missfee said:

vainandy said:

When an older artist that hasn't made an album in years, comes back and makes a new album without their own style, but a weak generic sounding one that sounds like everyone else these days. It just goes to show how desperate they are.

Your statement immediately brings The Bar-kays to mind.

The Return of The Mack remake they did a few years ago was downright

shameful for them but I actually liked the smoothed out joint Grown Folks they did last year. It was top 10 or top 20 Urban A/C and it was their biggest hit in 2 decades. Stay tuned they are releasing another new single

due this month Soap Opera Love. If they are gonna reinvent themselves i'd prefer them go the Charlie Wilson route versus embarassing themselves again with crap like Return of the Mack.

covers albums are often DREADFUL

I think I only like/own Bryan Ferry's These Foolish Things and Springsteen's We Shall Overcome-Bob Seger Sessions

and the Rolling Stones early cover songs are on completely different level, they brought to the 60s audience and beyond a bunch of semi-forgotten/not-that-well-known blues/early-R&R songs (at that time not classics) and MADE THEM classics

[Edited 8/4/13 6:02am]

mrjun18 said:

Can't forget the "(insert separate artist) + (insert separate artist) + (insert separate artist) are making a group album together" album.

TGT? lol

A better title for this thread would have been "Albums that are contract fillers" or something like that, a good % of the time "Covers" give artists their biggest boost. Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow hadnt sold like that since the 70's and early 80's. Michael McDonald hadnt had chart success for the most part solo with his albums till Motown. Xmas albums, well, some people had their biggest seller with them Mariah Carey anyone, and it surely was a career ending thing since she is still here. Duets albums are mentioned but Frank Sinatra anyone, that really started it all, probably one of his biggest selling albums. Lionel Richie's Country album sure was a step up from his awful NE-YO produced stuff that no one called "career ending".

And as someone said alot of the covers albums though we may not dig or think those songs should be touched, mean alot to the artist doing them as they many times are more obscure. Some would define career ending as playing runs in vegas and things like that, but no one said Prince was done when he shacked up 21 nights.

Well as far as covers albums go you can never predict how these things will go.

More often they don't go so well. Remember when Ronald Isley did the Burt Bacharach

covers album several years ago he was bragging it was the best thing he ever done and

who knows I never got to hear it but apparently neither did most listeners. Natalie Cole

covers her pops Inseperable and it's the biggest thing she's ever done.

the we'll get the whole gang back together "when hell freezes over" album

(it did work for the eagles though)

The dance remix CD with 10 minute meandering versions of the group's 4 or 5 hits and 4 "all new" bonus tracks, which were actiually songs that were rejected from the previous CDs.

phunkdaddy said:

Well as far as covers albums go you can never predict how these things will go.

More often they don't go so well. Remember when Ronald Isley did the Burt Bacharach

covers album several years ago he was bragging it was the best thing he ever done and

who knows I never got to hear it but apparently neither did most listeners. Natalie Cole

covers her pops Inseperable and it's the biggest thing she's ever done.

I've never heard a covers album where the songs are better than the original versions.Even Luther Vandross (whom I considered a master at remaking songs) couldn't deliver an outstanding covers album.I just think it's a quick,lazy way to revive a career.

SoulAlive said:

I've never heard a covers album where the songs are better than the original versions.Even Luther Vandross (whom I considered a master at remaking songs) couldn't deliver an outstanding covers album.I just think it's a quick,lazy way to revive a career.

It's not always quick. Kraftwerk released an album of re-recorded songs called The Mix in 1991. They spent 4 or 5 years re-recording the songs on it. One of the members (Karl Bartos) got fed up with this and quit the group before it was finished.

Those cheap $3 albums that have like 7 tracks and usually have the title of their biggest hit as the album title. Even though these are often done without the artist's permission, it's still a sign nonetheless

Starbucks Exclusive

Fury said:

THE FUCK!!!!???

When Aretha did her 1st Gospel album in the 70's her career wasn't over and it didn't hurt her career. Elvis wrote MANY Gospel songs and recorded the Music because that form of music was his Heart & Soul, his roots. Rod Stewart went from Rock to Standards and he won his 1st Grammy for the Standards.

********************************************************************

Some of y'all must be very young. Do you realize a lot of Black Artists began singing in the Church? Not Just Black Legends like Aretha, but Fantasia, Jennifer, Jaheim, Usher...Man I could go on & on...So don't be SURPRISED when a Black Artist records an inspirational CD...Sometimes Artists have to record certain Music because that's what The pwoers That be Dictate...When an R&B Artist records an inspirational CD it's not because they were told to by The Powers that Be, it's because they want to..The Church is where they did their first performances...It's called remembering your ROOTS..

