Lead Singles: A Huge Rambling Retrospective...

[Drico One]

Considering we've been here so long that we've already said what needs to be said, I thought I'd exhume our exposition on previous lead singles now that we've got a new one to look forward to (brave new world permitting).

Since I started this thread in 2009, we've had three new lead singles, a record label change, and the begrudging removal of a comma in the title of Love etc. Under protest.

Now, hopefully, we are mere weeks away from the musical highlight of 2013. We really shouldn't take this period of anticipation for granted. This is a huge bonus. So, what of the last three lead singles, now that we've got the benefit of hindsight?

Well, I think my initial review of Love etc was prescient. It became a massive grower for me and still sounds utterly fresh. As predicted in my previous post, it didn't do huge things commercially mainly for the reasons I suggested then. Nothing would or will do major things for them on the chart any more. I'm delighted it's on the Electric set list.

Together, which trailered Ultimate, also sounds really fresh to me, the sound of self-immolation and the passing from this commercial world to an artistic afterlife: "Everything's easy in this state of mind. The world starts to fade as we leave it behind" is among their most significant lyrical couplets. Could the decision to depart Parlophone have been made by Ultimate? That compilation certainly had the hallmark of corporate expedience rather than artistic finesse. Without Neil and Chris, it wouldn't even have had Together.

Together was the portal to Elysium and what should have been its sister single and confirmation: Leaving. Yet, we got the harrowing Winner, an horrific piece of bromidic sap. In the context of their singles discography, this was a bottom of the table relegation battler. As the latest of their lead singles, it was Beazer Homes League material, as welcome as Oscar Pistorius at a battered wives convention.

So, what hopes for the near future? The Nyman tweet suggests that Love is a bourgeois construct will be the "new single". It's a fabulously conceited title. My feeling is that even if that is its name, the song itself doesn't necessarily have to include the title in its lyric or chorus. After all, the word "etcetera" never appeared in the Yes lead. So, a preposterous title doesn't necessarily lead to an expedition up the artistic rectal passage. Whatever its pros and cons, it demands a listen in the way that a song entitled Winner never did - or subsequently would.

I await in moistened anticipation.

Drico.

[michael888]

So, Drico, where do you think "Love is a ...." will be peaked at, considering it will be a really comeback single, physically and musically?

[daveid]

So, Drico, where do you think "Love is a ...." will be peaked at, considering it will be a really comeback single, physically and musically?

And while you're at it, what will the weather be like the same day?

[tottenhammattspurs]

my prediction is 56, and light drizzle.