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Post by midwifespal on Jun 15, 2012 13:23:44 GMT -5
ETA: HSM: oooh, meant to say: Mika--no, I HADN'T seen that colbert/JW clip, and I LOVED it! Thank you! Man, watching Colbert hammer away at that reluctant smirk, and watching Jack White employ every tool in his considerable bemusement-arsenal in an effort to find him merely puzzling and annoying, rather than hilarious, puzzling and annoying, is value. polly-rhythmic--lolol. Oh, and Junie and Mszue: Thanks for answering the "what's yer favorite" question. I'm really interested! Funny, but what I particularly like is when someone loves a song I'm not that into, because it gives me further confidence in the reach of the material. I'll answer, too, cause it's only fair. (And I love your rounding-up policy, Junie, I do that too.) My absolute fave is Kickin' In, which replaced Shady (which I also adore) at the very top after I saw them both live at IHeartRadio. But it's pretty close between those two, especially on the album (Shady on the album is just so cool). Kickin' In is just so much fun in concert--I can't get over the charms of Adam's facial expressions when he sings it, the hammy liveliness of it, the slightly unhinged happiness of that song. Probably my next tier (a bigger one) is Trespassing (another great one live), Cuckoo, Broken English, Runnin (which is usually not really my kind of music but which I love for it's expert build-up and execution) and Naked Love. Naked Love is like my IIHY of this album--I didn't think I was that into it, but the exuberant joy with which Adam sings it (which comes through even on the album version) totally wins me over. Then NCOE, Chokehold, Pop that Lock, and Outlaws of Love, because it's so pretty and simple. At this point I'm still on songs I really like quite a lot. Take Back and Nirvana are just so-so for me (for you) though I like the "we used to be a jungle" line in Take Back. Underneath--sorry guys--I just can't get past the "red river of screams" metaphor. Its just too much for me. I think that probably says much more about me and my shriveled cynical little soul, wasted by too much late night tv and Henry James, than it does about the song. A few choice rewrites and this one might leap up the list for me. But as it is, maybe especially when paired with the gorgeous soaring vocals, its just sets off too many smoke detectors in my brain, lol. BTIKM, probs no surprise, is at the bottom for me. FWIW: faves from the last album were Fever, Music Again, Down the Rabbit Hole, Broken Open, and, wait for it, Loaded Smile ( . Oooh, and I loved the much neglected Master Plan. But none of them approaches the top two on Trespassing for me. They hang out with the next tier. Least favorites: Aftermath and WWFM (though Adam did a fab job selling me on it, especially acoustically). Sorry, now it does kinda feel like I just went on about myself for a while. But I am genuinely interested in what all of you think about the songs, so thanks for continuing this conversation, you two.
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lynne
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Post by lynne on Jun 15, 2012 13:52:20 GMT -5
Okay. I'll play. I am always surprised at how different people's favorites are, but then, I wonder why, since even my own seem to regularly shift. My husband and I were talking about this last night. His least favorite song on the album? Trespassing! Go figure. Hi favorite? Shady. His favorites last album, fye, fever, strut and sleepwalker. My favorites last album: broken open, voodoo, FYE, fever My current favorites this album: Top favorites: REALLY LOVE: Shady, Kickin' in, (so wild and perfect and cool) Broken English (beautiful and romantic) Naked Love, ( it just makes me summer-happy,) Trespassing, (such a great statement,) Running ( not my usual type of song, but for some reason it grabs me) and that one place in Nirvana where Adam's voice flies hi-i-igh to a higher plane. LOVE: all of the rest, lol Seriously? LIKE: Take back and Pop that Lock. (Still don't skip either of them when listening, though)
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Post by mszue on Jun 15, 2012 14:47:51 GMT -5
I just have to pop back in to say that I REALLY believe that Shady could be that breakthrough track. It is up at or near the top of almost everyone's list, regardless of the other track favourites. It is infectious to the max. Furthermore, [as was Fever], the cd version is at least as good, if not arguably better than the live version...and if you want it to hit on radio...the radio version has to be marvellous. Not just the live version. jmho
If I had my say, I would SOOOOO release Shady...and have a few big performances with both Niles and Sam!!! that would be BREATHTAKING and knock everyone's socks off....
