"Shimmer" | ||||
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Single by Fuel | ||||
from the album Sunburn | ||||
Released | August 25, 1998 | |||
Studio | Southern Tracks (Atlanta) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:34 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Carl Bell | |||
Producer(s) | Steven Haigler | |||
Fuel singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Shimmer" on YouTube |
"Shimmer" is a song by American alternative rock group Fuel. It was released in May 1996 as part of their third EP Porcelain and later on as lead single from their debut album Sunburn (1998).
Written by Carl Bell, the single peaked at number two on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts, number 11 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, number 37 on the Adult Top 40 chart and at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100. [3]
According to Radio & Records , "Shimmer" was the most played song on alternative radio stations in the United States in 1998. [4]
Guitarist Carl Bell told a crowd on VH1 Storytellers that the song was inspired by an ex-girlfriend he had shortly after high school, who left him for another man she ended up marrying. A few years later, she called Bell, confiding her relationship woes in him, and he felt a range of emotions from hurting to helplessness that inspired the lyrics of "Shimmer". [5]
Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly cited "Shimmer" as one of the "mellowest cuts" from its parent album, commenting that the song is a "Dave Matthews-ish ditty". [6] Billboard wrote that "the best thing about 'Shimmer' is that it doesn't wallow in angst melodrama or reek of kiddie-pop sugar," and called it "vibrant, aggressive rock' n'roll for adults." [7]
The music video has the band performing the song (mostly centered on singer Brett Scallions) and has short flashes to things like a mother and infant child and a dog. Directed by Josh Taft, the film clip's theme of the past and the present draws quite heavily from the song's lyrics of a shimmering love that while starting off mesmerizing can and will eventually fade and be torn away through emotional distance and neglect. The visions concentrate on the position of a past potential family in the storyteller's life as wholesome visions of a woman post-pregnancy in a white dress, a faceless father holding a baby, a goldfish and a family dog come into focus but are rarely seen clearly as the camera blurs and we are drawn quickly away. As the lyrics grind on describing the prior engagements with the female antagonist Taft brings us quite suddenly to the realization that the goldfish is dead, the family dog blurs away and the baby ceases to move and recedes to a cold blackened shape. The arrival of a female antagonist with symbolic sands of time falling through her outstretched hands heralds the arrival of new life as the song reaches its climax. The protagonist's car ride slowly but surely drifts him along and possibly away from the dead home-life but the goldfish now risen is rejoined by a now clearer vision of the family dog and the squirming life of the baby in a man's arms returns. The director has hinted at an emotionally empty space; a dead home through his lack of furnishings, drained color and detached objectivity but seems to suggest that the storyteller singer becomes the one framed in the past while the others live on as suggested in the closing scene.
The song was used in Charmed season one, episode 14 "Secrets and Guys".
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Credits and personnel adapted from Shimmer CD single liner notes. [8]
Chart (1998) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [12] | 16 |
Iceland (Dagblaðið Vísir Top 30) [13] | 14 |
Peru (UNIMPRO) [14] | 46 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [15] | 42 |
US Adult Pop Airplay ( Billboard ) [16] | 37 |
US Alternative Airplay ( Billboard ) [17] | 2 |
US Mainstream Rock ( Billboard ) [18] | 11 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [19] | Platinum | 70,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Fuel is an American rock band from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, formed by guitarist-songwriter Carl Bell in 1993. After several independent releases, the band signed with 550 Music and Epic Records to release their debut studio album Sunburn (1998), which was supported by their first hit single, "Shimmer". The song peaked at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100, while their 2000 single, '"Hemorrhage " peaked at number 30. The latter, along with the moderate hit "Bad Day" spawned from the band's second album, Something Like Human (2000). Their 2003 single, "Falls on Me", led their third album, Natural Selection (2003), which was met with moderate success and followed by several lineup and personnel changes.
Sunburn is the debut album by American rock band Fuel, released by 550 Music, an imprint of Epic Records on March 3, 1998. It was produced by Steven Haigler. The songs "Shimmer", "Jesus or a Gun", and "Bittersweet" were issued as commercial singles following its release; the former peaked at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100. Critically, the album was met with average reviews, and commercially, the album modestly entered the Billboard 200 at number 77. Sunburn received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) — signifying sales of one million units — on May 24, 2000.
Natural Selection is the third album by American rock band Fuel, released on September 23, 2003, by Epic Records.
"Only When I Lose Myself" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was made exclusively for their 1998 compilation The Singles 86>98 and released as a single on 7 September 1998. It is the first non-album studio single since "It's Called a Heart" in 1985 and is also one of the rare singles to have two limited editions.
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"Adia" is a song by Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan from her fourth studio album, Surfacing (1997). It was co-written by McLachlan and her longtime producer, Pierre Marchand. McLachlan has said about the song, "...more than anything, it's about my problems in dealing with feeling responsible for everyone else". "Adia" was released as the third North American single from Surfacing on 2 March 1998; in Europe, it served as McLachlan's debut single, receiving a UK release in September 1998.
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"Forever" is the first single released from American singer-songwriter Kid Rock's fifth studio album, Cocky (2001), on October 23, 2001.
"Bad Day" is a song by American rock band Fuel from their second album Something Like Human (2000). It was released as the album's third single in May 2001 and peaked at number 64 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart that August. Immediately following the September 11 attacks, Clear Channel deemed the song inappropriate for radio airplay due to its subject matter.
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