Naming an album

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by 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!

After my first album "A Pretty Good Me", I thought my next albums could be "A Better Me", "A Much Better Me", "A Pretty Awesome Me", etc.

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.

Interestingly enough, those two songs are NOT humorous at all.



I changed the name of this one to "I Need Fixin" later

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

A friend of mine did that. "Old Ghosts and Lost Causes" are two phrases from two of her songs on the album. This is one of my favorites off that album.

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by mercy

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

Hahahaha! You're right, of course.

Hey, wait a minute. Did my wife pay you to say this?

[FrankHudson]

I love titling things. I even have a thing with my teenager where they read out titles of songs they've listened to and ask me to rate them just as titles. Of course, rating something on a title alone is an arbitrary, subjective game. And while I believe a title can sometimes cause someone to listen to something, there are a lot of successful records with bland, or even bad titles. "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" would be a latter case in point.

The title doesn't have to be song title, though that choice should come to the fore if you want to promote one song over the others as either the core "concept" of the record or because you think it's the one that will draw in your audience.

You could pick a line from one of the songs (which isn't the song's title), one that you particularly think will draw an audience in. With physical copies of the album which in the old days included a list of song titles that let you have a "bonus" title in effect, one that might draw a listener's interest.

There used to be a trend to pick an unusual word or set of words for a title, maybe not even occurring in any song's lyrics. Those choices would be kind of like "branding" a new product, something you think will stick in a person's mind if they heard it once and might remember later when they might stream or buy your music.

You could go loosy-goosy and carefree with a title. I've titled some things with an offhand phrase someone said during the recording session.

If you want to use one of the song titles, and without considering your aims which I'm not familiar with, I think "Half of What I Know" and "West of Eastland" are the leading candidates. The former may sum up something about what your songs try to do (tell something like "life lessons") and the latter is an intriguing phrase.

[mr. beaumont]

An album naming trick i like that i think is underused is to not take a song title but a short line from one of the songs...got any real good "punchlines?" (Needn't be funny, thats just the best word I can come up with for a killer line)

[blackie51]

Sunflowers and Sunsets.

Tom

[Brent Hahn]

I'll never make an "album" because I think the whole idea is a bucket list exercise that made sense between 1963 and the Internet. But from time to time I think up titles for the album I'll never make, just for fun.

"Vanity Fare"
"Plucked From the Spotlight"
"Thrust Into Obscurity"
"Ex Utero"
"Good, Though"

The last one makes more sense if you know the U. Utah Philips shaggy-dog story that ends with that line. But I think I like it better when you don't.

[Lkristians]

12 Songs/Third Album?
"A Dozen on 3"

Lots of good suggestion! Fun thread. Good luck with the latest!

[Charlie Bernstein]

Probably not "This One's Gonna Hurt."

[The Bard Rocks]

Ideally a title should be eminently memorable, something which sticks with you and reminds you of the songs. There are some really good and some really bad titles out there, both good subjects for other threads.

My first CD was called "Great Hits of the 1600's" (yes, all songs from that century). I'd joked about my "deservedly rare" CD of that name for years and it always drew laughs from the audience, so it seemed only fair I start with that. Subsequent CDs used titles or phrases from the songs inside.

[Cecil6243]

Use the song title from the song you think is the best one on your album?

[Glennwillow]

I like West of Eastland as an album title. Also, This One's Gonna Hurt appeals to me.

Great titles!

- Glenn

[SongwriterFan]

At the moment, I'm thinking "Other Side of Fear".

The front cover would be a picture of me on stage (from behind), exposed to show the stage lit well, with barely perceptible people out in the audience (as is the way it is on most stages I've played) . . . starting out into the darkness, representing the fear of performing on stage.