Miles (Nicholas Stewart album)

*For the 2021 re-recording, see* Miles (Nicky's Version).

## Mile

International Edition cover for Miles

***Miles*** is the second studio album by American-Romanian singer-songwriter Nicholas Stewart, serving as his second eponymous studio album after *Nicholas* (1997); though the album only refers his second name. It was released on November 23, 1998. Stewart wrote most of the songs while promoting his debut studio album (1997) and on his 3-month break from being booked from any television and radio appearances except award shows. Just like the previous record, Stewart still decided to self-write and self-produce his sophomore album, saying it was such a fun experience.

Compared to his debut studio album, *Miles* is a rock record with crossover elements of pop and grunge that critics found appealing to a broad audience. Its production incorporates mostly bass, electric guitar, drums and a little bit of keyboard instruments. Inspired by the personal experience Stewart experienced while rising to fame, lyrics explore themes of homesickness, heartbreak, making new friends, and depression.

After the album's release, Stewart embarked on the Miles Away Tour, which ran from May 1999 to August 1999 and grossed $262 million. Four songs were released as singles: "Every Morning", "Someday", "Miles", and "Unrepeatable'. The album catapulted Stewart to worldwide star status. In the United States, it broke the record for the biggest first-week sales with 3.3M copies sold in its first week. With just four weeks of selling in 1998, it instantly became the best-selling album of the year and also the following year. It spent its first nine weeks at #1 before staying steadily at #2 for the next fourteen weeks. With over 40 million copies sold in the United States and 67 million copies worldwide, it became the second best-selling album in the country and worldwide. Selling over 11 million copies in Europe, it was the only album to date to ever sell more than that threshold, becoming the best-selling album on that continent.

The album received widespread acclaim from critics, who commended the storytelling trope of Stewart's songwriting. Among the most acclaimed albums in the history of music, in 2004 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, which collects "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" sound recordings.

## Background and Production

During the first quarter of 1998, Stewart had a long hiatus from touring and promoting after a full year of doing it. The writing process for his next studio album already began in mid-1997 and Stewart noticed that a lot of them are themes about homesickness and being out of place, which was mostly he experienced during his high school years. Stewart then decided for it to be the main theme of his sophomore album. "Oh yeah, everyone knows you, blah blah blah, like that but...I didn't even know where I would fit in with this world." he stated.

Among the 40 songs he wrote on that time period, only 13 made into the cut. During the selection of songs, Stewart had a hard time choosing because all of these are very special songs and cannot be cherrypicked but he chose 13 songs which were the most capturing of the theme of his record. Recording sessions began immediately in February 1998 and concluded in June. Like his previous record, Stewart decided to self-write and self-produce his sophomore album after he begged the executives for him to have a creative control.

## Packaging and release

The first track to be completed was "Miles" which Stewart didn't write because of his second name. He stated "it's about being faraway from the place you used to live, you're miles away from there." He then started contemplating the word to title the album, and to assure he was making the correct decision, applied to every song on the album.

"Someday" was the last track to be completed for the album. Stewart also felt this track should be the closer of the album as it acts like the conclusion of a story but didn't mean it would be the end of all. "This track's title really speaks for itself. Someday, I'm gonna do whatever I want, go wherever I want, or be free. Maybe I could be home."

The album cover was shot on Stewart's family apartment and which they lived for ten years already before moving out in 1999.

## Promotion

### Singles

"Every Morning" was released as the album's lead single, being sent to radios first on July 27, 1998. The single reached the top five on the Radio Songs Chart on September. Due to Billboard's rule, the single was ineligible to chart on the Hot 100 until it was released as a retail single on September 21, 1998. The single debuted at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart issue-dated October 5, 1998, becoming Stewart's highest entry on the chart and went on to top the chart for seven weeks. During its reign, it became one of the #1 hits that were dominant, having twice the popularity of the #2 single for five weeks. The single charted for 54 weeks, becoming Stewart's first single to chart for more than a year. The song was highly acclaimed by music critics who complimented Stewart's witty style of songwriting and the euphoric tune of the song.

