Volume 4: Songs in the Key of Love & Hate is the fourth studio album by American post-grunge band Puddle of Mudd. It was released on December 8, 2009, on Flawless Records.
Background
In Spring 2009, the band began recording sessions in Vancouver with Famous producer Brian Howes. Recording in a three part, three week session in Canada initially because of extensive touring duties. Afterwards the band relocated to Hollywood, California for three weeks for additional production with producer and engineer Brian Virtue and Come Clean and Life on Display producer John Kurzweg.[9] Their first time together in six years. Scantlin commented on production work, "Even though we hate messing with success, we felt adding newcomer Brain Virtue to the producer mix would be a welcome change. What we got is 10 tracks of exactly what we were looking for."[10]
The band announced through their MySpace and follow-up interviews in late summer that the album had finished production and was in mixing. Bassist Doug Ardito confirmed only 10 songs to avoid what he called "filler material" and to have new listeners focus more on non-single songs.[11]
Around 21 songs were worked on during production, and whittled down to 10 to 12 tracks according to singer Scantlin.[12] Scantlin described the sound as more edgier, punk rock, similar to earlier releases.[13]
The album was released on December 8, 2009. It debuted at #95 on the Billboard 200.[14] It sold around 100,000 copies in the United States, and the lead single "Spaceship" also sold well over 100,000 copies. Volume 4 was however the band's first album to not produce a Hot 100 hit, and, unlike the previous albums Come Clean, Life on Display and Famous, neither the album sales or any single sales topped 500,000.
The album was mixed at Ocean Way Recording.[15]
Due to the departure of some members during 2009–2011, more than half of the album's songs were never performed live. The only songs that are constant parts of current live gigs are Stoned and Spaceship. In the early 2010s, Keep It Together and Blood On The Table were performed several times. The rest of the songs have yet to be performed live. In 2024, Puddle of Mudd added Pitchin‘ a Fit to their live setlist and performed it live twice.
