I was not surprised when a majority of people commented about individual songs when answering which album they preferred. In some cases, people said things like “I like 5 songs on that album” and “only 2 on the other”, which lead them to choose the former. Okay. That makes sense. It should then be easy to identify which album you like in comparison to the other or even to put the albums in order of preference. Other people commented about specific songs. Perhaps, one’s favorite song is What Happens Tomorrow. That person might have chosen Astronaut over Red Carpet Massacre. In this case, it wasn’t about the number of songs but about the quality of specific songs. This type of judging could make it much more challenging to determine a preference as it isn’t done necessarily mathematically. Perhaps, some people just judge the album’s overall feel without thinking about individual songs. For example, I’m not a fan of RCM, the album, but could name some decent tunes on it. Yet, the feeling I have towards that album isn’t good. Nonetheless, this focus on the songs on the albums or the music was what I had expected. The rest of the reasons were not expected.
Some people mentioned specific tours or specific performances connected to an album. These connections could be personal like “the tour that followed album x was the first time I toured well” or “that was the first time I saw them live” or “that was the best tour of my life” for whatever reason. For those fans, their touring experiences absolutely affected their opinions of the albums connected to those experiences. Interestingly enough, I also saw the opposite. Some commented about how they cannot listen to an album without thinking of the band’s poor performance on tour x. Of course, this is also logical. If the songs were not performed live well, then fans are not going to be attracted to them. The opposite could be true as well. What this proved to me is that tours matter. It matters how well Duran plays their shows. They have to work really hard to perform at their best as any performance could hook fans or convince fans that the album isn’t any good. On a personal level, I can understand this. After the fan show in 2007, I was biased against RCM. The band didn’t seem excited by the new album based on their body language and when they played Nite Runner, it was extremely awkward. Simon, for example, had no idea what to do with his body during that song.
Then, of course, people can have personal connections for or against an album. I’m sure that one’s first Duran album might always rank high in that person’s world. After all, it was that album or the songs on the album that made them fans to begin with. Maybe the time that they reached out to other fans to become part of the fan community might also be one that is more meaningful. Thus, the album, at that time, would be more important to them. Of course, there might be other personal reasons for liking an album. Perhaps, the fan was going through a hard time when album x came out. It is possible that this album would always remind the fan of that time or, on the other hand, it could be that the album helped the person get through the trouble.
All of these different reasons for liking or not liking a album reminds me that it has got to be so challenging for the band to actually write and release new albums. They have to compete with their old catalog and they have to fight against whatever outside forces are out there for their fans and for the general public. That said, they still have some control over a couple of elements. First, they can write quality music that can and does stand the test of time. For example, most fans still love the first album and Rio. Then, they must tour the albums well. They have to make sure that they don’t turn people off by a poor performance. Instead, they can convince others to check out their latest album by performing their hearts out. This discussion also reminds me that so many little details go into the making and sustaining of a fandom. Each fan is different and likes the music for a variety of reasons. That said, the fact that there was discussion about one’s preferred album shows that the fandom is healthy as there is still much to talk about!
-A
Awesome blog post!! It is interesting to hear different people's ways of coming up with which albums are their favorites. I actually have a really detailed way to do this, I rate each song on a scale from 1-5 for each part, the verse, chorus, bridge, and solo. Then I give the song an extra point if it gives me a “special feeling” LOL (interpret that however you like!)…then I add up the numbers and then I have my albums in the exact order that I like them!
Glad that you liked it! We are doing something similar with our song reviews. Perhaps, we should rate each element to a song as well as the song as the whole!
-A
Shelly, I love the rating scale concept–been meaning to sit down at some point and do that (hard w/ two little boys 1 yr and 2.5 yrs old! Because I wonder if doing it that way would reveal my own biases (i.e. I would rank Rio, DD 1, Medaz, AYNIN in top tier but wonder if that would translate in the actual numbers).
