Strays

Strays was the band's longest gap between full studio albums, arriving 13 years after Ritual de lo Habitual, and the first with Chris Chaney on bass. The band entered Henson Recording Studios in 2002 with the producers Bob Ezrin and Brian Virtue. Perkins said they felt ready for a new challenge after two reunion tours of old material. Cover art by Storm Thorgerson was rejected, and the band used a photograph of themselves.

It debuted at four on the Billboard 200 with 110,500 copies sold in its first week, and went Gold in the US and Canada and silver in the UK. Its single Just Because was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004, and Superhero became the theme of the HBO series Entourage. Metacritic gave the album 75 from 19 reviews. Pitchfork's Mark Richardson wrote in 2006 that it was not a particularly good record.