LittleBLUECorvette said:

I guess not, lol. OK, it's a strong album track.

Sometimes I'm not quite sure what somebody means when they refer to a certain song as "filler".Is that our way of describing a song that we simply don't like? I recall a 1982 interview with Prince (around the time when '1999' was released) where he complained that a major publication referred to "D.M.S.R" and "All The Critics Love U In New York" as filler.In his view,those are two of the best songs on the album and I agree.

TD3 said:

Okay, cool and thanks. I just tried to find the complete version with guitar-interlude of "Take It To The Sky" from their Faces-album.
That interlude could be seen as a sort of filler, but it has become an unmissable part for me. Just right after that last guitar-chord,
the complete band with sharp horn-arrangements boom as a thunder in the mix ... i always trip hearing that and pump up the volume, lol.

SoulAlive said:

Pretty much. That said, some artist are not capable of anything other than filler. Usher's latest cd's is a perfect example.

Graycap23 said:

Amen 2 that. Here I Stand is a piece of garbage.

I remember arguing with my cousin about this album when it came out. She thought it was his best project ever. I told her she was crazy to think he could follow up a monster like Confessions with a piece of crap like this, she was crazy.

SoulAlive said:

thats basically what the term is from> "Filler" is a critics word, and then listeners use that to label songs they dont like. For the record these songs were referred to as FILLER by critics.


Thank You- Led Zeppelin
We will rock you- Queen
Come down in time- Elton John
All the young girls love alice- Elton John
Candle in the Wind- Elton John
Find the River- REM
All I want is you - U2
Until the end of the world -U2

just to name a few

daPrettyman said:

I'm still shaking my head at that release.

Graycap23 said:

I think it is worse than his self titled debut.

daPrettyman said:

It is.....

Graycap23 said:

Can we also stop talking about "Confessions" like it was "Songs in the key of life", this is yet another thing wrong with RB, this album is viewed as a classic???? Wow we really have fallen down a fucking hole

lastdecember said:

Classic? No.....filler, not that either.

Graycap23 said:

Maybe not "Filler" but def some weak tracks. This is why when i hear things like "Emancipation of Mimi" is a great record 6 out of 14 songs are great??Im left thinking...what?? 6 for 14 is suddenly a great record??

lastdecember said:

I hear u.....and agree.

lastdecember said:

I haven't listened to that album since the first time I played it, which was four years ago.

Timmy84 said:

It's definitely a good album. I'm not going to say great, but it's good and consistent (for a change for Mariah).

I still find myself listening to "Fly Like A Bird" and "Say Something" on a regular basis.

daPrettyman said:

Thats a great song , "say something " is silly.

seeingvoices12 said:

"Say Something" was... it was... I don't know what the hell that was. It was just bad. Its video was even worse.

Timmy84 said:

The video was tacky. Maybe I like the chords or something. I really like the David Morales mix of the song, though.

To me filler is usually wasted on a marginal artist or group with limited talent to prop up one or two hits, but sometimes a good artist will make and relase filler. A lot of Bowies post 1985 output is packed with filler and Prince is also notorious for filler in some of his 1990s and early 00s releases.
But interestingly in the 60s a lot of Motown albums would have the artists singing a lot of stock songs to make a record with 2 or 3 smashes, so an album popped out every 5 months in some cases, and when the artist (Supremes, Temptations, Four Tops etc) had another smash 6 months or a year later, they could release it on an album and put the filler on to back it up. Songs like Forever came today, and Lucky Stars were cut on at least 4 artists and put in as filler for instance) so what I am saying is sometimes a record company relies on filler just to keep the albums flowing off an artist, although cherrypicking on digital music is alleviating this need. Now many fans buy the hits only and don't buy the filler.