At A Party

"At A Party" is a song by American indie pop band Curriculum and is the second single from their debut album Syllabus. The song was released as a single on 5 March 2012, though it was sent to adds to UK radio on 23 January 2012, one week after its initial release date on 16 January 2012. Two versions of the single exist with one being the album version and the other being the single version which features American pop singer Blonde Ambition. Serving as the follow up to the band's massively popular debut single "So Mainstream", the "album version" was supposed to be released as the official single; the single was then postponed due to various reasons. When re-announced for release, the band had announced that they would be releasing a "single version" of the song that featured Blonde. The regular album version was serviced to radio and is the official version on that format only though the single mix would also be released to radio as well.

Written by Gregory Preston Athanasiadis, Phillip Mandelbaum, Wyatt van Cleef, Dana Breckenridge, and Stephanie Kesh, the song contains lyrical subject matters that involves ageism, society's attitude towards aging, and maturity, while some of the lyrics serve as a tribute to the popular culture and fashions of the 1980s and 1990s. The song was produced by Shawn Middlesbrough and is a techno/dance-inspired song that contains elements electropop, alternative music, and Oriental music; it has been considered to be a far cry from the group's previous single "So Mainstream", which was more guitar-driven and indie-based.

The "album version" of the song, with the intent of that version being the official single release, premiered in December 2011 and has since received positive reviews, mainly because of its lyrical content, its Oriental-influenced breakdown in the middle eight, and Athanasiadis' vocal performance which has been described as "sultry and sexy". The single version with Blonde Ambition premiered in February 2012, where it has since recieved generally positive to mixed reviews, with many complimenting the addition of Blonde Ambition and therefore making the song more pop-oriented, while others complained that the band had "sold out" by adding her to the track.

Background and inspiration
"At A Party" was written and later recorded in the summer of 2011 while the band was visiting San Francisco, which is the hometown of van Cleef. Athanasiadis fell in love with being in San Francisco and wanted to write a song featuring lyrics that were to be a tribute to the city's culture and diversity. However, after attending a house party thrown by van Cleef and his brothers, Athanasiadis instead started to write about the happenings of a party in general, which was inspired by him observing various partygoers at van Cleef's party, which was said to have "gotten a little out of control".

After going through the lyrics with the band, some of the members began adding different lyrical and subject elements to the song. Mandelbaum added lyrics that would serve as a tribute to the 1980s and 1990s while Kesh and Breckenridge wrote lyrics that tackled ageism and society's supposed fear of aging, which would be the predominant theme to the song. Van Cleef would add lyrics that would combat the idea of ageism and "acting one's age" with him writing the last few lines of the third and final verse.

Writing
Lyrically, the song follows the story of a group of young (and later, aging) partygoers over the course of three or four decades, ranging from the 1980s to the 21st century (the 2000s and 2010s), who like to act "youthful" by attending parties, wearing the latest fashions, and listening to the most popular music at the time. The first two verses detail them partying in the 1980s and later in the 1990s and makes various cultural references regarding the popular culure and fashion of the two decades such as Hall & Oates, Tommy Hilfiger, and even the supposed popular color schemes of the two respective decades (i.e. neon colors being popular in the '80s and dark, bold, primary colors being popular in the early to mid '90s). By the third verse, which takes place in the 21st century, they are advised to stop partying, grow up, and act their own age for they are getting too old to be partying; towards the end of the third verse, the message takes a turn and begins contradicting itself by saying that the partygoers should "keep on partying" no matter how old they are. The choruses, meanwhile, heed that they should "hold on to their youth now" before the realities of adulthood and getting old creep up on them quickly.

The song deals with themes of ageism, maturity, and society's attitude towards aging and as well as the supposed over-emphasis on the youth, young people, and desperate need to appear young to other people. van Cleef has said that the song can be interpreted as the partygoers have a "quarter-life crisis which turns into a midlife crisis as they get older. They want to stay young at the beginning of the song and as the song progresses they wish that they were still young." The tribute-like lyrics to the 1980s and 1990s, which makes various cultural references regarding both decades, were added by Mandelbaum to make the song "more fun and very poppy and dancey and happy".