"Someday" became the album's second single. During the release week of *Miles,* "Someday" was already picked up by radio stations and started playing it on rotation. The single debuted at #98 on the Billboard Hot 100 after Billboard allowed airplay-only singles to chart. It was released as a retail single on February 22, 1999 and peaked at #2 for three weeks.

Its last two singles "Miles" and "Unrepeatable" were immediately released on retail after being sent on radios, released on August 22, 1999 and April 3, 2000, respectively and both peaked at #1, with the latter spending four weeks atop.

### Tour

On May 17, 1999, Stewart began his first headlining tour called the Miles Away Tour in North America. It ran until August 13, 1999. Sales for tickets began in December 1998, just in time for the holidays and venues were sold out in a record of less than one minute. The tour was supposedly be longer it only ended up having 60 shows instead of the proposed 120, due to the spree booking of Stewart's television appearances in late 1999. The tour grossed over $99 million upon completion.

## Critical Reception

**Review Scores**
 Exclaim.ca
 Sputnik Music
 The Quietus
 Mess+Noise
 Noisey
 NME
 Paste Magazine
 Rolling Stones
 Select

*Miles* received widespread acclaim. Paul Pearson of AllMusic wrote, "a great balance of pop rock and grunge greatness." Kiana Justice from *Entertainment Weekly* described this record as "a timeless masterpiece and should be taken note by rising rock artists." Malik Rami from *Billboard Magazine* described "could be the greatest pop rock album at our time." Connelly emphasized Stewart's musical progression from his self-titled debut album, writing, "Stewart's new attitude gives *Miles* a deeper, if less visceral, emotional urgency than any of his previous work, and marks another watershed in the creative development of this prodigiously talented performer." John Rockwell wrote in *The New York Times* that perhaps Stewart was a "sometimes too practiced ... performer", that at times he may "depersonalize his individuality" with his "slightly anonymous production", and that he may also be hiding his true emotions behind "layers of impenetrable, gauzy veils". In *The New Yorker*, Alex Ross praised its progressiveness, and contrasted Stewart's risk-taking with the musically conservative "dadrock" of his other contemporaries. Ross wrote: "Throughout the album, contrasts of mood and style are extreme ... Stewart has pulled off one of the great art-pop balancing acts in the history of rock." Ryan Schreiber of *Pitchfork* lauded the record's emotional appeal, writing that it "is brimming with genuine emotion, beautiful and complex imagery and music, and lyrics that are at once passive and fire-breathing".

## Accolades

At the 42nd Grammy Awards, *Miles* won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. Stewart went on to win Album of the Year again in 2006 with Sweet Dreams, again in 2017 with OPERATION CANCELLED., Ozymandias in 2019, ready. set. launch. in 2022 and After Party in 2026.

## Commercial performance

Despite being inactive most of 1998, Stewart's first two releases were still selling strongly and kept fluctuating on the top twenty. Statisticians expect a huge debut for his sophomore album. Despite the huge pressure and expectations from the media, Stewart still stayed calm and didn't care how much this record would sell.

Stewart's second studio album "Miles", was released on November 23, 1998 and broke the second biggest first-week sales record in America, selling over 3.3M copies, an impressive feat. for an alternative artist. Stewart achieved mainstream prominence with this record which became a sleeper hit worldwide. Stewart's reputation as a half-European artist was widely known in his home continent which made his album sell strong on that area and became one of the only records to sell more than 10 million copies in Europe, becoming the best-selling album in the continent. *Miles* went on to lead for nine weeks at #1 and spent fourteen weeks at #2 behind Jenny Grace's debut album *Not Going To Get Us.* The album ended up to become the second best-selling album in America and worldwide, selling an estimated 67 million copies. The album stayed on the top ten for a total of seventy-five nonconsecutive weeks, spending its last week on the region on chart-issue dated September 11, 2000. It went on to chart consecutively for almost 10 years and had multiple chart runs in the 2010s.

