Originally believed gone for good, Bert McCracken’s personal notebook from the creation of The Used’s 2004 album ‘In Love and Death’ has resurfaced and is now being released as ‘In Love and Death The Lost Notebook.’ The handwritten journal, filled with early lyrics, poems, sketches, and deeply personal reflections, was unexpectedly discovered online and returned to McCracken nearly twenty years after it disappeared. Now, fans are invited inside the raw creative space that helped shape one of emo’s most defining records.
“This notebook is a time capsule,” McCracken says. “It’s a snapshot of who I was, what I went through, and how those emotions turned into the music we made. Getting it back brought a rush of memories—pain, joy, chaos, and everything in between.” The pages capture the unfiltered intensity of his early twenties, revealing the emotional groundwork behind songs that would become cornerstones of the band’s catalog.
More than a retrospective, the book stands as a document of vulnerability and fearless expression. “I never thought I’d publish a book—unless it was weird, postmodern fiction,” McCracken reflects. “But when I found this notebook again, I knew I had to share it. I was fearless then. And there’s magic in what survived.”