Album Speculation
 

So guys,
March is approaching - and we starting to think a lot about the new record.
I'm going to create this thread if any of you have ideas and speculations (not just the title). Post here if you reckon you know what that album's gonna be like. For instance, I keep thinking about the liner notes - I wonder what they'll be like?

"I want to thank all of my chiffonhead ledgies! This album is for them!"

I expect a pretty album cover and a wildly varied collection of tunes in terms of genre, songwriting, and production. At least one, hopefully a few, will be really moving and nicely produced ballads, some will be country-flavoured or mid-tempo attempts at rock, some will be rockers which may or may not hit the mark. I expect to love a couple of them (most likely the tender ballad type), like a few more (which are quirky or mysterious), skip/dislike 3 or 4 (likely the midtempo guitar-driven, possibly country-influenced ones) , and be more or less OK about the rest. The production quality will likely make or break a lot of the songs. I don't expect surprises or innovation. I am praying for one potentially iconic signature-type tune, likely a ballad.

You nailed my speculations perfectly :). I expect a couple of "vault" songs thrown in there as well. We'll see how effective they'll be after all the dust is removed. I keep hoping this album will be on par with Trouble In Shangri La, but I'm guessing it'll be fairly equal with it. I just knew TISL would be awesome when she was recording it, and it fulfilled my expectations at the time (though I find it dated now and put it mostly on par with her other albums). I'm highly nervous about this album, though. Either Dave Stewart will be the one to return Stevie to glory, or he'll have diluted her Stevieness with all these cowritten songs. In no way do I think this will be the best work of Stevie's career. Mainly I'm just hoping the singing, songwriting, and production aren't wince-worthy. The addition of Annabel Lee to this work has me *highly* concerned. I'm trying to keep my expectations in check, because of all the albums she and the Mac have recorded since I became a fan in '93, this one has been the longest coming. I'm trying to be positive, but Stevie's lack of forward movement this past decade has burned me out, and this album will kinda be make or break for me regarding actively being a fan of hers. I guess we'll see what happens... but I can say for once, I don't have a "glass half full" outlook. I'm biting my nails and wishing hard for the best. I keep reminding myself that Dave seems to really take her seriously, knows her back catalogue very well, and he'll likely take her music to places it hasn't been in decades now. Time shall tell, I suppose!

It better be alot better than TISL.

I hope the artwork for the album will be as nice as that for 'TISL' - meaning I hope Stevie doesn't leave it all up to her 'talented' brother Christopher. :rolleyes:

He made a boring mess of 'Street Angel' (not to mention the gawd-awful tourbooks of late) . :mad:

Note to Stevie: Hire PROFESSIONALS, not family!

I believe that this album is going to have some rapping but in a very dignified "Stevie" way of rapping.

I also think it's going to have a couple of strong dance tracks.

Me too. I like her rendition of it, but if this is what they consider "amazing" then I question what other mediocre **** they are considering "amazing". Unless of course they somehow took Annabel Lee from mediocre to mind blowing, but I don't think any guitar riff would do that.

i spec'late that i will cringe everytime i hear dave's voice.
i spec'late that i will cry/squeel-with-delight everytime i hear lindsey's voice/guitar.

I speculate that the album will not be released on March 1st. It will be pushed back to mid or late May (right before she goes on tour) - might I add that I HOPE I'M WRONG!

I also speculate that "Italian Summer" will be the first single. It seems to be the one that everyone (Stevie, Dave and David Wild) keeps praising over the others.

The album will be released as a single CD, a double CD with Dave's documentary about her album...and ON VINYL! God, wouldn't that be amazing?

Stevie will tour in the US only for about 2 or 3 months with Dave Stewart opening for her. She will then go back into the studio and/or on the road with the Mac!

Two things I pray it will not include:

"Everybody Love's You" - unless it's a thousand times better than that demo snippet we heard.

And lets hope Stevie hasn't been playing with Auto-Tune like forty thousand other artists out there today. I'd hate to hear her "drownded" out by all that computer stuff.

The other day i heard 'Amazing' by Bruno Mars whilst shopping and I thought it sounded like Katy Perry, either my ears are finally giving out from too many blastings of the Nightmare special vocal remix or everyone sounds the same!!! :lol:

LOL! That's hilarious!!! And yes, I agree wholeheartedly! Please let's not have any "Cher - Believe" moments!

it was only like... 40 seconds :laugh:

I quite liked it though, the strings were so pretty.

I think it'll either be totally amazing, or really disappointing. I don't see any middleground here.

Oh God, I can't imagine anything more vomit-inducing! :laugh: Though I must say, I've gotten mildly into electronica the past couple of years, and I think it's a genre Stevie really could excel in. The surprise #1 dance hit of Planets Of The Universe proved it's a medium Stevie could adapt to quite successfully. I don't think it's something we'll ever see, though.

I agree with your summation we likely won't get the album on March 1 either, though I also hope very strongly I'm wrong.

I wish I could be as optimistic as you regarding her keeping her tour short and then going straight into recording with the Mac, but I just have my doubts. She seems to be enjoying her solo career immensely for the moment... and hasn't enjoyed the Mac for some time. I'm guessing she's going to cordon off 2011 for herself... but again, I hope I'm wrong. Will she do one last Mac album? Yes, I don't think she'll want Say You Will to be the last word. To me though, it still remains highly unclear when that project will actually gain traction.

I speculate that 'China Doll' will be on the album. :)