Can't think of a name for your new album?

August 23, 2002 1:43 PM

Can't think of a name for your new album? Then don't give it one. Apparently none of the songs on the forthcoming Sigur Ros album will have names, either. Taking the "black album" concept a little too far?
posted by gottabefunky (50 comments total)

Friday, frivolity, sue me. For the record, I really dig these guys. I wonder - what verbal shorthand will fans use to talk about this album?
posted by gottabefunky at 1:44 PM on August 23, 2002

If you can pronounce any of their existing song titles, I'll buy you a cup of coffee.
posted by monkeymike at 1:47 PM on August 23, 2002

Can you pronounce the name of the last album (Agaetis Byrjun)? Is there a verbal shorthand for that one?

Like Mike said...
posted by mr_roboto at 1:48 PM on August 23, 2002

"It's such a fine line between clever and stupid.'
posted by machaus at 1:50 PM on August 23, 2002

"Hey, guys, you got any ideas for lyrics?"
"Nope... what are we going to do? We've got all sorts of music sitting here."

Marketing walks in

"Oh, we'll just use this to create a CONCEPT album, we pay less studio time and get free publicity from all those blogs that will eat this up!"
posted by psychotic_venom at 1:53 PM on August 23, 2002

They have lyrics, venom; they just happen to be in a make-believe language.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:55 PM on August 23, 2002

Cool. I want a copy. It'll be no problem to not name the songs. Though I might miss reading words like "Svern g-englar." When discussing the first album my friends and I just say "Track 5 is the shit! pass that....." I can't understand half of what most rock bands are saying anyway. It's been a long rock tradition of being unintelligable since The Kingsmen released 'Louie Louie."
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:56 PM on August 23, 2002

"It's like, could it be any more black? And the answer is no."
posted by ColdChef at 1:56 PM on August 23, 2002

The Breeders new album, called Title TK, is supposedly named after what they put on a finish album that has no title yet. Guess they just stuck with it.
posted by Ufez Jones at 1:57 PM on August 23, 2002

Shades of ? I vote we call it "hrmpf". Or "..."
posted by DenOfSizer at 1:57 PM on August 23, 2002

Well, their first album was in Icelandic, so I doubt I could tell any difference anyway. I already make up lyrics to their first album, so the new one won't be much different.

Anyhoo, I'm happy to see more from these chaps.
posted by zsazsa at 2:01 PM on August 23, 2002

It's the RIAA's new strategy: with no title, we can't search for it on file sharing networks.
posted by fuzz at 2:04 PM on August 23, 2002

Most people will probably say," Hey! What did you think of track 7?" just like they do now.
posted by me3dia at 2:04 PM on August 23, 2002

That's what I thought at first, too, zsazsa. But it turns out that it isn't actually Icelandic. The singer calls it "Hopelandic"; it's just a collection of meaningless sounds and half-words.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:05 PM on August 23, 2002

I saw them (Sigor) for the first time on HBO recently. I have not enjoyed a band like this in a very long time.
posted by thekorruptor at 2:06 PM on August 23, 2002

Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser made up languages. It didn't matter. In those songs, her voice was an instrument just like any other.

Plus, it's not like something akin to this hasn't been done before. Cafe Tecuba's Reves/Yosoy is a 2 cd set. On cd number one, one of the tracks is spread out over more than one cd index. "Arboles Frutales" is tracks 13-51, all are 10 sec. snippets (pain in the ass to rip). The second cd is songs named after numbers. For instance, track 5 is called "3," track 3 is called "9" and track 8 is "5.1." (great record, BTW)
posted by eyeballkid at 2:12 PM on August 23, 2002

none. none more black...
posted by modge at 2:15 PM on August 23, 2002

There have been lots of electronic music releases lacking track titles.

My personal favorites in the pretentious titling department, however, are both by Aphex Twin. Analogue Bubblebath Vol. 3 uses long strings of numbers, such as ".55278037732581" for track titles. Selected Ambient Works Vol. II uses pictures.

From the above discog: The cd releases for "Selected Ambient Works Volume II" do not feature traditional song titles for each track. Instead, icons (which are represented by pictures of textures) take the place of the song titles. The icons featured on the US cd releases do not always correspond, and most of the time are totally different [textures/pictures] than those on their UK and Austrian counterparts.
posted by hyperizer at 2:16 PM on August 23, 2002

Peter Gabriel's first four solo albums were nameless, although he wimped out by giving the tracks themselves names.
posted by salmacis at 2:18 PM on August 23, 2002

Eyeballkid: Actually, The Cocteau Twins' songs are in perfect English. I think there are maybe one or two where she's randomly gibbering, but I can't recall.
Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance, however, does babble in her own made-up language, which was influenced by the general sounds of a few existing ones.