eta...and accompany the release with a video of them performing partially real and partially in cartoon and 3d'ish...no 'storyline...just performance
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JazzRocks
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Post by JazzRocks on Jun 15, 2012 15:41:10 GMT -5
Maybe I started a bitch session here? No I didn't because you guys turned it into something positive as you always usually do. Favorites? NCOE is definitely not my favorite but I do think it is catchy and fits perfectly on CHR. I have no idea why it's languishing because it's better than some or even most of the songs now being played. But we've said that before many times and it gets us nowhere. My favorites were Trespassing, Cuckoo & Naked Love but that changed after the Wilkes Barre concert. I immediately fell in love with the live Kickin In! OMG it was fabulous! I now also love the album version. But it's futile to even think about the next single. I'm so afraid if NCOE doesn't make inroads that will be it for singles this era. ALTHOUGH HE DID SAY THERE WOULD "DEFINITELY BE ANOTHER SINGLE"! I admit I didn't rush upstairs all jolly after my last post. Maybe now I'm ready.
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JazzRocks
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Post by JazzRocks on Jun 15, 2012 16:03:08 GMT -5
Although he would never say so I think most of us are pretty sure HE did not pick either of the 2 singles. But I'm not as optimistic as you that another single (whether it's Shady, Kickin In or any of our favorites) will perform any differently on radio. There's something deeper going on than just the music and I sure don't know what it is. I don't think it's homophobia (at least not entirely). It could be a laundry list of things:
*Radio is tired of "Reality Show" contestants (unless they're from the most recent season or from the UK ;D)
*There is definitely a UK invasion and only so many spots to fill on a station's playlist
*The perception that Adam's fans aren't young enough for CHR's demographic (but then what about HAC where NCOE also languished?)
*He doesn't fit into a male chr mould (ie rap, R&B, WGWG, etc)
*Homophobia
I don't know. I don't know.....
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lynne
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Post by lynne on Jun 15, 2012 16:08:13 GMT -5
To add to this, after listening to the CD, my son, the one who is a music dj/writer/producer, immediately turned to me and said, "I can't believe they have this song on here (referring to Shady) and they aren't putting it out as a single."
Everyone seems to love Shady.
That said, I hear you, Jazz..
All you can do is set the songs free and see what happens.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2012 16:13:51 GMT -5
I've learned so much from reading the thread today!
mszue, I LOVE your idea about Shady and the video would vault to the top of the list of my all-time favorite things. OMG. Animation ... that would be so great. Remember American Pop?
I wanted to see this movie so much when I was a kid and for some reason I wasn't allowed to ... wonder if it is out on DVD?
Adam's situation is deeply challenging -- on that we all agree. I think we can probably count on RCA to view it through the same old tired lens. Like the rest of us (or me at least), they only know the world of the past ... how it is supposed to be, supposed to work. Nothing is really WRONG, maybe ... but lots of little things are awry. Those knobs and dials are broken ...
So the question becomes, what assumptions did we (RCA) buy into that just didn't come off? What are we (RCA) doing wrong?
BUT I think we can count on Adam to view through a different lens than that one that is so deeply interesting to RCA and to us. I'll bet even now, Adam is shifting the view, seeing what possibilities it holds and what is interesting about them.
He may have to make some kind of radical and courageous move.
*
Ran across this poem earlier in a different context and it seems perfect ... The Poems of Our Climate by Wallace Stevens ... especially the last stanza:
I Clear water in a brilliant bowl, Pink and white carnations. The light In the room more like a snowy air, Reflecting snow. A newly-fallen snow At the end of winter when afternoons return. Pink and white carnations – one desires So much more than that. The day itself Is simplified: a bowl of white, Cold, a cold porcelain, low and round, With nothing more than the carnations there.
II Say even that this complete simplicity Stripped one of all one’s torments, concealed The evilly compounded, vital I And made it fresh in a world of white, A world of clear water, brilliant-edged, Still one would want more, one would need more, More than a world of white and snowy scents.
III There would still remain the never-resting mind, So that one would want to escape, come back To what had been so long composed. The imperfect is our paradise. Note that, in this bitterness, delight, Since the imperfect is so hot in us, Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.
