Music / Steal This Album!

Steal This Album! is the third studio album by System of a Down, released on November 26, 2002, by American Recordings and Columbia Records as the follow-up to breakthrough album Toxicity. The album originated as a series of unfinished outtakes that leaked in early 2002. The band was disappointed by this and reworked the songs into a new album. The video for "Boom!" was directed by Michael Moore.

Tracklist:

1. "Chic 'n' Stu" (2:23)
2. "Innervision" (2:33)
3. "Bubbles" (1:56)
4. "Boom!" (2:14)
5. "Nüguns" (2:30)
6. "A.D.D. (American Dream Denial)" (3:17)
7. "Mr. Jack" (4:09)
8. "I-E-A-I-A-I-O" (3:08)
9. "36" (0:46)
10. "Pictures" (2:06)
11. "Highway Song" (3:13)
12. "Fuck the System" (2:12)
13. "Ego Brain" (3:21)
14. "Thetawaves" (2:36)
15. "Roulette" (3:21)
16. "Streamline" (3:37)

Musicians:

System of a Down

• Serj Tankian - Lead vocals, keyboards
• Daron Malakian - Guitar, vocals
• Shavo Odajian - Bass
• John Dolmayan - Drums

Additional Musicians

• Arto Tunçboyaciyan - Backing vocals and percussion on "Bubbles"
• Greg Collins - Theremin on "Ego Brain"

Pepperoni and green peppers, mushrooms, olive, tropes:

• Album Closure: Streamline is the most climactic song and ends with a goodbye.
• Call-and-Response Song: "Chic 'n' Stu"
  Serj: Pepperoni and green peppers, mushrooms, olive, chives.
  Daron: Pepperoni and green peppers, mushrooms, olive, chives!
• Cluster F-Bomb: The majority of the lyrics of "Fuck the System" are variations of the Title Drop. "A.D.D." and the end of "Mr. Jack" have this to a lesser degree.
• Epic Instrumental Opener: "Mr. Jack" starts its vocals around 1:17.
• Food Songs Are Funny: Serj and Daron sing about pizza in an eccentric way in "Chic 'n' Stu", though the song is more of an anti-advertising song than an Ode to Food.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Some stores have an inserted white slip consisting of just the title to keep people from thinking it had a booklet that was stolen. The standard "cover" is just a white disc modeled after a CD-R to make it look like a bootleg, reflecting the album’s nature of being mainly reworked versions of leaked Toxicity outtakes.
• Miniscule Rocking: "Bubbles" (1:56) and "36" (0:46).
• No Ending: Just before the end of the last chorus, "Thetawaves" abruptly segues into "Roulette".
• Protest Song: At least half the songs, but "Boom!" stands out with its explicit anti-war message and even having a video made by Michael Moore.
• Step Up to the Microphone: Daron's backing vocals are more prominent here than they were on the first two albums, especially the first. He gets the intro and response parts of "Chic 'n' Stu" and sings alongside Serj for the majority of "Mr. Jack".
• Spoken Word in Music: The verses in "Boom!" are spoken.