David Gray "Draw The Line"

I knew that we had entered a weird phase of marketing, when albums started to get their own trailers.

I mean, we're used to movies having trailers. It makes sense. You cut together little bits and pieces of an existing movie, to make an exciting 90-second preview.

But albums started to get the trailer treatment as a way to let fans know the record is coming. That seemed a little strange, but I guess it makes sense.

So I wasn't surprised to see a trailer for David Gray's summer tour. I guess it's a reasonable way to spread the word the Gray is coming to your town in support of his new live album.

What IS a little surprising and weird is the other marketing campaign Gray (or his label) is engaged in.

Groupon?

I guess I don't have anything against saving money. But something about crazy discounts to sell CDs feels really desperate. Like it's meat that is about to go bad so we'd better mark it down.

Creativity seems to be getting devalued at every turn. Rock bottom prices only make the product seem more disposable. That can't be a good thing for the artist, right?

On the other hand, might this motivate a casual David Gray fan, to go buy the record?

I'm on the fence on this one. What do you think?


See the video on Youtube.


See the video on Youtube.

David Gray "Fugitive"

After you've lived with a song for a long period of time, you probably don't hear the parts anymore, and you experience it as a whole.

When you hear David Gray's "Fugitive," for instance, your reaction to the song probably has to do with how you feel about the song now that's it's been out for 6 months or so. You like the song, you don't like the song, whatever . . . you hear it as A SONG.

Meaning, you don't hear the individual parts. You don't think about the vocal take, or the piano riff, or the drum beat as elements that build on each other.

You see the forest, not the trees.

So it's fun to backtrack, deconstruct the song, and experience it as the culmination of multiple parts, worked and reworked to create a whole piece.

David Gray posted this "making of" video, that will give you the chance to hear the song anew, with each little pearl of a piece standing out to your ears, the next time you hear the song.

David Gray “Stella The Artist”

Should mvyradio be playing this song . . . or that song?

Picking a single that is really going to pull people’s attention to an album is not an exact science. But it is certainly an art.

Take the new David Gray, for example. Word had been, for several weeks, that the follow-up to “Fugitive” was going to be the beautiful duet with Annie Lennox, “Full Steam.” Their voices soar, and the arrangement is interesting. It seemed like a challenging, but satisfying choice.

At the 11th hour, the label changed his mind. I asked my friend Sean Coakley, an independent record promoter, why Downtown Records had switched to “Stella The Artist.”

Sean said, “Hopefully, because I convinced them to.”

His point was that the song was interesting. Striking even. But it wouldn’t stand up to multiple listens.

I always make the knock-knock joke analogy, in these situations. You may laugh your ass off the first time you hear a knock-knock joke. But is it still funny the 5th time you hear it. Is it funny after 6 months of hearing it regularly?

Other songs are like pizza. I could eat a slice every day, and never get sick of it. My attention turning to different flavors each time I bite in.

Ultimately, Sean felt, “Full Steam” just wouldn’t have a long life, as a radio single. The novelty of the duet would wear thin, quickly, in his opinion. And a long life at radio, is what propels listeners to seek out the full album, and hear the other amazing tracks.

Was Sean right? Which one of these songs would you have added to rotation?



See the video, here

Buy "Draw The Line"

See this previous post, for details on how a song gets into rotation on mvyradio, then let me know what you think.