MBoyd

Yeah I heard about this just before Xmas. I've been a fan since I heard her on NPR 2 years ago. Great album.

Columbia is doing a real disservice to her fans. This girl has a great voice and her range of songs is fascinating. One minute you are listening to a cute pop song then next a rage infused take on politics.

I wish they could have compromised with a cheap download on iTunes for the missing tracks. Of course maybe the missing tracks are all about how much Columbia sucks or something.

SAShepherd

There are times when less is more. (Hello? Ryan Adams? Are you listening?) Which is not to say that maybe her fan base wouldn't want the sprawling album. (She reminds me somewhat of Stephen Merritt from the Magnetic Fields, who thought why make a 2-CD album when you can make a 3-CD album?)

Now, Columbia should've understood Nellie before they signed her and certainly after her first album, so it makes you wonder why they dithered so long before deciding to drop her. (So foo on them.)

But to harken back to the film/music industry discussion earlier this week, it seems like the music industry could take a tip from the movie industry and subsequently or even simultaneously release the "director's cut" of an album. The short album pursuant to label desires and the longer album pursuant to artist desires. How much different would that be from the DualDisc or "deluxe" versions or versions with bonus EPs they're submitting on the day of release?

And, for the record, I enjoyed portions of McKay's first album, but didn't love it.

Numanoid

I found this in her AMG biography: "Other labels had expressed interest, including Virgin and Blue Note, but she felt that Columbia had the greatest understanding of her musical vision. "

Oops.

MBoyd

Her first record has sold 104,00 copies. I don't think that's anything to sneeze at in today's climate. Certainly something Columbia could build on. Wonder how many iTunes downloads? Too bad all around I think.

Numanoid

That's nothing for a big label like Columbia. I can see why they dropped her.

auto

And 104,000 copies of a double album really means only 52,000 copies sold total.

ChrisKnudsen

But that is not what the figure states at all. When the Smashing Pumpkins' album went gold with infinite sadness, they didn't have to just sell 250,000 copies to get to that status.

auto

I think you are mistaken. I'll try to dig up some concrete information.

edit: Check out the section under "Multi-Disc Set".

http://www.riaa.com/gp/certification/criteria.asp

Bugg

*Minimum running time 100 minutes.

So any album under 100 minutes will NOT count as 2 units

auto

Good catch. The McKay album would have fit on one CD and therefore qualifies as a single unit release.

The example above though, Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness, definitely exceeds 100 minutes and therefore the Pumpkins went Gold when they hit sales of 250,000. It's a screwy system.

Link_182

In some cases a double album actually gives less money to the artist. I know in the case of Fleetwood Mac's latest, Lindsay Buckingham wanted a double album, even though his money would be cut. The record label was still against a double album. I don't quite understand this move on Columbia's part. I recieved a promo copy of the album and it's quite good, as was the last one. Hopefully this gets out eventually in some form. We don't need another Fiona Apple deal.

ChrisKnudsen

So..this means that she sold 104,000 copies, right?

Mr. Salty

104,001, because I just picked up the DualDisc.

MBoyd

I didn't realize it, but 6 new Nellie tracks are on itunes from the soundtrack for Rumor Has It. Probably better than the movie.

auto

104,002...I just ordered the album from the $9.99 Amazon link.

DVDTalk....doing their part to support Nellie McKay!

DJLinus

104,003. My copy of the DualDisc should be delivered from Amazon tomorrow (see, RIAA, some file sharing actually does lead to purchasing).

ChrisKnudsen

I now understand why Columbia dropped Nellie McKay. I end up listening to it and it is shit. I mean, really really awful. If I was Columbia, I would have dropped her too. I could understand wanting to cut some tracks to keep costs down on a really awful album.

ChrisKnudsen

I am sorry Bus but were you on American Idol? Are you jaded? Myopic? What the hell is that? Is that the word of the day? Being able to sing is talent and if you can't just listen to someone that has strong vocals and appreciate their skill, that is fine. I would rather listen to good songwriting over skilled muscians, too but I don't ignore the fact that they have talent. Seriously, come on. 95%. Its not like its 95% of the population of the entire world. I bet you it still translates to less than 1% of the entire population. Maybe you already said that but I am not going to disguise the fact that I don't know what the hell "myopic" means nor am I going to do research what it means. God damn, do I hate message board arguements. Makes me want to roll a 30 sided die or some crap like that.

