Say You Will sales ten years after release

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by vivfox

A lot of the fans feel this way but I am thrilled with the amount of songs they gave us.

True. In Michigan there is a deli that my mom complains about. She says, "the food is good, but they just put too much meat in the sandwiches. It makes them really hard to eat." My uncle and grandmother would look at her and say, "Who complains about their being too much meat in a sandwich!" That's what I think when people say that about SYW.

But it was a badly sequenced album. The close works for me. In fact, those 2 songs following each other makes me like both of them better than I would have separately. But that's a horrendous way to open the album. I'm not criticizing the songs themselves (although I don't like WTWCT) but the trio combo was fatal. That's not the way to lure any listener in.

Then, you have Running Through the Garden and Silver Girl back to back as well. I don't think Stevie is an album sequencer and she may never have sequenced any album at all, so, I'm not saying the tracklisting needed her touch, but whoever slapped it together (Lindsey?) needed somebody's help quite badly.

Michele

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by bethelblues

Honestly though, maybe the album cover had more of an impact in the low sales than Stevie may think. When I saw it, I was like barf....that quality is always there, it's ingrained, she doesn't need to hit us over the head with it. It spoke more to the style of a much younger artist and I thought it was corny. I would've gone with a more artistic cover, some kind of collage or montage maybe of her different dreams together: the moonlight, Italy, the ocean, a road trip. Anyway, we're just speaking to the mystical element and how in recent years it may sometimes come off as kitsch when Stevie tries to recreate it and goes over the top.

The white horse stuck out like a pink elephant. It was such a horrendous and incongruent choice for her. It certainly surprised me.

Michele

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by vivfox

First of all the album should have been titled: Steal Your Heart Away or just Steal Your Heart. Say You Will is not a phrase people say.

Well, more people say "say you will" than say "tango in the night."

I think Thrown Down would have been an excellent album title.

Of course, once you get inside the song you have another phrase that no one ever says: "like a barricade."

Michele

[bethelblues]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Well, more people say "say you will" than say "tango in the night."

I think Thrown Down would have been an excellent album title.

Of course, once you get inside the song you have another phrase that no one ever says: "like a barricade."

Michele

I think it should have been the first track, too.

[MikeVielhaber]

Originally Posted by vivfox

First of all the album should have been titled: Steal Your Heart Away or just Steal Your Heart. Say You Will is not a phrase people say.

There was also a hit song by Foreigner called "Say You Will". Just saying.

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Of course, once you get inside the song(Thrown Down) you have another phrase that no one ever says: "like a barricade."

Since 1975 Stevie has known what it's like to have a barricade separating her from us. It might be a phrase used amongst famous musicians for all we know.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by vivfox

Since 1975 Stevie has known what it's like to have a barricade separating her from us. It might be a phrase used amongst famous musicians for all we know.

As with a cordon, a barricade is not a unique concept, but saying "thrown down like a barricade" does not make a particularly smooth lyric. I always find myself singing "hurricane" instead.

Michele

[TerraRhiannon]

How great would it be if this album was certified platinum! I would be totally thrilled. Although I have mixed feelings about this album, I'm in the same boat in thinking it should have only been 10-12 songs long maximum. There are some truly terrible songs on this LP. Silver Girl, Red Rover and Goodbye Baby to name a few. kill me.

And I actually like Running Through The Garden, which seems to be an unpopular opinion. Destiny Rules is an awesome song but Stevie's vocal is just blah.

[bluefox4000]

I just listened to it.....Surprise surprise not as bad as I remember. Still the production blows and 18 songs is......overboard. think of what a nicely trimmed album it could have made.

Mick

[RockawayBlind]

A better album would have been:

1. Right Place to Fade
2. Say You Will
3. Bleed to Lover Her
4. What's the World Coming To
5. Thrown Down
6. Peacekeeper
7. Illume
8. Red Rover
9. Destiny Rules
10. Steal Your Heart Away
11. Say Goodbye
12. Everybody Finds Out
13. Goodbye Baby

I might play around with the sequence a bit more. "Come" has never done it for me. "Miranda" is a cool song but would have worked better as a Lindsey solo track. I might have used "Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind" instead of "Bleed to Love Her," but I do love the studio version of the song.