As for the Sigur album's songs being untitled: So?
posted by Su at 2:19 PM on August 23, 2002

*smacks forehead*

You're right, Su. I was listening to those bands at the same period in my life.
posted by eyeballkid at 2:32 PM on August 23, 2002

I liked how this album had untitled tracks and came with a pen in the spine to name them.
posted by modofo at 2:32 PM on August 23, 2002

Anyone know Karma To Burn? Their first full-length album had a singer, and their songs had bizarre titles like "Bobbi, Bobbi, Bobbi, I'm Not God", "Patty Hearst's Closet Mantra", and "Twin Sisters and Half a Bottle of Bourbon".

The story goes something like this - they didn't have a singer originally. Their songs were wordless and all had titles like 22, 54, 8, etc. Their second full-length demonstrates this. Anyway, when whatever label they were on for their first album got interested in them, they were told they needed lyrics and a singer or they wouldn't get a contract. They got a vocalist and wrote lyrics, but the vocalist apparently was slightly dyslexic and had a terrible time remembering the song titles (because they were all numbers) - so they came up with these bizarre, usually long, song titles to help him remember the songs in concert.

I don't know if it's true, but that's how I remember the story. Sometime before their second full-length release they dropped the singer, re-recorded a few of the songs without words and wrote a bunch of new ones, and released a second album. I like 'em.
posted by starvingartist at 2:34 PM on August 23, 2002

sorry to be totally pedantic, but sigur ros' first album was called Von. Agaetius byrjun was the second album.
posted by akmonday at 2:39 PM on August 23, 2002

The noisecore band A.C. didn't want to name their tracks, but the label made them, resulting in such song titles as:

-"SOME SONGS"
-"SOME MORE SONGS"
- "SONG #8"
- "I'M NOT ALLOWED TO LIKE A.C. ANY MORE SINCE THEY SIGNED TO EARACHE"
- "ABOMINATION OF UNNECESSARILY ARGUMENTED COMPOSITION MONICKERS"
-'WHEN I THINK OF TRUE PUNK ROCK BANDS, I THINK OF NIRVANA AND THE MELVINS"
- "MTV IS MY SOURCE FOR NEW MUSIC"
-"SONG TITLES ARE FUCKING STUPID"
-"HAVING TO MAKE UP SONG TITLES SUCK"
-"YOU MUST BE WICKED UNDERGROUND IF YOU OWN THIS"
-"GUESS WHICH 10 OF THESE ARE ACTUAL SONG TITLES"
-"SELLING OUT BY HAVING SONG TITLES ON THIS ALBUM"
posted by quibx at 2:53 PM on August 23, 2002

A.C. is one of the greatest noisecore bands ever, if only for their unplugged album. Acoustic noisecore? Wha wha what? And their live shows are brutal. UnfortunatelyThey just broke up recently.
posted by Homeskillet Freshy Fresh at 3:18 PM on August 23, 2002

Actually, The Cocteau Twins' songs are in perfect English. I think there are maybe one or two where she's randomly gibbering, but I can't recall.

Su, I wouldn't exactly call it perfect english. She stretches and emphasizes certain syllables until the words are almost unrecognizable. It is some of the most gorgeous vocalizing I've ever heard, though.

Also, speaking of made-up languages, I don't think Michael Stipe sang a coherent sentence until somewhere around "Life's Rich Pageant."
posted by Ty Webb at 4:07 PM on August 23, 2002

On Bogdan Raczynski's album "myloveilove" all 14 or so tracks are entitled "myloveilove".

Titles aren't absolutely nesscessary. I think albums should come in white envelopes with the name of the group on the front. A burnt Imitation CD inside! =)

You guys are so avant garde you've eluded the avant garde!
posted by rosswald at 4:28 PM on August 23, 2002

I didn't know A.C. was forced to name their tracks. I thought they used such off-the-wall names because they always had 40+ songs on their albums.
posted by titanshiny at 6:16 PM on August 23, 2002

Doesn't The Cure's "Three Imaginary Boys" have pictures for the track names?

My copy of it does, anyway.
posted by Kafkaesque at 6:29 PM on August 23, 2002

Liz Fraser's version of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" on the first This Mortal Coil album is the best vocal performance I've ever heard. It's so sadly beautiful.
posted by davebush at 6:47 PM on August 23, 2002

Su, I wouldn't exactly call it perfect english. She stretches and emphasizes certain syllables until the words are almost unrecognizable.