On the single version with Blonde Ambition, some of the lyrics were changed to possibly reflect Blonde's personality and to also make the song more pop-oriented.

Composition
"At A Party" is a techno/dance-inspired uptempo song that contains elements of electropop, synthpop, and alternative music and features an Oriental-influenced breakdown in its middle eight. Produced by Middlesbrough, the song's overall composition of the song surprised most of the band as they had never even experimented with techno or dance music before. Furthermore, Athanasiadis disliked electropop music and initially felt it would hypocritical if the composition was used after he had already let many people know he was not a fan of the sub-genre. Indeed, all of the band members agreed to record the song with the composition because it still had elements of alternative music and also because of its Oriental-inspired middle eight. Middlesbrough said that composition was supposed to purposefully reflect the different sides and cultures of San Francisco, with the Oriental influences being added mainly in tribute to the city's Chinatown district.

Vocally, Athanasiadis sings in his middle to lower chest register with the intent to sound "sultry and serious". On the single version of the song, Blonde sings some of Athanasiadis' parts on the verses and harmonizes with him on the chorus. She also adds ad-libs during the song's instrumental middle-eight.

Promotion and release
In December 2011, the initial single release/album version of the song premiered for the first time. The song was initially penciled in for a 16 January 2012 release date. However, six days before the single's initial release the song was postponed by the band citing a variety of reasons, mainly health problems concerning Dana Breckenridge and his head injury, and their manager's mounting personal problems, as to why they decided to postpone the single. The single was sent to adds to UK radio on 23 January 2012; it was officially postponed to 5 March 2012. In February 2012, the band announced that they would be releasing an "official single version" of the song which would feature Blonde Ambition. Aside from the UK and Ireland, the single will also only be released in Canada and United States on 6 March 2012. On radio stations in the UK, both versions of the song, the album version and the single mix with Blonde, are both played and are both considered to be the official versions on the airplay format there. In the US, the album version without Blonde was only sent to alternative radio while the single mix with Blonde was sent to contemporary hits/mainstream radio. On 9 April 2012, the single was released in other countries worldwide.

Most of the promotion for the single centered around Blonde Ambition's likeness, which recieved some criticism by the band's indie fanbase for using a pop artist to sell their single.

B-sides
The single had three b-sides: the remix to "At A Party" (which also featured Blonde Ambition), "No One Gonna Love You", and "Just The Lonely Talking Again".

"No One Gonna Love You" is originally song by popular R&B singer Jennifer Hudson. "Just The Lonely Talking Again" was originally a song by the Manhattans but was later covered by Whitney Houston for her 1987 sophomore album Whitney. The band's decision to cover "Just The Lonely Talking Again" was meant as a tribute to Houston, who had passed away on 11 February 2012.



Artwork
The artwork for the single was unveiled on 28 February 2012. For the two CD single formats of the single, it has the same picture but each CD formate has a different pink hue/tint to it. The picture used for the single was shot at the house party where the band shot the video for the song in December 2011. It shows a young man being raised in the air by partygoers; he is possibly "crowd-surfing". While this is happening, the bottom of his shoe touches the ceiling. Meanwhile, the band and Blonde's name and the title of the single appear in pink in the top-left corner of the cover.

Critical reaction
The song, both the album version and the single mix with Blonde Ambition, got positive reviews. Many people complimented the original version and others complimented the band for adding Blonde Ambition to the single mix while also calling it a "pleasant surprise". Many critics and devoted fans complained that the band "sold out" with the single mix by adding Blonde Ambition and also felt that the original version was superior to the remix version. The band has had to repeatedly defend their decision to add Blonde Ambition to the single mix of the song, remaining "unapologetic" that they did so and "grateful that she even considered doing a duet with us".

