An Open Letter

This is an open letter to all bands who have a superfantastic single and then have an album that sounds nothing like that single. I have been burned too often.

1) If your single has a fabulous female singing lead vocals, I will not want to buy your album to discover that that singer is either a guest vocalist or a back-up singer and that all of the other songs are sung by a guy who sounds like he learned by studying songs by Mister Mister. (I'm looking at you Royksopp and Shiny Toy Guns).

2) If your single is a quirky electro masterpiece, I will be very disappointed if the rest of your album sounds like a bar band from Boston circa 1978 (Again, Shiny Toy Guns, the Sounds...)

3) If you get Trentemoller to remix your song, and that's my first exposure to you, then you simply will never be able to live up to my expectations (The Knife, Royksopp) Trentemoller is a god.

I really don't think it's out of line for me to expect that a song that is being promoted by a band SOUND LIKE THE BAND IN QUESTION. To have these singles out there that sound entirely different than the rest of the album brings to mind a few options of what may have happened:

Theory A: They got a record deal based on that new song they wrote, and then when they needed to fill an album they used songs from their bar band past, instead of confidently writing new material.

Theory B: All the hip people know that it was a guest vocalist, and I'm just last in line - and I'm the only sucker in this deal.

Theory C: Kids these days can't write albums like they did back in the day, when Duran Duran would knock out an album in Montressat, hitting the night life, flying airplanes, and touring stadiums, all while looking fantastic.

And that's my rant.