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Post by midwifespal on Jun 15, 2012 16:24:22 GMT -5
I would LOOOOVE for them to release Shady as a single. It's not entirely risk free, because there is something throwback about it, but it is an ever-popular song with a wide range of tastes (see above) and more that anything it is SO ADAM. Doesn't Adam always answer, when asked to give advice to would be pop-stars on how they might find success, that they have to find that thing that makes them uniquely them and WERK IT? I FIANNLY want a single that sings of Adam, dammit, not just a single Adam sings (although I do think of NCOE as being pretty Adammy in its way, but not ENOUGH). I want a song that is a showcase for his wit and sex and charm, not just his VOICE. At least then, even if it doesn't do great, I'll feel like it's all of Adam that the rest of the world gets to see, not just some focus-grouped version of him. IM Authoritative O : , the most obviously radio-friendly songs on Trespassing are NCOE, Naked Love, and Cuckoo (and maybe Chokehold for HAC). But I definitely think Shady could be a dark horse hit--it would have the all the considerable force of Adam's #REALNESS behind it--and I agree, Mszue, if I held the strings, that's what I'd pick, and promote it with a few well-placed, masterful live performances with classy company. (Guilty truth: I wasn't even that disappointed when BTIKM failed--with genuine apologies to those of you who loved it--because THAT wasn't the Adam that I wanted the rest of the world to think of when his name came up. Feel similarly about WWFM, even though I think that's a better song.)
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Post by bullsfan on Jun 15, 2012 17:00:17 GMT -5
JazzRocks, I think what you posted is absolutely what is going on; that's it in a nutshell. I will also add that CHR may see Adam, himself, as too old. Or, his music as "too old." Pop music, for the most part, is SO juvenile right now. My third grader's class did a newspaper this year. He brought home the last little "issue" a couple weeks ago where a girl did a write up/review of her favorite song---not surprisingly, it was "Call Me Maybe." This is a nine year old girl. Frankly, 30 yr. old Adam is not gonna be writing songs with 9 yr. old girls in mind. It isn't his audience, and it shouldn't be his audience. Also, I just heard the Cher Lloyd song for the first time today on WKSC---it's awful, IMO, but probably thrills that same demographic.
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tigerlily
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Post by tigerlily on Jun 15, 2012 17:16:03 GMT -5
JazzRocks: The posters at MJs had this discussion a few days ago because basically everyone, who isn't named Carrie or Kelly, from Idol is not doing so hot or getting dropped. Here are some random posts that speak to some of the problems AI contestants have with radio:
"My thought is that Idol's current perceived lack of cool may be enough to cancel out whatever personal coolness an Idol finalist may have. And music is like fashion -- it's about what's new and now and hip and happening and "my generation" not yours, and what makes me look and feel sexy and cool. Thinking about grandmas voting for somebody that Uncle Nigel picked doesn't make radio program directors (or record-label execs, probably) think -- Wow, this is the next great thing that will happen in my cool cool world, I expect."
"Radio has no intention of "restocking" their playlists with new songs. Their audience is young kids who love repetition. They love what their "cool friends" like & they are only willing to move on to someone different if their freinds do. The talent show contestants from other countries charted and sold big on those country's charts, thereby diminishing the un-cool factor. And the US industry is just itching to profit off of that. Now we even see 1D dragging over other nobodies (to the US ear) like Olly Murs to ride on THEIR coat-tails, and it didn't hurt he had a Number 1 in the UK. THAT guy had a Z100 add and Lambert doesn't. He's 1D's opening act."
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"Ordinarily, though, a successful debut album lays some kind of groundwork for a reasonably successful sophomore album. Ordinarily, having a moderate radio hit lays the groundwork for additional radio play. With a handful of exceptions, Idol alum show a different pattern, and they show it regardless of whether they're male or female, rock or R&B or pop, guitar-strumming or not, highly private or all over the tabloids, writing their own material or working with the biggest hit makers. At some point, it makes sense to look beyond individual behavior and song choice and start questioning whether there's a larger systemic issue with being able to build a career out of Idol. They can't all be doing it wrong when they do it so many different ways."
"It is very tough. Especially for Idol alum. I did some number crunching a couple of weeks ago out of my own curiosity. Of the 18 winners and runner-ups from S1 through S9 (cuz too early to gauge things for more recent contestants)...ALL of them were signed to a major label contract after their respective seasons...and only 6 of them remain signed to that label today: Kelly, Fantasia, Carrie, Jordin, Kris and Adam (as far as I know Jordin is still signed to RCA and has a new album coming out soon). Of those signed outside the top 2 the statistics are even worse, with the exception of Daughtry, Jennifer H and Kellie Pickler (whose 3rd album is not selling that well)."
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