Robbed hit of the week 9/4/23 - Our Lady Peace's "Somewhere Out There"...

 

 

"Somewhere Out There" - Our Lady Peace

from the album Gravity (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44 (two weeks)

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace, who came together in Toronto in the beginning of the 1990s under lead singer Mike "Raine" Maida and guitarist Mike Turner. After coming under the wing of Arnold Lanni, who had been in successful Canadian bands Sheriff and Frozen Ghost, they solidified their lineup at the time with drummer Jeremy Taggart and bassist Chris Eacrett. They released an indie demo, "Out Of Here", that got some play on Canada's version of MTV. With that exposure they group was signed to Sony Music in Canada.

At the label the band recorded their debut album Naveed, which came out in March of 1994 in their home country (and eventually a year later in the United States), and was produced by Lanni. The second single from the record, "Starseed", not only scored their first chart hit in Canada just missing the top-40 at #42, but a year later got even bigger traction in the U.S., landing in the top ten on both the Mainstream (#7) and Alternative (#10) Rock radio charts in Billboard magazine. With this success, they were signed to Columbia for their subsequent American releases.

In 1997, Our Lady Peace returned with new bassist Duncan Coutts for  their sophomore effort, Clumsy, also produced by Lanni. The lead single from the record, "Superman's Dead", claimed their first top-40 hit in Canada at #17. In America, the song made the top-20 on both the Mainstream (#14) and Alternative (#11) Rock radio chart, and also made the Hot 100 airplay list at #74 (since it wasn't released commercially, it couldn't place on the main list). That was followed by title track "Clumsy", which spent three weeks at #1 on the Canadian singles chart, and in the U.S. placed on the Hot 100 Airplay (#59) and Mainstream Rock (#13) charts, and went all the way to #5 on the Alternative Rock airplay list. The Clumsy album was their debut on the Billboard 200 sales tally in America at #76, going on to sell over a million copies.

Their next studio set, Happiness...Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch, gave the band their sole chart appearance in the United Kingdom with "One Man Army", which was a minor hit there at #70 in 1999. But that album, as well as the follow-up Spiritual Machines in 2000, had moderate success but each spent just a month on the Billboard 200 each (though reaching the top half of the list). 

With Maida feeling stagnant musically, Lanni was replaced as producer with Bob Rock for their fifth release Gravity. Turner also was out during the process of recording the record, appearing on half the tracks before being replaced by two axe men with Steve Mazur and former touring guitarist/keyboardist Jaime Edwards (who left shortly after the set came out). The first single from the album was "Somewhere Out There", written solely by Maida. The lyrics are quite ambiguous, describing a lost soul that also could be a metaphor for drugs. It could be a woman on drugs that he's waiting on to straighten up. Either way, the verses are emotional and visual-inducing in a good way, with the usual "saviour complex" toned down but definitely there. The production from Bob Rock was big and bombastic meant to fit in with the Creed's and the Staind's on the radio. In return, American mainstream radio took notice, and the band found themselves with their biggest success...

While "Somewhere Out There" climbed to #19 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, it missed the top-40 on the main Hot 100 by a few notches in October of 2000 (having no singles sales points didn't help). On the radio, the song also made the older-skewing Adult Top-40 chart at #12, the Alternative Rock list at #7, and the Mainstream Rock format at #26. The Gravity album, released in June of that year, went to #9 on the Billboard 200, going on to sell a half million copies. 

A second single from Gravity, "Innocent", made both the Alternative (#20) and Mainstream (#35) Rock radio charts in Billboard, but was pretty much ignored by pop stations. A third, "Made Of Steel", tanked completely. 

After a Live album in 2003, Our Lady Peace returned three years after the release of Gravity with their next album Healthy In Paranoid Times, which came in at #45 on the Billboard 200. The sole "hit" from the record was "Where Are You", where stopped at #28 on the Alternative Rock chart in the U.S.. The band, frustrated after the laborious recording of that album, left Columbia and went on a break.

Maida released a solo album in 2007, The Hunter's Lullaby, and two years later reassembled Our Lady Peace with Coutts, Mazur, and Taggart. They independently released a new record, Bum Bum, in 2009, which just missed the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #41. Two tracks from the set made the Alternative Rock chart, with "The End Is Where We Begin" spending a week at #40 for their most recent singles chart showing. Three years later, they signed up with Warner Music for their Curve album, which nicked the Billboard 200 at #184.

Since then, Taggart was replaced by touring drummer Jason Pierce, and have released two more albums, most recently Spiritual Machines 2 in 2022. 

(5/10)

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Here's the band performing the song live in concert in 2003..