I think I may be alone in this, but I sincerely hope "Songs From The Vault" is not incorporated into the final title. We already know the track-listing will be comprised of old tracks and God knows, Stevie will undoubtedly bang on about this during promotional interviews once the album is released, but this will effectively be a new album when it is released.
Apart from sounding tacky, my real problem with this proposed sub-title is that it is inaccurate as these are current recordings and should be treated as such. It might be appropriate if Stevie was simply issuing the original demos as they were recorded way back when, but that is not the case with this album. All of her solo albums have included a few "vault" tracks and yet that didn't prevent them from being received as new works. I understand that this is the first time that a solo album has been solely comprised of old songs, but they have been newly arranged, performed, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered.
I just think that referring to this album as a collection of "vault" songs sends out the wrong message and also implies that Stevie is out of fresh ideas (ie creatively bankrupt). Of course, this could be the case, but I'd prefer she didn't promote the fact.
You know, if the timing of this album is about contractual obligations, then it's likely that the idea to record "vault" songs was due to getting it done quickly more than anything else (ie not necessarily as a "love letter to the fans"). The songs had already been written and even with current revisions, this allows for super fast recording. All of this leads me to think that Stevie does have new compositions - possibly even a whole album's worth - but the narrow window of opportunity before the Mac tour forced a change of plans. Even though the IYD album was recorded reasonably quickly by Stevie's standards, it still took the better part of a year to have it fully realised. What's different about this latest album is that Dave is actually on board over consecutive weeks/months as opposed to reconvening for studio sessions over scattered timeframes. The momentum this allows is exciting to me.
In any case, I think this NEW album should be recognised as just that - not a retrospective, but something newly conceived (in terms of arrangements/production) and recorded. Hope this makes sense.
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