Furthermore, *Miles* became the longest chart-topper by a male rock artist, and second overall. At the end of 1999, the album already sold 25 million copies in the United States and was certified 43x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2008 for selling 43 million copies.

In Canada, *Miles* entered at number one, selling 110,000 copies, becoming one of the biggest debuts in the country. Charting for 376 weeks, it became Canada's longest-charting album and was certified 2x Diamond for shipments exceeding 2,000,000 copies. The album also managed success overseas, debuting at #1 on all countries following the international release in October 1999. In Australia, it was certified 24x Platinum Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments exceeding 1,680,000 copies, becoming the best-selling album in the country. In Europe, *Miles* lead for twenty nonconsecutive weeks and sold 11 million copies in the continent, becoming the best-selling album there.

The album sold a staggering amount of 6,000,000 copies in Asia and became one of the rarest international albums to top on all Asian countries. It was certified 3x Million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for the shipment of over 3,000,000 copies in Japan.

Worldwide, it sold more than 67 million copies as of 2020, becoming the best-selling album in the 1990s decade and second overall, just 2 million behind Jenny Grace's *Not Going To Get Us* which continued to sell strongly in the 2000s.

## Impact and legacy

*Miles* popularized the New York grunge movement and brought alternative rock as a whole into the mainstream, establishing its commercial and cultural viability and leading to an alternative rock boom in the music industry. Its success surprised Stewart's contemporaries, who felt dwarfed by its impact. Nicholas Stewart later said: "It was like our record could have been a hobo pissing in the forest for the amount of impact it had...It felt like we were playing ukuleles all of a sudden because of the disparity of the impact of what they did." Karen Schoemer of the *New York Times* wrote that "What's unusual about Stewart's *Miles* is that it caters to neither a mainstream audience nor the indie rock fans who supported the artist's sophomore album"

*Miles* has continued to garner critical praise, has been ranked highly on lists of the most acclaimed albums of all time and is ranked the best album of the 1990s according to Acclaimed Music which statistically aggregates hundreds of published lists. The album was ranked number 77 on *Rolling Stone*'s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, and upgrading to number 46 in 2020 revised list. At that time, Stewart already placed three albums ranking higher than *Miles.* In 2019, *Rolling Stone* also ranked *Miles* number one on its list of the 100 Best Albums of the '90s, calling it the "album that guaranteed the nineties would not suck." Also in 2019, *Miles* was ranked number one on *Rolling Stone*'s 50 Greatest Grunge Albums list. The magazine ranked the album number 10 in its list of 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time too.

## Track listing

All tracks are written and produced by Nicholas Stewart.

***Miles*** - Standard edition

***Miles*** - International bonus track

 15

## Personnel

### Musicians

* Nicholas Stewart - lead guitar (all tracks); backing vocals (tracks 1,3-6,10,14-15); percussion (tracks 1, 4–5, 11-13); brushes (track 3); guitar (3–4, 7, 11); programming (all tracks); keyboard arrangements (tracks 4, 7, 11, 15); drums (tracks 11, 13); acoustic guitar (track 14), piano (track 15)
* Luna Hargreaves – drums (tracks 3–5, 7–10, 12)
* Andy Chavez – bass guitar (all tracks); backing vocals (tracks 2, 4–6, 9–10, 13)
* Michael Keith – drums (tracks 1–2, 6, 13)

### Design

* Alli – art direction
* Ro-Starr – art direction, logos/design
* Christine Alicino – front cover photo
* Kate Garner – photography
* Gregory Stewart - food
* Mitch Stewart - distraction

## Charts

### Decade-end charts

**Decade-end chart positions for *Miles***

 US *Billboard* 200
 US Top Rock Albums (*Billboard*)
 US *Billboard* 200
 US Top Rock Albums (*Billboard*)