by Nirvana. "Over" existed as a verse section for a few weeks; Pagnotta didn't feel it was fleshed out enough to share with the rest of the band. When the band was recording drums, Pagnotta showed Livingston and MacKillop a complete chorus section. The trio worked on it and planned to record it the following day, which by then they tracked it in 30 minutes. DeSantis suggested a rhythm break before the last chorus, which was then added to the track. "Head Up" evolved out of an idea that was written backstage during a show while in Belgium. The opening act was playing onstage upstairs while Pagnotta was downstairs attempting to track the idea into his recorder. Unable to hear the key of the chords, he recorded a tiny bit and fleshed out the song during soundcheck with the rest of the band the following day. It talks about remaining positive when you're doing something that other people may not like, something that Pagnotta felt after dropping out of education to focus on music. The chord progression for "Counting Stars" existed for about two months, during this time Pagnotta was unable to come up with any melodies or lyrics. Pagnotta said he received test results from his doctor saying he was ill, only for further results nine days later to say he was okay. Between these results he wrote the lyrics to "Counting Stars", which acted as "an apology for anything I may have done wrong to hurt the world, people, friends." On the final recording, a friend of the band contributed what Pagnotta referred to as"sounds with his guitar that sounded like animals dying." The closing track, "Sign Off", was written by Pagnotta as he sat on the end of his bed. He explained that partway through the making of the album he felt lonely, confused and sad while questioning his life. It was recorded in the back room at the studio solely by Pagnotta, with some overdubs from MacKillop. Release On September 24, 2003, Sugarcult mentioned on their website that their next album would appear in February2004. Between October and December 2003, the group embarked on a headlining US tour with support from Story of the Year, Plain White T's, Jackson and Denver Harbor. During the stint, they played a number of new songs from their forthcoming album. Partway through the excursion, on November 20, 2003, the album's