I'm not crazy about "Illume" for two reasons: The guitars sound a little plastic to me and the lyrics make me cringe but the track does have a cool, weird vibe with subtle Middle Eastern accents, so it would stay.

Someone made a point about singles. Not only has FM kind of lost its way on picking the right singles but track sequencing has also been poor. I know Lindsey wanted to make a point with Murrow, but the song didn't belong where it is, and "What's the World Coming To," though pleasant enough, is almost too bland for a first track. "Right Place to Fade" would have been a perfect opener.

[bethelblues]

Originally Posted by michelej1

As with a cordon, a barricade is not a unique concept, but saying "thrown down like a barricade" does not make a particularly smooth lyric. I always find myself singing "hurricane" instead.

Michele

Uh oh, are you changing Stevie's lyrics? To Thrown Down? I think I've seen that before somewhere from someone else. Remember, it's the poet that she is.

...though sometimes that's not very poetic at all, and forced. I think I like hurricane better.

[KenshiMaster16]

On my iPod, I have the tracklisting down to 13;

01 What's The World Coming To
02 Thrown Down
03 Peacekeeper
04 Say You Will
05 Red Rover
06 Come
07 Running Through The Garden
08 Bleed To Love Her
09 Steal Your Heart Away
10 Everybody Finds Out
11 Destiny Rules
12 Say Goodbye
13 Goodbye Baby

[Villavic]

SYW is one of those albums I never listen entirely, unlike Rumours, Tusk, Mirage or White. So that confirms I don' like it enough.

It seems it only got Gold certif:

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Canada (Music Canada)Gold 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI) Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA) Gold 500,000^

Say You Will

[KenB]

Originally Posted by RockawayBlind

Someone made a point about singles. Not only has FM kind of lost its way on picking the right singles but track sequencing has also been poor. I know Lindsey wanted to make a point with Murrow, but the song didn't belong where it is, and "What's the World Coming To," though pleasant enough, is almost too bland for a first track. "Right Place to Fade" would have been a perfect opener.

The most radio-friendly songs on SYW are Thrown Down, What's the World Coming To, and Bleed to Love Her. I would have released them as singles in that order. I'd love to hear the specifics of Stevie's complaints about the production of Thrown Down, since for me it's both the best-produced track on the album and the poppiest. The production on it actually makes me think of a contemporary "Gypsy," sound-wise.

I actually really love a number of songs from SYW. Most of them are Lindsey's. Honestly, the only Stevie songs on it that I listen to today are Thrown Down, Goodbye Baby (I love its gentle, lullaby-like quality), and Destiny Rules. The rest of her SYW songs just lack basic melodies; they nearly all have this minor-key, drone-y quality that makes me impatient for a chord change to come along. Illume is the worst in that regard.

I disagree with the person who said Bleed to Love Her is overproduced. I love how layered it is, and I find it passionate, very pretty, and emotionally moving.

Also, I even *thought* I loved the much-maligned Say Goodbye... until I heard the live version. I still like the studio version, but slowing it down really brings out the beauty and tenderness in the song. What would have been awesome on the new EP is a new studio version of SG that's closer to the live version. (Is there a very clean-sounding live recording of SG out there anywhere?)

[bethelblues]

Originally Posted by KenB

I disagree with the person who said Bleed to Love Her is overproduced. I love how layered it is, and I find it passionate, very pretty, and emotionally moving.

I was the person. Let me explain what I think: I think Lindsey tends to overproduce his vocals on studio recordings, which lose the roughness of his current voice and in some ways try to mirror his much younger and higher sound. I actually think that Lindsey has a very feminine style of singing in his studio work (not that that is a bad thing). I see that here in Bleed to Love Her, which I believe absolutely pales to its live performance from The Dance which had so much passion. The song, in my opinion, became merely ordinary with its way overbearing electronic drum beat and is much weaker than its less complex version, arguably one of the best Lindsey has written. And that's because it's missing the raw emotion he brings to his concert vocals. It was by far my favorite of their new songs performed for The Dance.