You ever been way down South?
*grin*
At any rate, I just meant that she was actually speaking some language, rather than babbling insanely. Pronunciation is a whole 'nother matter.
posted by Su at 7:38 PM on August 23, 2002

Hmmm... no-name bands have been doing it by definition.
posted by TskTsk at 7:45 PM on August 23, 2002

titanshiny: early on they were made to... I think as time went on A.C. enjoyed the joke.
posted by quibx at 8:56 PM on August 23, 2002

Couyldn't you just refer to the Sigur Ros album by making finger quote marks in the air to connotate the blank space? I'll be doing my best to perpetuate that method.

A thought immediately springs to mind.
I can just imagine hapless parents trying to make their desire known to uninformed clerks. "My daughter wants the new Scissor Rose cd. You know, some Icelandic group. I can't remember how to spell their name. They've got a new album." "Do you know the title, ma'am?""Oh, it doesn't have a title." "Well, what song has she heard?" "I don't think that has a title, either." Clerk smiles and nods.
posted by redsparkler at 12:47 AM on August 24, 2002

Godspeed You Black Emperor has a cool way of arranging and titling the "songs" on their album Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna to Heaven. it's a two-disc set, and each disc has only two tracks on it. inside the liner notes, a timeline of sorts charts the progression of compositions. i guess they have a sort of reputation for going against the grain. good sonic fun, though, 'specially if you like the victory rose.
posted by carsonb at 12:53 AM on August 24, 2002

Mr Roboto, "Agaetis Byrjun" is phonetically pronounced "Ow-guy-tis Biryun."

Goða nótt :)
posted by Modem Ovary at 1:56 AM on August 24, 2002

I'm reminded of Autechre's Tri Repetae++ album cover:


It's like that on all sides (including the spines), with the track titles and info on the inside liner notes.

Of course, to sell this in a store, it's stamped with a descriptive sticker, but it really looks great in a CD collection... An ominous disc that inquires interest in its contents.

Snarky, yes, but it's still an odd gimmick that isn't acted upon here in the U.S. ...Probably because of that now classic Spïnal Tap gag.
posted by Down10 at 2:21 AM on August 24, 2002

Sigur Ros pronounciation guide with handy little MP3s.

<welshtutorjoke>

You 'ave to roll your arse!

</welshtutorjoke>
posted by ceiriog at 3:34 AM on August 24, 2002

*sigh*
posted by ceiriog at 3:35 AM on August 24, 2002

the red crayola "the quiet album"
print? (unknown german label) 1989?
- "described by thompson as a picture of the band, their faces pressed to a car window, printed onto parachute silk. there was no album per se." [puncture number 33, summer 1995]

via white-rose.net
posted by soundofsuburbia at 4:05 AM on August 24, 2002

It's the RIAA's new strategy: with no title, we can't search for it on file sharing networks.

lol! fuzz you may have a point.
posted by SpaceCadet at 5:14 AM on August 24, 2002

Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance also tended to sing without lyrics. She considered her voice an instrument, and found singing without words to be a "liberating" experience. Somewhat similar to what her small children did before they learned to speak.
posted by greengrl at 7:24 AM on August 24, 2002

I remember an interview where she talked at more length than usual about her vocal style and some of the ideas behind the DCD music.

Part of the thing with the singing was that they felt they didn't really have anything to "say" with their music; message wasn't really a part of it. So they didn't say anything. Simple.
I wish I could remember what languages she used as basis for the sounds. I know Persian was in there, but that's it. Other than that, she admitted to having a rough vocabulary for evoking certain feelings via certain sounds, but no formal "words."
posted by Su at 8:11 AM on August 24, 2002

Actually, mr_roboto, most of their songs are in Icelandic. Parts of some songs on the last album are in a made up language, but the rest is in Icelandic. I'm Icelandic and have no problems understanding most of their songs.
posted by einarorn at 9:33 AM on August 24, 2002

Godspeed You Black Emperor has a cool way of arranging and titling the "songs" on their album Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna to Heaven. it's a two-disc set, and each disc has only two tracks on it. inside the liner notes, a timeline of sorts charts the progression of compositions. i guess they have a sort of reputation for going against the grain. good sonic fun, though, 'specially if you like the victory rose.


Godspeed's label is actually constellation.
The diagram in the liner notes doesn't really correspond exactly to the cd, but it is a good rough guide. They are a rather interesting band. They are releasing their second album on November 11th also.
posted by sinical at 3:35 PM on August 24, 2002

i had read a rumor earlier this month about a member of Godspeed dying?
posted by Dom at 1:03 AM on August 25, 2002

Wouldn't this be GYBE!'s 3rd album?

[/pedantry]
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:56 AM on August 25, 2002

...and according to various sources, they're now called godspeed you! black emperor.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 12:07 PM on August 25, 2002

err, I'm not quite sure why I wrote second album. It is their 3rd lp, 4th major release.
Though I have no idea why, it seems they have changed around the punctuation in their name.
posted by sinical at 8:15 AM on August 26, 2002