UPDATE (March 15, 2010 1:05 PM PST):
The results are in, and you chose "Needle and Haystack Life" as the next single!
Go here for a recap post that I wrote up.
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Hey friends. We're going to try to do more polls, more often; hopefully you all like it. So, for this week's poll, which you can find on the sidebar, the question is: "What should the next single off of 'Hello Hurricane' be?"
Now, I'm going to give some of my thoughts, so if you want to be unbiased, make sure you cast your vote FIRST before you read further.
So, first off, I'd like to say that "Mess of Me" has had a great run so far. It's made a slow (and I mean SLOW) ascension to Billboard's Alternative elite. It finished at No. 13 on last week's survey and was one of the fastest growing songs last week. Some interesting things to note about "Mess of Me," as it concludes its 20th week on the charts:
- "Meant to Live" was No. 7 in it's 20th week on the chart.
- "Dare You to Move" was No. 17 in it's 20th week on the chart (and already on its way down)
- "Stars" only reached No. 16 on the chart.
- Anberlin's "Feel Good Drag," in it's 20th week, was also No. 13. As many of you know, it went on to reach the No. 1 slot on the chart!
So that all to say, "Mess of Me" has had a pretty decent run so far, and if it faded away from this point on, we can still call it a successful single at the end of the day. Hopefully, though, with our continued efforts in voting for the video on FUSE and rating the song on ratethemusic.com, as well as the strong airplay on MTV2, the single is far from finished.
But it's always fun to look ahead and speculate, so this is what the current poll is all about. Personally, I think "Needle and Haystack Life" would be the perfect follow up single, and will truly be the big hit this album needs. It's highly accessible with a catchy hook, tons of melody, and is coupled with more universal and identifiable lyrics than "Mess of Me." It has enough guitar crunch to be a strong hit on Alternative radio as well, but there is definitely more crossover potential into the Hot AC/Pop markets. While it would be a rather safe single, it's definitely the one a lot of reviewers and casual listeners have referred to as their favorites off the record.
Then after this, I'd say "Your Love Is a Song" would be the hammer that brings this record home. While it very could be the band's next "Dare You to Move," it'd be better to release this one after "Needle," because it would be a little odd to put out a ballad right after one of the band's fiercest rockers in "Mess of Me." I can see "Your Love Is a Song" smashing through Hot AC radio, with potential towards getting airplay on some pop stations as well.
Anyways, I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts, so comment below and let's discuss this!
16 comments:
I still say double single, with The Sound to rock and NAHL to alternative/pop. I know it would be expensive though.
hmmm I like your thinking Job! I agree that Needle should be released first and then Your Love Is A Song...but then again remember Dare You To Move was released after Meant To Live which was more of a rocker.
But I still agree with you, I think it would probably be wise to leave Your Love Is A Song til' the end...
Let's see what happens!!
I know they've already got the ball rolling with The Sound, but to be honest, I'd hate to see my two least favourite songs from the record be the first two singles...
Needle is a fantastic choice for the second single, even though YLIAS is more popular.
@Dan In an ideal world, that would be the perfect scenario in my book. But I think Needle definitely has rock potential too!
@David Yeah, Dare and Meant to Live were kinda the same tempo though. Mess of Me and Your Love Is a Song are way different. I know what you mean though! :) thanks for the comment
@Dot you don't like the sound or mess of me? :/ but hey, I think having both be singles would be awesome.
Keep em coming friends!
Hmmm well to be honest I really like every song on the CD. "Sing it Out" and "Yet" are probably my two least favorites.
Needle and Haystack Life- A very good choice. More on the good choices later.
Mess of Me- Not elligible
Your Love Is A Song- A good choice.
The Sound- A good choice, but I'd rather they released it later on than now.
Enough To Let Me Go-A great song, but it doesn't quite feel like a single.
Free- An amazing song, just like The Sound, but, again I don't think they need another rocker
Hello Hurricane- I really like this choice too. More on that later
Always-Possible, but I doubt it.
Bullet Soul-A good song, but I'd say that it's not as good as Free or The Sound
Yet- Meh, naaaaaah.
Sing It Out- This one fits great in the album, but alone... it doesn't really work in my opinion.
Red Eyes-gaaaah. I love this song. I'd love for it to be a single. The poetry of the lyrics, the music, Jon's vocals are perfect... just one problem. It's blended in too perfectly with Needle and Haystack Life... Which makes it more amazing when you're listening to the CD as a whole, but it really takes it out of single territory. :( :/
Now back to the three big choices: Hello Hurricane, Needle and Haystack Life, and Your Love is a Song. I personally like the lyrics of Hurricane best. Marinally. Or maybe not. I love all these songs... But, we've seen that Your Love is a Song was a huge hit on Itunes. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing. One one hand, it means that if it makes it big, it might not sell as many copies at one time (getting it high up on the Itunes charts.) On the other hand, it means that people already love this song and they might request it more often. So yeah, there's my twenty-two cents :)
-Ender
Needle!!!
@Ender, interesting perspective. YLIAS did sell pretty well on iTunes after the One Tree Hill episode. I'd say that no matter how popular it got, nothing can stop the power of radio to influence sales. I think, if YLIAS was huge, it wouldn't matter if a few people bought it the first time. Just my own 22 cents. :)
so would your choice be YLIAS?
@Desiree i agree! :P
@ Job: Yep :)
-Ender
I agree with you Job. Needle is personally my 2nd favorite song off the album. I think your plan is the best, but if "The Sound" is released, I think it'll do fine. It'll carve out for them a niche as Alt rockers, but won't get them into the crossover conversation. Which is unfortunate :(
@Joe, what's your 1st favorite?
I think The Sound would be good for keeping the rock fans entertained, but that's about it. Like you said, it probably won't crossover.
Needle though... man, that thing has potential!
The Sound to rock/alternative.
NAHS to alternative/pop/top 40.
Sounds like a dream come true to me. :)
@Jon: I think that The Sound would be great, it's my most played song on Itunes right now. The top song WOULD be Dare You To Move, but my Itunes had to be reinstalled right before I bought Hello Hurricane.
Okay, I'm getting off topic. Back to The Sound. I can see it doing really, really good. But I think they need to release NAHS first, and then release Sound. :D
@Jon, that actually sounds like a great plan! The Sound to the heavier active rock and alternative stations, while NAHL would be targeted towards all the other formats. Genius!
@Job Sing It Out. No question. I think a double-single would be best as well, but I know it's unlikely...but remember, the guys LOVE "Needle". I could totally see them releasing it as a single. But what I wonder about is whether SF is in charge of choosing the single, or Atlantic's A&R department....
@Joe, yeah, that's what i was thinking. Needle is one they really believed in. I hope they put out the singles they really believe in, because in the end, it's better for them too when and if the song takes off.
As far as singles go, that's an interesting question. I feel the guys definitely will have a say though.
Your Love is a Song...definitely. And I do think "Enough to let me go" would do very well on Top 40.
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