Bugg

I agree with Bus, having a technical skill does not equal talent.

One can be overly literal and state that talent is having any kind of ability, but when most people discuss music, movies, books and so on, 99.9% of the time use of the word talent is indicative of artistic merit.

ChrisKnudsen

I am saying their are different types of talent. I am sorry Bugg but if someone can sing Opera style, I think that takes a lot of time and work to sing that well or some people just got the talent to sing like that. So, Bugg and Bus, are you saying that someone who is classically trained vocalists don't have talent? Can you sing like that or can you sing like the people on American Idol even? If so, step up then (not to sound gay) and bring an Mp3 to the forum of you singing. I am not saying I have talent, I sing like Calvin Johnston but to dismiss some people of what they have is not talent, that is ignorance. Seriously, let's stop this argument side track not in the Nellie McKay thread.

I guess to make it related, I would rather to listen to Kelly Clarkson than the newest Nellie McKay record. Hell, I would rather listen to a William Hung album than the newest Nellie McKay record.

Bugg

Depends on whether or not they bring any soul or passion to it. Someone can have great vocals and still have no talent as a singer. If they can carry the tune from a technical standpoint but fail to convey any sense of genuine emotion, then I suspect most hardcore opera fans would consider such a singer to be a talentless hack, regardless of how classically trained they are.

ChrisKnudsen

That brings up another point, I think Barbershop Quartets have talent but they have no souls.

Seriously, this argument is really stupid. I am not saying your point is stupid but as someone who regularly goes to the Opera, usually the people who have the most talent are the ones that have been classically trained since they were 4. Whatever I can't do but others can do, I consider them talented in that aspect. Some people don't have to put any emotion into it. Do you consider electronic artists talented? They don't have to put in any soul by creating loops and distorting sounds.

Seeing that we are going way off the topic of Nellie McKay's bad album, I am a believer in abortion and I think its cost should be lowered, I am anti-death penality only because it costs more, I don't believe in a god nor do I believe in talking about philosphy of life because it is really just a waste of time, we shouldn't have social security or welfare, gays should marry, so should people who want to marry animals or whatever, I don't think people should get tax cuts for being married but if they want a civil union then they can, Wilco has never made a great album, and that King Kong sucked even though there was a masterpiece of a 2 hour movie hiding in there.

Tscott

What the fuck happened to this thread?

Back on topic, I found this myspace link http://www.myspace.com/nelliemckay2 (Note: most likely not really her, but a 'fan' pretending to be her) which has 4 of the new songs streaming so we can judge for ourselves about a few of the tracks rather than have ChrisKnudsen keep telling us how awful she is.

And here's the fan site where I found the link http://www.nelliemckay.org/ It also has an interesting collection of articles about the split on the front page.

l_xtopher_l

It's foolish to say you only have talent if you write your own songs, or that just because your voice can produce high notes, that you're not talented. There are tons of songwriters who cannot sing. If others didn't use their lyrics, we'd miss out on a lot of good music. Talent is so subjective, I certainly don't think people should be bashed for being a singer.. unless they're Lindsey Lohan.

I just finished listening to the 16 track version of "Pretty Little Head", and it's a great album. I think artists should have control over the music they want to put out, and it would probably create more sales if fans knew that it was something the artist believed in 100%, and not a label creation record.

However, Nellie McKay isn't a household name, and she's not even close to being one, dispite having an amazing 2004 album, which tons of people still don't know about. You can't be a young kid trying to control a label, which turns out tons of artists who rank higher in sales. I'm not saying their music is better, I'm saying more people purchase the music, because they see it on MTV, VH1, radio, and mass media.

You can't be a diva. Everyone thinks it's cool to be outspoken and a rebel at her age, and she's one of the most extreme singers out there. She's not Fiona. She has dues to pay before she can control her albums 100%, when to the label, she's something they can easily cut and not go broke over, because they lost her. So, they did. She should have pushed for an iTunes deal, additional EP, or one of those "double dip" re-releases that seem to be so popular.

Do I think they'll regret dropping her, later? Yes. Should they regret it at the moment? Probably not. She doesn't move enough units for them to currently cry over.

ChrisKnudsen

I am not saying she is awful. Her last album was on my top 50 of 500 list of '04, I think. I am just largely disappointed in the record. Listen, and I can almost promise that no one is going to say that this is even Jon Brion produced Extroadinary Machine caliber. Even worse than the new Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, and Cat Power albums.