I think I tweeted this to you–my issue w/ Astronaut vs. RCM is that all the best material seemed to get left on the cutting room floor (Beautiful Colours/Pretty Ones/Salt in the Rainbow/TV vs. Radio) etc. Do you blame the band or producer? Likewise, if you've ever heard the demos for Liberty, they are ridiculously good–better than what's on the album and, again, some of the best material (“my family” comes to mind).
Speaking of producer, a recent Ask Katy had a very telling answer. The band was asked who had the last word on finishing a song and the reply was, on AYNIN, Mark Ronson. So this got me thinking, in reply to your blog post, maybe we need to consider the producer as well when considering the albums. I think AYNIN is so strong and so deep w/ good songs…Ronson clearly got the best out of the band. I also think Nile Rodgers did too on Notorious. I loved the album in '86 and today still listen to it and think it's great…if you think of the band's turmoil during that era, just makes the album and Rodgers look better…
Or look at The Reflex. The original album version is so-so but the remix he did is amazing. Likewise, look at what Jason Nevins did for Sunrise. The original version of Sunrise–played on that first Japan reunion tour in 2003–is almost painful…but the Astronaut version and subsequent Nevins remix is great. So I credit the Producers with that…
Conversely, I think Chris Kimsey was the producer of Liberty, and as mentioned above, I don't know WTF happened between the demos and final recording…
Finally, to your point about what defines an album–specific songs, a feel, etc…I think it's similar to a baseball lineup. You need a great middle of the lineup–your 3,4, 5 hitters–and on an album you'd like to have 2 or 3 songs that are “10s” like Rio, Ordinary World, Falling Down, Nice, etc. The whole album need not be that good but you can't have filler.
Sorry for rambling. My wife is not a DD fan and tolerates my own obsession (now telling me to go look for gifts for our little one's 1 yr b-day next month!. In closing…I was shoveling today an listening to my iPod and had the remastered first album on…really love those air studios demos and all those b-sides like Khanada and Faster than light…
Spring starts 2 months from today…
–Chris aka @poptrashed on twitter
Chris-You make such a good point about the producer of an album. I think that we have really learned that the producer DOES matter and, sometimes, in very significant ways, including which tracks make the cut and which ones don't. No need to apologize for “rambling”! Goodness knows that Rhonda and I do that on a daily basis here! Thus, you are welcome to come and comment anytime!
-A
Amanda, I think that the point here is that muscic is about feeling. So it is very hard to quantify. And for a same album or song your feeling can change with time. For instance, RCM : I was disgusted when I learned that the guys were going to team up with Timbaland and Timberlake. When I listened to the cd I was not so sure, the songs are great but the production was so far away from DD and too cold. When I saw them live in Montreal I was blown away by the power of it. Of course live the production is not there and particularly the guitar of Dom was more present (Rhonda will be happy to read this ;-)but that's the problem where the guitar is???) So the same album and different aspects of it. I can say that another point is what history, medias etc make of a particular album or song. We can't be hard on an album that got so much success as Rio, but there is some not that good songs on it (with some masterpieces obviously)but I can see often people getting excited because the bans play live one of those bad song just because it is from the mythic album and era. Another exemple is Sunrise, it isn't a very good song and surely not the best of the Astronaut album but the one that did survive (maybe again because of the raw guitar in it. But still Astronaut isn,t an album that we remember strongly and it is a pretty good album. The forst time I listened to Liberty I was a bit unhappy and after a bit of time listened to it again and realised that there is some pretty great songs in it. My point is that the feeling is what made us decide which album or song is great so it's hard to define and judge and album in a precise way.
Pat (sorry for the anonimous but when I try to put my profile all my comment vanished… some bug from blogspot or my computer)
Pat-Music is about feeling. For some people, though, they want/need to back up those feelings with math. You seem to be like all of my points wrapped up into one, btw. Your taste in specific music depended on live performance, history/media, the specific time, and more. BTW, I happen to love the song, Sunrise!
-A