So Much for the Afterglow is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Everclear, released on October 7, 1997, through Capital Records. It contained the singles "Everything to Everyone", "I Will Buy You a New Life", "Father of Mine", "So Much for the Afterglow", and "One Hit Wonder". "Everything to Everyone", "I Will Buy You A New Life", and "Father of Mine" received heavy rotation on MTV's Total Request Live and launched Everclear into mainstream popularity in the late-90s. So Much for the Afterglow provided Everclear with their only Grammy nomination to date, a Best Rock Instrumental nod in 1998 for "El Distorto de Melodica." The album is considered a departure from the band's earlier punk rock and grunge sound for a more pop-oriented sound. So Much for the Afterglow remains Everclear's best selling album with a 2× Platinum certification by the RIAA in 1998. Production It was originally going to be called Pure White Evil, however, the title was changed to So Much for the Afterglow in March 1997. Early on, singer Art Alexakis wanted to create "a combination of even heavier songs, more punk songs, and then kind of more melodic stuff." By the time touring for Sparkle and Fade ended and recording began, the direction of the album shifted. Alexakis remarked to MTV that, "the fact is, Sparkle and Fade was a rock record with pop influences; this time we tried to make a pop record with rock influences." Regarding the recording process, Greg Eklund reflected, "We rented a room in a warehouse, oddly enough by Esco Steel, where I used to work, in Northwest Portland. We were literally around the corner from where I used to work in a steel foundry. I don't know how we found it, but it was in a really dilapidated warehouse down there. And Craig got, like, shingles and some weird flu that put him in the hospital or something. So I remember when we started working on Art's new songs it was just him and me." He also noted there was pressure to follow up the success of the song "Santa Monica", commenting "We'd had some success with "Santa Monica" but there was a really big question mark whether we'd be able to continue that. You know what everybody says—you have 10 years to write your first record and six months to write your second. Art was a