What Goes into an Album Title?
I’m currently in the process of designing and naming my upcoming album – this isn’t easy. Yeah, I’m a bit OCD about the matter but when you think about it, it’s a decision I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life. The design and what I choose to name the project is nothing I take lightly because it will be published, cataloged, distributed and therefore, immortal.
I personally choose to draw my album titles from verbatim lyric within the album.
See That Gleam, for example, comes from the closing phrases of Cellophane: Look there, see that gleam? It’s the sun and your eyes the beam. My hope is that it becomes an “ahhh” factor when the listener hears the title they simply read before – it gives it weight and purpose.
Other Things I Consider When Naming an Album:
What images and assumptions does it conjure about me and the album’s content?
How will it be pronounced and/or said out loud by the listener?
Does the phrase design well? Is there symmetry, pop and aesthetic versatility?
How is the phrase introduced within the album? Is it an opening line or a closing thought? Is it a powerful moment or a passive instant? Does it stand alone or does it need the connecting lines in order to make any sense?
Is it unique but memorable – not overly obscure for sake of obscurity?
Is it creative or trite?
Will it turn people off?
When the phrase is Googled, will it show up on the first or fifteenth page?
Is it an accurate summary of the album’s vibe, tone and content?
Ultimately, do I cringe when I hear it or does it instill a sense of pride and accomplishment?
All of that said, the initial list was large and daunting; you can see all of the candidates below and judge for your self. Did you have any clue that this many options were in the running when considering an album title?
ALL POSSIBLE TITLES:
Might Leave Today
Scenery is Constant
Landscapes so Plain
Brave this New World
Outside Your Hand
A Shadow to You (Honey)
I’ll Be Changing
In Love with the Stars
Constant Constellations
Every Changing Space
A Color Against the Same
Heart Forgets the Beat
(It) Slows then Rushes
Every Single Word
Your Lip
Where I Need to Be
One Million Miles
How Well You’re Made
All I Need
Penned in that Sunset
Pretty, Pink & Violet
Walking With Me
No Day, No Night
Somewhere in Between
Dawn’s Haze & Dream
Trains in my Head
What Started as a Steady Hum
Wartime Drum
North and Southbound (Collide)
(Then) History Repeats
How Soft They Creep
The Wolves Are At My Door
The Wolves
If You Breathe
Your Memory is Soaked
Soaked in Wine
Bittersweet Parade
Days In Your Sunshine
This Great Timeline
Call This a Golden Day
We Lived to Tell
Like a Leaf
Somewhere in Between
Before the Earth Began Its Curve
To Feel a Resistance
Not a Bird
I Don’t Fly
A Dot On A Map
Tell Me I Am A Bird
Busy Towns
Going Over Numbers
Leaving in Your Eye
To the Bone
Knuckle’s Blood
That Red Piece of Me
Seasons Turn it Over
Different Words
What I Should Be Leaving
Same Old Suffocate
Bound to Build Up
No Doubt Colder
Long Before I Burn
Let the Insides Show
Crimson & Rose
And it Burns Your Eyes
Underneath Our Clothes
Heart and Bone
From the Inside We Grow Like Butterflies
Proof We’re Alive
We Are in Orbit
As Long As There Has Been A Song
Soldiers for the Muse
A Couple Grenades
On Any Given Time of Day
A Bridge in the Desert
The Notes Were Bright
To Hell With All the Grenades
Bring ‘Em Back Again
Explorers Tried to Explain
But the Beauty
Too Much to Write Down
Sunny Days Quickly Turn
Never Seen Such as Scene
Eden or His Dream
All the Years Hang on the Wind
Hear it Echo
Even Dust
Dust
Dust Can Be A King
However, by performing a litmus test against the elements above and bouncing the ideas off of my trusted friends and family, the ideas are now whittled into this top 16.
THE NOW TOP 16:
Bittersweet Parade
Eden or His Dream
This Great Timeline
Dawn’s Haze & Dream
Soaked in Wine
Heart & Bone
Brave this New World
Dust can be a King
Call This a Golden Day
How Soft They Creep
It Started as a Steady Hum
Busy Towns
Proof We’re Alive
All the Years Hang on the Wind
And it Burns Your Eyes
Then History Repeats
Wish me luck as I finalize such a major decision. I’m sure I don’t need to lose sleep over it, but rest assured, I will.