I sincerely apologize for what happens next

“i sincerely apologize for what happens next”, usually abbreviated as “ISAFWHN” is the 2nd studio album by Xavier Ellis’ band The Mane. It was released at midnight on Halloween, 2021, by record label Matador Records. This is by far their best selling and most popular album in The Mane’s discography.

## Background

On March 21st, 2020, Twitter users Lisa (she/they, @DAMNHAUSEN) and Ozzy (they/them, @B0WMANBABE) discovered that wrestler Xavier Ellis had a band in college called “Xavier and the Mane (now known as simply “The Mane”). Both users found the band’s self-titled debut album on Spotify and Youtube. Tracks from the album “Crutch” and “Silver Lining” resurfaced and became a hit on wrestling Twitter and Tiktok. Xavier noticed that his band was gaining traction and decided it was time to get The Mane back together to work on new music during quarantine.

*“Me and the band, we had a Zoom discussion about this sudden surge in population. We had no clue what to f\*\*king do about it at first, until Leo and [Gracie-]Allison suggested that we’d get back together, since we had a lot of downtime. I was about to say no, worried making music was going to mess up my job’s schedule, but we eventually found a way to balance their producing schedule and my wrestling schedule out and I agreed to getting the band back together. I definitely don’t regret saying yes.”* - Xavier Ellis on an episode of the TODAY show

The Mane started working on ISAFWHN in the Summer of 2020, keeping details about the band’s reunion and the new album top secret. A year after that, Xavi teased the band’s comeback and the album’s name on Twitter on July 17th, 2021. A few days later, on July 22, 2021, The Mane released their first single in two years, “excuse me” unannounced. Fans who were following the band on Spotify got a notification at midnight on their phones, reading, *“New music from The Mane. Listen now.”* Some believed the new music was an official release of an unreleased song, but later found out it wasn't’ true. The same day, Xavier made an official album announcement.

## Conception

Xavi described ISAFWHN as a “mix of emotions” and a blend of rock sub genres.

*“I Sincerely Apologize is like a mix of emotions to me, and I bet others may feel the same when they listen to this for the first time. Some of the tracks are very aggressive and angry, some are tear-jerking, and some out just flat out confusing.”* - Xavi for ROX Magazine

*”We grew up listening to so many genres, sub genres and varieties of music. One thing that makes each member distinct from each other is that we fixate on different genres. Jeff, Dami, and I prefer rock, Leo likes pop, Grace likes electronic music, and we sorta merged those things together into several different songs. I hope this helps fans branch out and explore different genres, because in my opinion, that’s something you should try.”* - Xavi for ROX Magazine

## Promotion & Release

### Cover

On July 22, 2021, the same day “excuse me” was released, Xavi shared a tweet announcing that ISAFWHN was coming soon, attached with an image of the album cover. Five clear mannequins are shown on the cover, which is supposed to represent all 5 members of The Mane. The original cover had white text on the top, reading from left to right, “The Mane: I Sincerely Apologize For What Happens Next”.

Xavi’s album announcement.The final album cover for ISAFWHN.
3 months before the album’s release, Xavi changed his profile pic to ISAFWHN’s album cover. Fans noticed that the text on the album cover was removed on Apple Music and other services where fans could pre-save or pre-order the album. Xavi revealed why this happened on a episode of the RLW TODAY podcast.

*”Me and the band, we were like ‘This album cover looks like S\*\*T with the text!” so we decided to cut it out.”* - Xavi on the RLW TODAY podcast

### Singles

The first single from ISAFWHN, “excuse me”, was released July 22, 2021. This was The Mane’s first song since their two year hiatus. The same day, The Mane uploaded a cover of Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” to their Youtube channel, which has yet to be released on other streaming platforms. “excuse me” hit #10 on the Billboard Top 100, staying on the chart for 18 weeks, grossed over 29 million views and was the most streamed song by The Mane on Spotify at the time.

The second single from ISAFWHN, “the things I’d do to keep myself alive”, was released October 1st, 2021. Although it didn’t hit the Billboard Top 100, it grossed over 19 million Youtube views and 30 million Spotify streams. The day after that, Xavi defended his RLW TOTAL title against DeAngelo Skinner at the RLW pay-per-view Lock and Key, retaining his title.

On October 29th, 2021, The Mane’s final single from ISAFWHN, “graveyard kissers”, which was previously unreleased and leaked on SoundCloud, was officially released. This was the only single from the album that didn’t hit the Billboard Top 100 or gross over 20 million streams on Spotify. However, it did get 21 million Youtube views from fans who were anticipating the official release of “graveyard kissers”.

### Album Release

ISAFWHN was officially released on Halloween, 2021 on all streaming platforms and into select stores.