[Edited 8/5/13 4:45am]

SuperSoulFighter said:

Ya'll are forgetting one category: The remastered old albums with bonus tracks!

Don't think those count. Many CD's that were pressed in the 80's and 90's were mastered using VERY low sound. Remasters are just higher quality versions with, hopefully, better sound quality than the original pressings, with remixes or unreleased songs that fans have been clamoring for. Many times the album has been OOP for years or never appeared before on CD. Yes, many of these artists are careers are over but many of them are not.

Fury said:

The "unreleased sessions" album...which explains why they were unreleased

PREACH!

Cinny said:

I have heard some good-ass cover albums! I like when artists choose songs that meant something to them or inspired them in the first place (and often continue to inspire them their whole lives).

Ditto.

namepeace said:

For some artists, it's Christmas albums.

I don't know. Christmas albums can certainly be a cash-grab, but I'm not sure it signals "career over". It's just one of those things that some artists do.

Thinking of a lot of the Christmas music that I like by popular artists, the timing of those albums has never consistently came at a time to suggest that the album was career-life support.

Fury said:

The "unreleased sessions" album...which explains why they were unreleased

Not necessarily. Often times, politics come into play as far as songs originally being left off an album or there simply wasn't enough room on the original album. If you record 20 songs and there is only enough room on the album/CD for 15, someone has to make the decision which 5 are not going to make the final cut. Phyllis Hyman is a prime example. "Forever With You" was an entire CD full of unreleased sessions recorded between 1987 & 1991 that did not make it onto her Philly albums. Many of those songs were really quite incredible.

1 & 3 are damn near the death nail.

I think "songs about ..." retrospective albums are a pretty bad sign. Why would an artist feel the need to plumb their catalogue and remind hardcore fans, who already know their work and truly are the only listeners inclined to buy these stupid themed albums, that they've already written about love, family, loneliness, etc?

It screams, "my creative juices have dried up!"

[Edited 8/5/13 9:22am]

Chancellor said:

When Aretha did her 1st Gospel album in the 70's her career wasn't over and it didn't hurt her career. Elvis wrote MANY Gospel songs and recorded the Music because that form of music was his Heart & Soul, his roots. Rod Stewart went from Rock to Standards and he won his 1st Grammy for the Standards.

********************************************************************

Some of y'all must be very young. Do you realize a lot of Black Artists began singing in the Church? Not Just Black Legends like Aretha, but Fantasia, Jennifer, Jaheim, Usher...Man I could go on & on...So don't be SURPRISED when a Black Artist records an inspirational CD...Sometimes Artists have to record certain Music because that's what The pwoers That be Dictate...When an R&B Artist records an inspirational CD it's not because they were told to by The Powers that Be, it's because they want to..The Church is where they did their first performances...It's called remembering your ROOTS..

[Edited 8/5/13 4:45am]

Yeah, and religious albums generally don't sell that much, because a lot of people are not interested in the subject matter, and gospel songs rarely become mainstream hits like Oh Happy Day & My Sweet Lord because hit radio stations don't play them. It's a niche genre. That is part of the reason some gospel singers switch to secular music. There is a bigger audience, so more money. So you can't say that a secular act releases a gospel album to revive their career. Some church folk take their faith seriously and are less likely to buy an album by a regular singer, rather than a strictly gospel singer.

phunkdaddy said:

missfee said:

Your statement immediately brings The Bar-kays to mind.

The Return of The Mack remake they did a few years ago was downright

shameful for them but I actually liked the smoothed out joint Grown Folks they did last year. It was top 10 or top 20 Urban A/C and it was their biggest hit in 2 decades. Stay tuned they are releasing another new single

due this month Soap Opera Love. If they are gonna reinvent themselves i'd prefer them go the Charlie Wilson route versus embarassing themselves again with crap like Return of the Mack.

His tired ass sold out as far back as around 1998 or 1999 with a new album he did around that time as part of The Gap Band. It was a shitty shit hop or neo stool sounding mess. I will hand it to The Barkays, Cameo, War, and even Michael Jackson though as far as the 1990s goes, they still released a decent album or two in the 1990s before selling out. Except for Michael Jackson though, the rest of them got little or no airplay and the albums they did were no longer on a major label anymore either. They held out longer than anyone else out there except for Prince and even he has sold out before on particular songs.

