Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)

Official cover for Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)

***Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)*** is the second re-recorded album by American-Romanian singer-songwriter Nicholas Stewart, released on August 16, 2021, through Sunset Records. It is a re-recording of Stewart's fourth studio album, *Sweet Dreams* (2004), and the second of eight re-recorded albums Stewart plans to release, following the dispute regarding ownership of the masters to his first eight studio albums. The album consists of fourteen additional "from the Vault" songs not included on the 2004 album. Aside from recreating the instrumentation of the 2004 recording, there are also a few re-arrangements for most of the tracks. All of the songs were written solely by Stewart.

*Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)* was preceded by two singles, "Get Wasted, I Drank A Vodka (Nicky's Version)" and "Don't Tell Him, I'm Haunting Him (From The Vault)", The album received widespread acclaim, being a timely release in the dark period of the pandemic, aside from the emphasis on its nostalgic sentiment, Stewart's matured vocals, and fresher production. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was also Stewart's first re-recorded album to top on all countries.

## Background and Production

Liam GallagherBillie Joe ArmstrongStewart released his fourth studio album, *Sweet Dreams*, in 2004 to critical and commercial success, and was considered a cult classic years after its release. It was distributed by American record label Sunrise Records. It spent 8 weeks atop the US *Billboard* 200 chart and stayed in the top ten for a staggering eight-seven weeks, the most weeks spent in the region. Released during the moderate decline of album sales, *Sweet Dreams* was the last album to sell over 20 million copies in the United States, due to its stability throughout the years. Years later after its release, Stewart was tagged as the "King of Emo", paving way for musicians to showcase emo pop punk music in the late 2000s. Stewart's sudden shift of fashion sense have surprised the media. Most of 2004, he would be seen wearing darker clothes than the previous years when he goes out of his penthouse. In the mid 2000s, emo fashion became a trend not just teenagers but also young adults.

In 2016, having recorded eight studio albums under Sunrise Records, Stewart's contract with the label expired. He signed a new contract with rival record label Sunset Records. In 2017, Sunrise Records was acquired by Stewart's former friend and business partner Zark Mockingbird and his company The Blackstone Group Inc. As part of the acquisition, ownership of the masters to Stewart's first eight studio albums, including *Sweet Dreams*, transferred to Mockingbird. The master is the first recording of an audio recording, from which copies are made for sales and distribution; the owner of the master, therefore, owns all copies, such as digital versions for download or on streaming platforms, or physical versions available on CDs and vinyl records. In August 2017, Stewart denounced the purchase, and announced his intention to re-record his first eight studio albums so as to own their masters. Stewart stated on his Tumblr blog that Sunrise Records promised him as early as 1997 that he could buy the masters of his catalog with a condition, if only his next albums would sell a lot more and earn more money for the label to pay for the business contract, but they still didn't allow him to. In November 2017, Mockingbird sold Stewart's masters, videos and artworks, to The Blackstone Group Inc. for a reported $1.3 billion. Stewart began re-recording his back catalog in December 2017.

> *"Nightmares, bad nights, some people can't avoid them. They tried, but they can't just escape them.  It hunts them every night on their sleep. That includes me. I figured writing about it would  just make me tolerate it. I got to share my nightmares, which didn't seem bad at all. I find the title "Sweet Dreams" very ironic since they aren't really sweet, but that's one of the best things about it."*
>
>

— Stewart looking back on *Sweet Dreams* and introducing its re-recording.

Stewart shared that he began re-recording the 2004 album in May 2018, just after he finished the re-recording of his 1998 album *Miles*. Just like what he used to do while recording the original album in 2004, Stewart also turned off the lights during the recording sessions, to recapture the dark and goth atmosphere of the record. He told *Rolling Stone* in 2021: "Funny thing, while recording the original on the studio, people really thought I was crazy or something because I'm abnormally shouting on a dark room. Now, they still do, but now they knew what I am really doing. Ha ha!!" After recording their assigned parts for *Miles (Nicky's Version)*, Jude Garfield and Ryan Martin played for the drums, bass, and lead guitar for all tracks of *Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)*.

During the conception of the re-recording, Stewart collaborated with Liam Gallagher and Billie Joe Armstrong for the vault tracks "The (After) Life (feat. Liam Gallagher) (From The Vault)" and "Scream It Out (Into The Void) (feat. Billie Joe Armstrong) (From The Vault)", respectively.

## Artwork

The cover artwork for *Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)* depicts Stewart wearing his black suit he wore on the original cover, staring at the window. The photo is in greyscale and much darkened. The left side of the photo is a complete blank space.

## Release and promotion

*Miles (Nicky's Version)*, the first of his eight re-recorded albums, was released on May 3, 2021. It achieved critical and commercial success, and debuted at number one on the *Billboard* 200 chart and became one of the few re-recording albums to top the chart. Exactly one month after its release, on June 3, 2021, Stewart changed his profile picture on all of his social media pictures to plain black and caught the attention of the internet. Hours later, Stewart changed his profile picture into what would be the cover for his new re-recording *Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)*, which he announced the same day. On June 4, 2021, the lead single of the album, "Get Wasted, I Drank A Vodka (Nicky's Version)" was released. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The first vault track of the album "Don't Tell Him, I'm Haunting Him (From The Vault)" was released on July 9, 2021 and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On August 14, 2021, two days before the release of the re-recorded album, Stewart added a new section on his website called "Into The Void", which contained a black screen secretly filled with darkened words and phrases which were titles of the new vault tracks. During the day of the release of *Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version),* the standard physical copies were made available for pre-order on Stewart's website. CDs with collectible posters are available for pre-order exclusively at Target.

## Critical Reception

*Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)* was met with widespread acclaim from music critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a weighted mean score of 90 based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". *The Daily Telegraph*'s Neil McCormick wrote re-creating a cult classic like *Sweet Dreams* would be a difficult process to work on but with Mr. Stewart's forte and ethic, *Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)* was the complete package of the hit album we needed. *Variety* critic Chris Willman also praised Stewart's recreation of the album, and his sonic experimentation on the vault tracks, saying: "What they say about actors 'disappearing into the role'? That really applies to Nicholas Stewart, playing the goth gentleman we knew in 2005."

## Commercial performance

*Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)* experiences massive success worldwide, debuting at #1 on all countries. It opened atop the Billboard 200, selling 526,000 album equivalent units, including 352,000 pure album sales and 174,000 units from streaming, garnering 261M on-demand streams, besting the 231M debut from his first re-recorded album *Miles (Nicky's Version).* It marked Stewart's fourteenth number one album in the US. As of 2028, the album was certified double platinum by RIAA.

## Track listing

All tracks are written and produced by Nicholas Stewart.

## Personnel

### Musicians

* Nicholas Stewart - lead vocals; lead guitar; backing vocals percussion ; brushes ; guitar; programming; keyboard arrangements ; drums; acoustic guitar; piano; production coordinator; additional engineering; mastering; mixing
* Jude Garfield – drums
* Ryan Martin – bass guitar ; backing vocals

### Design

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

## Charts

### Weekly Charts

**Peak chart positions for *Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)***

### Year-end charts

**Year-end chart positions for *Sweet Dreams (Nicky's Version)***

## Certifications and sales

 United Kingdom (BPI)
 United States (RIAA)
 Europe (IFPI)
 Worldwide