Daughtry released Break the Spell on November 21, 2011, through RCA Records. Their third studio album reunited them with Howard Benson, the producer behind Daughtry and Leave This Town. The first two singles presented different sides of the record: “Renegade” went to rock radio, while “Crawling Back to You” led the campaign for pop audiences.
Chris Daughtry co-wrote all 12 songs on the standard edition, working with bandmates and outside collaborators. Marti Frederiksen shared writing credits on both “Crawling Back to You” and “Outta My Head.” Before the album arrived, Chris described a writing process that allowed the musicians to follow ideas without deciding in advance what a Daughtry song should sound like. “Let's not try to sound like anything. Let's just write, and see what happens,” he said in comments published by antiMusic. He credited even songs that missed the final selection with helping the band explore unfamiliar approaches.
The title track stayed close to a subject Chris knew personally. In an April 2012 interview with the Connecticut Post, he explained that his marriage supplied both literal stories and experiences he exaggerated for songs. “Break the Spell” explored why someone keeps returning to a difficult relationship, with a good day carrying enough weight to draw them back. Its central attachment was complicated: the person causing pain could also feel essential to getting through life.
“Crawling Back to You” approached relationship trouble through an admission of fault. Chris described its premise in comments carried by Loudwire: a partner has been proved right, and the narrator returns just as she predicted. The band gave the song a performance video, using inventive camera angles while keeping the musicians and song at its center. Chris said he committed fully to each take and regularly finished video shoots with his voice worn out.
The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 8 with 129,000 copies sold in its opening week. Its release didn't end the work on the recordings, though. As the campaign continued into 2012, Benson returned to “Outta My Head,” a song he felt needed a different treatment for its life as a single.
In a 2012 interview with M Music & Musicians, Benson explained that he wanted to move the track further toward pop. He altered the guitars, added keyboards, loops and dubstep elements, and brought in a different mixing engineer. He connected those decisions to changes in the market that he had noticed while making the album. “I was prepared for nobody to like it,” he said.
Chris approved the new version when Benson played it for him. The resulting single gave “Outta My Head” a different production from the recording listeners had first heard on Break the Spell.