### Marketing

Xavi first promoted ISAFWHN on an episode of the RLW today podcast, where he talked to friends JADE and Valentine Zepida about it. The Mane made their TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform “excuse me”, 3 days after it was released. Around cities in Ohio and Rhode Island, promotional signs and posters were put up to promote the album. On the day of ISAFWHN’s release, tv19 and ROX created an online special, titled “ROX Presents: The Mane: I Sincerely Apologize For What Happens Next”, where The Mane would perform every song from their new album live, including a couple songs from their debut album. The Mane was supposed to perform at the 2022 Kids Choice Awards, but the performance was cut out due to timing. However, Xavi had an altercation with RLW rival Mateo Lavernge during the show, which led to him getting a shot at regaining the RLW TOTAL Title at All For One 2022.

### Tours

The Mane does not plan on going on tour yet, but would love to do so in the near future.

*”We don’t have any tour plans at the moment. There’s too many things going on right now and COVID’s still here and we don’t wanna risk us or our fans getting harmed in any way. We’d love to go on tour, but now is not the right time to do so.”* - Xavi for ROX Magazine

## Critical Reception

ISAFWHN received worldwide critical acclaim from both music critics and fans. Many have said the album was the best rock album of 2021 and some have claimed it was “rock music’s revival”.

### Professional Ratings

* Metacritic: 94/100
* AnyDecentMusic?: 8.9/10
* AllMusic: 4.5 stars
* The Daily Telegraph: 5 stars
* Entertainment Weekly/EW: A
* The Guardian: 4 stars
* The Independent: 4 stars
* The Line of Best Fit: 9.5/10
* NME: 5 stars
* Pitchfork: 8.5 stars
* Rolling Stone: 5 stars
* The Times: 4 stars

## Commercial Performance

ISAFWHN became the 3rd best selling album of 2021, selling over 3.7 million physical and digital copies. “particles”, a non-single track from the album, has grossed over 67 million Youtube views, 76 million Spotify views, and has hit the Billboard Top 100 at the #2 spot, becoming The Mane’s best song. The album went multi-platinum and “excuse me” and “particles” have went certified diamond.

## Deluxe Edition

On February 5th, 2022, The Mane released a deluxe version of ISAFWHN, “I Sincerely Apologize For What Happens Next: The Aftermath”, with 5 new songs added to the track list, including tracks featuring notable acts such as Chris Stapleton and Hatsune Miku. The track list also featured a song titled “if i were you”, which is apparently a rant about musician Machine Gun Kelly and his music, which caused Kelly to block Xavi and The Mane on all social media platforms.

## Track List

1. intro
2. excuse me
3. annihilation (ft. Hatsune Miku)\*
4. graveyard kissers
5. ammonia
6. nowhere to be
7. pawtucket
8. sorry\*
9. gleymdu því/forget it
10. miracle
11. particles
12. don’t look back
13. forlorn
14. my love
15. if i get high
16. intoxication
17. if i were you\*
18. what happened to our peaceful city?\*
19. who’s gonna save us now?
20. this feels like the end
21. alone (ft. Chris Stapleton)\*
22. the things I’d do to keep myself alive

\*Deluxe Version/The Aftermath tracks

## Controversy

The Mane and Xavier Ellis are extremely hated by the conservative political party and some Christians. FOX News host Tucker Carlson sparked the controversy when he spoke about ISAFWHN on an episode of his nightly talk show, calling The Mane and their album “far-left propaganda” and “a extreme gay doctrine”. Carlson has also spoke out about his hatred for the song “who’s gonna save us now?”, where Xavi talks about how corrupt American politics and the political right are. Many conservatives believe that Xavier is secretly a woman because of the way he occasionally dresses and acts.

*“I have a friend who really enjoys rock music, and was excited to listen to The Mane’s new album. He was enjoying the album until ‘who’s gonna save us now?’ came on. He complained to me last night about it’s anti-conservative, pro-riot, anti-free speech lyrics and let me listen to the song. Not to mention many of the songs on this album include an extreme gay doctrine. I Sincerely Apologize is far-left indoctrination and propaganda in disguise. Don’t let your kids listen to this Satanic crap!”* - Tucker Carlson

*“It makes me SICK how it is socially acceptable for Xavier to sing about sex, riots, and hating America. The way he dresses makes me want to vomit.”* - Michael Knowles, The Daily Wire host

The Mane has heard about the comments conservatives have made about their lyrics, and simply do not care.

## Demo EP

On March 15, 2022, The Mane released an EP, “i sincerely apologize: the demos”, with the demos for “if i get high”, “my love”, and “forlorn”, which were previously only heard by the band Xavi’s partner. After a March 13 episode of RLW Saturday Nite Slammin, Xavi, surrounded by friends and fellow wrestlers, proposed to his partner backstage.