Naming an album

[SongwriterFan]

I've got 12 songs that I'm about to start recording for my third album, and so now I'm also thinking about what to name the album. Typically (though not always), an album is named as one of the song contained in it. Here are the song titles (in alphabetical order):

Can't Write That Song
Did You
Half of What I Know
I Need Fixin'
In Stone
One Life Stand
Other Side of Fear
Raised on Reagan
Sunflowers and Sunsets
This One's Gonna Hurt
West of Eastland
What She Can't Forget

When I started recording the second album, I had just written the song "In Stone" and decided not to include it. At the time, I felt sure that this would be the title of the third album.

Most first two albums contained songs that were written solely by me. This one will have four co-write on it, so "Can't Write That Song" seems like a reasonable title. Ironically, that song was also a co-write. It was my idea, and I think I got one other line in the song besides the hook. In my defense, I was co-writing with a guy who has been writing in Nashville for at least a decade, and has two songs on Cody Johnson's latest albums.

My first album was named "A Pretty Good Me", which I felt described the way I felt about myself at the time quite well. My second album was named "More Dollars Than Sense", which also seemed fitting at the time. In that vein, perhaps "Other Side of Fear" would be a good title . . I've finally gotten to where I think I'm going to retire (from an extremely high-paying job) to go lose money as a songwriter . . . to heck with the fear of doing that.

My wife looked at the song list and for some reason thought that "Half of What I Know" should be the album title. I also think that "West of Eastland" would make an interesting title, or "What She Can't Forget".

I guess I also need to think about the artwork that would go with each title.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

[doctone]

If you have Band-In-A-Box, it has got a song title generator... maybe this could help? (Sorry, couldn't resist. )

[rmp]

Not knowing anything about the album,

my gut reaction?

half of what I know

[Mbroady]

Based on titles alone
Sunflowers and Sunsets

Out of all the titles, this one gives me the most tangible image

[Denny B]

Of all the titles you have listed, the one that sounds interesting enough to make me click on it for a listen is "This One's Gonna Hurt".

Sounds like a title song.

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by Denny B

Of all the titles you have listed, the one that sounds interesting enough to make me click on it for a listen is "This One's Gonna Hurt".

Here ya go. Written to a friend of mine on the day he died earlier this year.

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by Mbroady

Based on titles alone
Sunflowers and Sunsets

Out of all the titles, this one gives me the most tangible image

Thanks. I probably would've chosen that one, except my first album has sunsets on the sleeve artwork and a sunflower on the disc artwork. Both are in memory of a friend of mine who died four years ago, whose death literally turned me into a songwriter (she was one).

[brad4d8]

Follow Joe Walsh's example, he released an LP in 1983 called "You Bought it, You name it."

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Denny B

Of all the titles you have listed, the one that sounds interesting enough to make me click on it for a listen is "This One's Gonna Hurt".

Sounds like a title song.

I second the nomination.

[Bob Womack]

For pure style I'd go with the irony of "West of Eastland." It begs for an explanation and therefore sucks you in.

Bob

[A Scot in Otley]

Pick your album cover artwork - then see which song (title) best fits.

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by A Scot in Otley

Pick your album cover artwork - then see which song (title) best fits.

If I come up with a great artwork idea for any of the titles, that might be the deciding factor.

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

For pure style I'd go with the irony of "West of Eastland." It begs for an explanation and therefore sucks you in.

Here's the song:



And the story behind it:

At church, I heard two guys talking about something (turns out it was about where one had been hunting) . . . and all I heard was "west of Eastland". Might light-bulb went on! Sounded like an interesting idea.

A week or so later, I was in the shower thinking about what the setup line might be (thinking it would be part of a chorus). Then it hit me: "Found my direction a little west of Eastland". Brilliant, even if I do say so myself.

But I decided this song didn't need a chorus (or I was too lazy to figure out how to make that work, take your pick), so I write it as a story song, ending with the line I'd come up with.

I started out thinking I'd need a few more words that ended in the "shun" sound, for a few more soft rhymes with "Eastland" . . . but it turns out there are a seemingly infinite number of words like this. So many that I figured I could make almost every rhyme using them (I think "weekend" is the only word that doesn't use this ending). I also got a lot of internal rhymes, and there are so many words I didn't feel like the song felt "forced" in any way.

When I play it, I try to think about smiling each time a "shun" word comes around . . . as if to say/wink to the audience "yep, here come another one!"

For several days after I wrote this song, my wife and I would yell out words like "abolition", "revolution", "constipation", etc . . .

It's one of my favorite songs . . . but my newest song always feels that way until the next one come along.

I think my "proudest" moment in the song was getting "sophistication" rhyming with "civilization" . . . five syllable words! That, and coming up with "skyscraper civilization" . . first time I think I've used a noun as an adjective in a song (I have a friend who is a master at this technique).

[JonPR]

I like "Half of What I Know" - except that might suggest to listeners that you have no more than a second album in you, to be titled "The Other Half of What I know" And then you're done!

I also like "Sunflowers and Sunsets" and "West of Eastland" - they both evoke something thoughtful and romantic.

If your songs contained a fair amount of humour, then "I Need Fixin'" or "This One's Gonna Hurt" might be good - otherwise they might create false expectation. Likewise "The Other Side of Fear" might be too dark.

Another suggestion would not be one of the song titles, but some resonant or intriguing phrase from one of the lyrics.

[mercy]

Wives are always right, you needed think any more about it