title: Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune
text: # Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune
  
  Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune is a studio album by Swamp Dogg. It was released via Joyful Noise Recordings on September 7, 2018. It peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, as well as number 28 on the Independent Albums chart.
  
  ## Production
  
  The album was inspired by Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak. After Swamp Dogg and MoogStar recorded a rough version of the album, Ryan Olson and Justin Vernon spent several years "refining, fine-tuning, and deconstructing" these recordings. The album includes the cover versions of "Answer Me, My Love" and "Star Dust". In a 2018 interview with Los Angeles Times, Swamp Dogg said, "It's the best thing I've done since the '70s."
  
  ## Music videos
  
  Music videos were created for "I'll Pretend", "Lonely", "Sex with Your Ex", and "Star Dust".
  
  ## Critical reception
  
  Professional ratings :
  
  | Aggregate scores ||
  | - | - |
  | Source | Rating |
  | Metacritic | 74/100 |
  | Review scores ||
  | Source | Rating |
  | AllMusic | |
  | Pitchfork | 7.3/10 |
  | PopMatters | |
  | Rolling Stone | |
  
  At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
  
  Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote, "with Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune, Swamp Dogg takes a very deep dive into the electronic side of contemporary pop, hip-hop, and R&B, and he predictably pushes it to the wall." Elias Leight of Rolling Stone wrote, "On Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune's best songs, [Ryan] Olson's synth-heavy backdrops evoke the late Eighties, landing somewhere between early Chicago house music and twitchy hip-hop." Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that "Swamp Dogg sets off into a bizarre, unsettled realm of computer-manipulated vocals and surreal, anything-can-happen electronic backdrops." Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork wrote, "The experiment succeeds because Swamp Dogg delivers on all three aspects of his album title: the ecstasies of love, the misery of loss, and the way Auto-Tune can be used to magnify those feelings."
  
  Mojo placed it at number 56 on the "Top 75 Albums of 2018" list.
  
  ## Personnel
  
  Credits adapted from liner notes.
  
  * Swamp Dogg – vocals, keyboards (1)
  * MoogStar – production, vocals (1)
  * Andrew Broder – production (1, 5, 7)
  * Justin Vernon – messina (1–8), vocals (3), keyboards (4)
  * Romain Bly – French horn (1, 7), arrangement (1, 7, 9)
  * Alistair Sung – cello (1, 7, 9)
  * Thora Margret Sveinsdottir – viola (1, 7, 9)
  * Shelley Soerensen – violin (1, 7)
  * Marlies van Gangelen – oboe (1, 7)
  * Maaike van der Linde – flute (1, 7)
  * Taskforce – production (1, 8)
  * Amire Johnson – keyboards (1)
  * Brian Nichols – keyboards (2, 5, 6)
  * Erik Andersen – keyboards (2, 5)
  * Lazerbeak – boom bap (2, 5)
  * Jake Hanson – guitar (2, 6)
  * Charles Hayes – saxophone (2, 8)
  * Chris Bierden – bass guitar (2, 9)
  * Ryan Olson – keyboard bass (3), bass guitar (6), piano (9)
  * Bobby Raps – snare (3), handclap (7)
  * Guitar Shorty – guitar (3), headphone bleed (3)
  * Seth Rosetter – deep noise (3)
  * Psymun – production (4, 5)
  * Sen 09 – production (4)
  * Elliot Kozel – keyboards (4)
  * Morgan Whirledge – keyboards (4)
  * Isaac Gale – bass guitar (4)
  * V*agra – shaker (4)
  * Chris Eagan – drums (5)
  * Josh Berg – beat (6)
  * Trever Hagen – production (7)
  * Jeremy Ylvisaker – guitar (7)
  * Decarlo Jackson – bass guitar (7)
  * Mark McGee – shaker (7)
  * Drew Christopherson – hi-hat (9)
  * Andre de Ridder – violin (9)
  * Mayah Kadish – violin (9)
  * David McMurry – photography
  * Erik Madigan Heck – photography
  * David J. Woodruff – layout
  
  ## Chart history
  
  | Chart (2018) | Peak position |
  | - | - |
  | US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) | 7 |
  | US Independent Albums (Billboard) | 28 |
  