I admired the route that Jesse Johnson did when he returned in the 1990s by just totally going a different direction altogether and making a rock album. I praised him like hell at the time because when R&B becomes a bunch of bullshit, don't never cave in and sell out to it. Hell, make a country album or even a damn classical album before selling out to this shit hop/neo stool bullshit. Hell, anything is better than that mess. Of course, Jesse had to go and fuck up his good name a few years ago in the 2000s though.

vainandy said:

phunkdaddy said:

The Return of The Mack remake they did a few years ago was downright

shameful for them but I actually liked the smoothed out joint Grown Folks they did last year. It was top 10 or top 20 Urban A/C and it was their biggest hit in 2 decades. Stay tuned they are releasing another new single

due this month Soap Opera Love. If they are gonna reinvent themselves i'd prefer them go the Charlie Wilson route versus embarassing themselves again with crap like Return of the Mack.

His tired ass sold out as far back as around 1998 or 1999 with a new album he did around that time as part of The Gap Band. It was a shitty shit hop or neo stool sounding mess. I will hand it to The Barkays, Cameo, War, and even Michael Jackson though as far as the 1990s goes, they still released a decent album or two in the 1990s before selling out. Except for Michael Jackson though, the rest of them got little or no airplay and the albums they did were no longer on a major label anymore either. They held out longer than anyone else out there except for Prince and even he has sold out before on particular songs.

I admired the route that Jesse Johnson did when he returned in the 1990s by just totally going a different direction altogether and making a rock album. I praised him like hell at the time because when R&B becomes a bunch of bullshit, don't never cave in and sell out to it. Hell, make a country album or even a damn classical album before selling out to this shit hop/neo stool bullshit. Hell, anything is better than that mess. Of course, Jesse had to go and fuck up his good name a few years ago in the 2000s though.

Glad to see you come out of hiding.

You may be talking about the Gap Band Testimony album or the Closing the Gap around

1995 or 1996. I thought Jesse's 2009 Verbal Penetration was the best thing he done

since his debut album and Shockadelica. Bare My Naked Soul was alright but it was

pretty much a niche album for him.

phunkdaddy said:

vainandy said:

His tired ass sold out as far back as around 1998 or 1999 with a new album he did around that time as part of The Gap Band. It was a shitty shit hop or neo stool sounding mess. I will hand it to The Barkays, Cameo, War, and even Michael Jackson though as far as the 1990s goes, they still released a decent album or two in the 1990s before selling out. Except for Michael Jackson though, the rest of them got little or no airplay and the albums they did were no longer on a major label anymore either. They held out longer than anyone else out there except for Prince and even he has sold out before on particular songs.

I admired the route that Jesse Johnson did when he returned in the 1990s by just totally going a different direction altogether and making a rock album. I praised him like hell at the time because when R&B becomes a bunch of bullshit, don't never cave in and sell out to it. Hell, make a country album or even a damn classical album before selling out to this shit hop/neo stool bullshit. Hell, anything is better than that mess. Of course, Jesse had to go and fuck up his good name a few years ago in the 2000s though.

Glad to see you come out of hiding.

You may be talking about the Gap Band Testimony album or the Closing the Gap around

1995 or 1996. I thought Jesse's 2009 Verbal Penetration was the best thing he done

since his debut album and Shockadelica. Bare My Naked Soul was alright but it was

pretty much a niche album for him.

I haven't been in hiding. I've been all over Facebook. I've popped over to the org a few times, mostly over in the General Discussion section or over to the Prince section whenever I would hear news of a new song he had dropped. I checked over in the Music: Non-Prince section a few times but most of the time, there would be no threads worth posting in. It's really been looking like Romper Room over in this section for a while now.

.

.

.

[Edited 8/5/13 19:30pm]

1. If you're Chicago, it's every album in the post-Peter Cetera era.

2. If you're Kylie Minogue, it's the one album with Jay-Z's Roc Nation as your management team.

3. If you're The Army Of Lovers, it's when the last 4+ albums were basically a variation of a grestest hits/best of album with 3 new songs.

4. If you're Kristie W, it's the album when you quit dance-pop in exchange for jazz and none of your fans gives a damn.

In other words, it isn't just an album as much as it's really one bad business decision that can really ended a music career.

Graycap23 said:

1 & 3 are damn near the death nail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...eath_knell

1. Cover albums

3. 15 hot producers

You know I think the thing is when a veteran artist arrives with an album that isn't their own style.

Like, a covers album can be great as long as a rocker isn't trying to become Tony Bennett. And 15 hot producers could be someone's promising debut, but if you know that all of a sudden Gladys Knight wanted a solo techno hit you might think it's weird.