The Battle for Everything


The Battle for Everything is the third studio album by American singer Five for Fighting, released on February 3, 2004 by Aware Records and Columbia Records. Following the success of America Town and its breakthrough single, "Superman ", John Ondrasik reteamed with producer Gregg Wattenberg and brought in Bill Bottrell to work on new material for his next record. The Battle for Everything debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 and spawned four singles: "100 Years", "The Devil in the Wishing Well", "Silent Night", and "If God Made You". The album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting sales of over 1,000,000 copies.

Background and recording

Five for Fighting had achieved a hit record with "Superman " in 2001 leading to his America Town album going Platinum. For the follow-up, Ondrasik went into the studio with record producer Bill Bottrell, best known for his work with Sheryl Crow, in 2003. The Battle for Everything was released on February 3, 2004.

Critical reception

The Battle for Everything was met with mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 47, based on 6 reviews. Rolling Stone critic Christian Hoard said, "On Five for Fighting's third album, Ondrasik's self-pitying ballads overflow with dewy-eyed dreaminess, as his vocals swoon and swoop Piano-based numbers such as "Disneyland" sport strong melodies, but their mush-headed philosophizing push the limits of poetic indulgence." David Browne, writing for Entertainment Weekly, gave the album a C+, saying "...deep down, yearns to be a serious artist making grand statements. The band's third CD is weighed down by artificially inflated anthems, garbled lyrics about the apocalypse, and coy attempts at surrealism."

Commercial performance

Battle for Everything debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart in February 2004. Its first single, "100 Years" was another top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album was certified Gold in the United States on May 11, 2004 and Platinum on October 19, 2009. It has sold over 958,000 copies in the United States as of November 2009.

Track listing

All songs written by John Ondrasik, except where noted.

Bonus disc

  1. "Silent Night" – 3:42
  2. "Superman " – 3:43
  3. "Something About You" – 4:01
  4. "Sister Sunshine" – 2:58
  5. "2 + 2 Makes Five" – 2:41