I feel like pre-release album streams have died a quick but quiet death over the course of the past year or so. NPR used to get 3-6 a week. I think they've had about 3-6 all summer.
I loved them. I'm kind of bummed they stopped happening. I'd give stuff a shot off Billboard streams that I'm sure I never would have listened to or discovered otherwise.
I get that the end of leaks/the importance of first-week streaming numbers probably steered labels away from it, but it seems like such an obvious and powerful discovery tool. There was something exciting about seeing a pre-release stream even from an artist you already love that I don't think you get when it just pops up on Spotify/Apple Music on release day.
Ill just cross my fingers that my vinyl bundle preorder arrives early. I remember Carry The Ghost showed up the Monday before.
Mine shipped too! AND he's doing a surprise listening party in Denver tonight, playing the whole album! I'm gonna try to go!
Looking through my videos, I noticed I captured a few minutes of “Audrey Hepburn” last year in Nashville
For sure! There was probably around 100 or so of us, it got a bit delayed due to rain. It was a real chill time, he just played the record and we were outside listening to it. I don’t want to hyperbolize after one listen, but I think he nailed it with this record. It’s much more cohesive than the last one, a good mix of what he does best while still taking some risks. I’m glad I got to hear it now because there is another record called Lover that is probably gonna take up a lot of my attention on Friday. But I can’t wait to come back to this and dig into the lyrics.
I do not like "Older." "Out of Time" is fine, but sounds too much like a White Noise song to me. Doesn't help that those two bookend my favorite song on the record.
Ha! I feel like we like a lot of similar artists for completely different reasons. I loved White Noise, so I was drawn to some of the similar sounds. AH was completely unremarkable to me. I’m excited to listen again and see how much I agree with my first impression.
Yeah, White Noise is by far my least favorite Noah album, ha. I think it played against a lot of his strengths. "Out of Time" sounds so much like a few songs on that record that I just don't really think it needed to be on this record. "Older" is just a sound I don't think really works for him. "Audrey Hepburn" is, I think, the most interesting song on the record lyrically.