Commercial performance
On the charts ending 15 January 2012, under the anticipation that the single would be released the following day as an official single, the single debuted at #18 on the UK Downloads Chart. It fell off the following week but has since re-entered the chart at #16, staying there for two weeks. The song eventually rose to #6 on its fourth total week on the chart, becoming their second top ten hit on the UK Downloads Chart. It dropped to #8 in the following week. On the week ending 11 March 2012, the single rose to #2.

The single appeared at #6 on the UK Next In Line Airplay Chart, which in the "bubbling under" chart for the official UK airplay charts; the position is equivalent to peaking at #46. The single would finally debut on the airplay charts and spent two weeks at #23. The single would eventually peak at #5, becoming the band's second top ten single on the airplay charts.

On the week ending 11 March 2012, "At A Party" debuted at #3 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's second top three single and also their second single to peak at #3. The single sold 77,944 copies in its first week. In its second week, the single fell to #7 and was certified Silver that week. To date, the single has been certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and has sold 252,297 copies. It has spent ten weeks on the chart to date.

The single has also peaked at #4 in Ireland, #70 in Canada, and #9 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in the United States. In Canada, the single also peaked at #1 on the alternative singles chart, becoming their second alternative chart topper in Canada.

Remixes
A remix of "At A Party" was created as a b-side for the commercial release. The remix again features Blonde Ambition and is more hip-hop/urban inspired. Heavily incorporating the piano in its sound, the song was produced by Shawn Middlesbrough and was also co-produced by Jeff Bhasker and Kanye West.

Music video
The music video for "At A Party" premiered on 5 March 2012, the same day the song was released as a single in the UK. The video premiered on VEVO and would later be shown on various music channels as well.

Production for the video started in December 2011 and was shot at a house party in San Francisco, the hometown of band member van Cleef. It had been planned from the beginning of the planning for the video to have Blonde Ambition in the video to only do a cameo where she would do a choreographed dance scene. Blonde's scenes for the video were shot in January 2012. Additional scenes for the video were shot after its initial production date as well.

Plot
Unlike the video treatment for their previous single "So Mainstream", which had a somewhat relative "elaborate" plot, "At A Party" had a very simplistic premise to it.

The video starts with a close up of people who raise their glasses and clink them together to make a toast. The rest of the video involves people partying and having a good time. Throughout the first two (or more) minutes of the video Blonde is very briefly enjoying herself at the party singing along with the song. Towards the middle eight of the video, Blonde Ambition is seen again lip-synching her parts and then goes into a choreographed dance routine. After her dance routine is done, the video goes back to show people partying and enjoying themselves. The video ends with Blonde Ambition putting on sunglasses and she continues to dance at the party.

Throughout the video, it has a variety of pink hues and tints to it. For Blonde Ambition's scenes, special effects were used to turn the skin of her and her background dancers pink.

The audio used for the first two minutes (or so) of the song is the regular album version of the song. The single mix with Blonde Ambition does not kick in until the middle eight starts to play when she is heard singing her "la la la la la" parts during that version; she sings her parts just shortly before she goes into her dance routine.

Reception
The video received positive reviews from critics and fans alike. Many people complimented the camera technique of turning the scenes into pink, while its simplicity was minorly criticized. Blonde Ambition's dance routine was heavily praised and lauded by critics and fans.

To date, the video has recieved more than five million views on VEVO and YouTube.

Track listing

 * UK CD 1
 * 1. "At A Party" (featuring Blonde Ambition)
 * 2. "At A Party" (Album Version)
 * 3. "No One Gonna Love You"


 * UK CD 2
 * 1. "At A Party" (Remix; featuring Blonde Ambition)
 * 2. "Just The Lonely Talking Again"
 * 3. "At A Party" (featuring Blonde Ambition)


 * Both of the UK CD formats were also released on the digital download formats.


 * International digital download
 * 1. "At A Party" (featuring Blonde Ambition)
 * 2. "At A Party"