus show with Gabriel dressed up in some Russian costume complete with fake moustache as he shows off a knife-throwing act. We see his daggers one by one flying from the board around his female assistant back into his hand as we again see the action in reverse. Meanwhile, Jean-Luc is seen at an upscale party where he appears to be meeting his soon fiancee for the first time. We see them chatting together and acting friendly toward each other. More performance shots of Gabriel are shown. In the final part of the video, we see Gabriel setting up his female assistant on his target board surrounded by balloon. As usual, this is shown in reverse, as the act reveal themselves to the circus audience having been announced, and walking into the circus tent. Jean-Luc is seen making first contact with his soon-to-be fiancee, and then shown arriving at the party. At the very end of the video where we see the beginning of the storyline segments, we are shown in forward motion this time as Jean-Luc and Gabriel are knocked out by the assistant and the fiancee and dropped into the bunker as the ladies start the place being flooded as they seal Gabriel and Jean-Luc inside. We see the ladies walking away from the bunker, before a super-fast forward brings us back to Gabriel trying to get free of the bunker. The final shot of the video is Gabriel emerging from the bunker. The video fades to black before we can find out Jean-Luc's fate, but the video implies that he didn't make it.

Havoc & The Haven
The video opens by showing us a church, and a sign is shown to the viewers naming it the 'Haven Hill' church; we see Gabriel and a woman inside this church at their wedding; standing before each other at the end of the aisle. The nearly-weds gaze adoringly at each other as the duo are shown in an empty version of the church hallway singing the lyrics of the song. The minister steps up to commence the wedding ceremony. As we can see, Jean-Luc is the minister. All seems to be going well during the wedding, until we cut to outside where lightning begins to strike and a storm brews. The sign we saw previously switches from reading 'Haven Hill' to 'Havoc Hall'. Inside the now-called 'Havoc Hall' church, everything gets turned darker as the church occupants are pulled into a dimension of darkness, shown when Jean-Luc transforms into a vampire before the nearly-weds. We now see vampiric versions of Dresden & Bareilles singing the song's lyrics, while the bride transforms into a vampire slayer, and in the storyline setting she begins to fight with her now-vampiric fiance.

Vampire Jean-Luc continues to sing the song as Gabriel's fight continues against the Slayer. They seem to be equally matched, until Gabriel starts to fight the pull of the darkness. For a moment he pulls himself from the Havoc back into the Haven, reverting from a vampire back to a human. But the Havoc isn't ready to let him go just yet, and with sheer intensity drags him right back into the dark otherworld, this time turning his fiance into a vampire as well. Now both on the same side, the vampire lovers come together once more, and their love somehow gives them the strength to throw off the darkness again, and we see them slowly turning back into humans once again. Jean-Luc, however, is still overpowered by the Havoc, so now the human nearlyweds, back in their wedding clothes, flee from the church to avoid their vampire pursuer. They escape the church together, and they smile at each other and kiss, thinking themselves free. But the Havoc makes one last-ditch attempt at Gabriel, grabbing hold of him and sucking him back inside the building much to his fiance's horror. The last thing we see are the vampiric Dresden & Bareilles standing together facing the camera, smiling darkly as the scene fades to black, nothing but their eyes glowing in the darkness until those too fade out of frame.

Chart Performance
There were few who believed that this would be the single that finally took Dresden & Bareilles to #1 but there was strong competition from Paulo Araujo, Butterscotch and the collaboration by Jack Stevens and Jake, so more realistic projections placed the single at top 3. The single just missed the top 3, charting at #4 on the 25th of March, 2010, with sales of 57,601 copies; close to Butterscotch, who entered at #3. The single failed to match up again to the sales of their previous effort, only managing to outsell debut single "The Reject". It suffered the same lack of longevity as their previous singles, falling out of the charts after 6 weeks with a mere silver certification. Again, the songs charted separately on airplay, but had weak chart runs; the two overall weakest of their career for the time. "Better Of Me" was the stronger of the two, peaking at #14 and barely missing the accumulative spins of "The Reject". "Havoc & The Haven" was a low peaker, only making it to #27, but it constantly yo-yo'd on the chart to eventually tally a respective accumulative spin total. "Havoc & The Haven" was later given a digital re-release to go along with the album, as well as being re-serviced to radio. The radio re-release failed to have any effect, but the new digital EP helped the song achieve a higher digital sales total.

Both songs charted in the top 15 on the Australian top 100 airplay chart, and each managed to chart in the top 10 on the ARIA singles chart. In the US, "Better Of Me" received strong airplay from Alternative radio, and was a minor crossover hit on mainstream radio, reaching the top 20 on pop stations. This pushed the song to high enough digital sales for a top 40 peak. "Havoc & The Haven" was released to all relevant formats at the same time; it received strong airplay on all of these, propelling its sales to help it achieve the band's second top 20 hit (and 4th biggest US). It peaked just a position lower than "Someone To Believe In", the band's prior top 20 hit.

Chart Run
TOTAL: 158,390
 * Week 1: #4 - 57,601
 * Week 2: #9 - 37,561
 * Week 3: #13 - 20,675
 * Week 4: #18 - 19,013
 * Week 5: #23 - 17,322
 * Week 6: #32 - 6,218