Still think Stevie is going to do the FM album?

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by KenshiMaster16

Not just that but the 'Songs from the Vault' sub-title alone raises red flags with people. In the store I manage, some of my usual customers will come in to check new releases on Tuesday and I had about 10 people look at me and say something along the lines of "So she's regressed to releasing material that wasn't good enough the first go around?"

I like the album, I like the updated sound from the demos, but that sub-title raises a huge red flag for certain people. It's almost like a B-Sides/Rarities album and those never sell well at all.

Here's a different perspective. Artists, especially prolific artists, produce more than they release. Things are held back, or are left undeveloped for numerous reasons. Not everything an artist works on is released. Stevie has amassed a body of work in various states of construction that she has revisited occasionally, and some of those songs have trickled out on previous albums.

It should never be an issue or make a difference if a song was written yesterday or thirty years ago. Time is not relative to the quality or integrity of the song. Saying "So she's regressed to releasing material that wasn't good enough the first go around?" is a simplistic assumption based on nothing but hypercritical senselessness. These are low rent Stevie fans, reaching for any reason to disparage her. It's not a fair critical assessment.

Many of those demo have been circulating and floating around for so many years, long before the internet. They were traded on cassette tapes by fans who, by snail mail, made transactions with collectors from classified ads in the back pages of music magazines. With the internet, those songs/demos became easily accessible to a much larger audience beyond die-hard fans. If these songs weren't so familiar, perhaps this album wouldn't be subject to such criticism and derision.

I'm not sure how the word Vault has any negative connotation. Isn't a vault typically used to safely store and preserve items of precious value;
rare keepsakes such as artwork, jewelry, 24 Karat gold, etc...?

Side note: Elvis Costello (albeit-a musical genesis beyond reason in his prolificity and scholarly sophistication) has hundreds of songs that don't appear on albums. Most of them have been released as (dozens of) b-sides, in compilations, and as bonus CDs in re-released records. Fans don't dismiss the material as inferior, or question why it didn't make it on an album. I'm not comparing her to Elvis, but considering the longevity of her career, she hasn't been as prolific as fans might like. I'm grateful she gave us 24 Karat Gold. Let's hope we get more from her, whether its "new" Vault albums, or newly written songs.