"Contractual fulfilment" albums

[Suedehead]

Let's cite examples here. And, while we're at it actually, we can discuss them!

I'll start us off with Tori Amos' Strange Little Girls - Taylor, eat your heart out! The original queen of variants was T with her covers record. I never liked this to be honest and I was puzzled at the time as to why she did it. I enjoyed the visuals (great wigs, beautiful wigs.) The music not so much. The concept was intriguing of course (songs written and sung by men covered by T with a female perspective), but for an artist who is one of the best interpreters of all time, particularly of male songwriters (see: Famous Blue Raincoat, I'm On Fire and of course, Smells Like Teen Spirit), this album felt at odds with that.

So when it turned out the whole thing was just so she could get out of her deal it all made sense to me.

Highlights: Real Men, '97 Bonnie & Clyde, Rattlesnakes, Time
Lowlights: I'm Not In Love, Enjoy the Silence, Happiness is a Warm Gone

 

[octophone]

Mark E Smith: "We're off to Phonogram, cock"
Beggars Banquet: "Well, we're entitled to another album under this clause here"
Mark E Smith: *squints* "Bugger, so you are...hang on a sec...."
*runs hand down back of sofa, finds two live tapes and some demos*
"Here y'are cock! See ya!"

 

[funky]

It’s difficult to know with Prince when the contractual obligation bit began and ended, because he was already getting pissed with WB round about 1988 when they were telling him to slow down so that they could release more singles, and he wasn’t fulfilling his contract by promoting the songs once the album was released - he was too busy working on what was next.

He publicly started distancing himself from them after Diamonds & Pearls in 1991 - despite enjoying a commercial revival - and that led to a disjointed campaign for The Love Symbol album in 1992 when he started using the Symbol instead of Prince.

But by the time “Come” was released in 1994 he was essentially done - and he did nothing to promote it. Things got blurry again when he had an unexpected global smash with “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World”, which was added to The Gold Experience album - he did promote it but seemingly on his own terms. He was still with WB for Chaos And Disorder in 1996 which was a massive flop and Prince didn’t give a fuck. Emancipation was his first album without WB later that year.

He would return to WB in 2014, two years before his death.

 

[straightorbroken]

Love the title making a nod to it as well.

There's not much beef here though material-wise. I've always enjoyed Home On Christmas Day, but there is little spark production-wise and it's a very cheap sounding record. Q magazine remarked Lauper was "in fine if not spectacular voice".

 

[straightorbroken]

Let's cite examples here. And, while we're at it actually, we can discuss them!

I'll start us off with Tori Amos' Strange Little Girls - Taylor, eat your heart out! The original queen of variants was T with her covers record. I never liked this to be honest and I was puzzled at the time as to why she did it. I enjoyed the visuals (great wigs, beautiful wigs.) The music not so much. The concept was intriguing of course (songs written and sung by men covered by T with a female perspective), but for an artist who is one of the best interpreters of all time, particularly of male songwriters (see: Famous Blue Raincoat, I'm On Fire and of course, Smells Like Teen Spirit), this album felt at odds with that.

So when it turned out the whole thing was just so she could get out of her deal it all made sense to me.

Highlights: Real Men, '97 Bonnie & Clyde, Rattlesnakes, Time
Lowlights: I'm Not In Love, Enjoy the Silence, Happiness is a Warm Gone

I love the title track, so was mega baffled at the rest of the record. I also remember shopping around for the cover I wanted most.

 

[funky]

I wonder if Mariah’s Rainbow was in any way a contract fulfilment, given that the production of her last album with Columbia coincided with her divorce… she still seems invested creatively on the album, even though it’s a massive step down from Butterfly.

 

[Pipo]

I wonder if Mariah’s Rainbow was in any way a contract fulfilment, given that the production of her last album with Columbia coincided with her divorce… she still seems invested creatively on the album, even though it’s a massive step down from Butterfly.

I read that Heartbreaker was the only track she had ready from the start for Glitter (it actually dates back to 1999), which explains why it sounds like the most “proper” song on the album. Apparently, Glitter was shelved for a while and finally released in 2001.
So yeah, it definitely screams contractual obligation vibes, especially since it was her last album with Sony, too. I’m sure Dub or Louf probably know the full story though.

 

[dUb]

Oh yeah Rainbow was 100% a 'will this do' effort to get her out of the contract

Cobbled together, half-arsed, but still great in spots as we know

 

[FetchFugly]

After releasing two albums on Geffen in the early eighties, Donna was found to owe one more to Polygram. The title track was a big fat hit (not so much in the UK) and the album her biggest post-disco effort in the US. She reunited with the same producer on her next Geffen release, Cats Without Claws, with less commercial success though it is probably a better album.

 

[Loufoque]

Rainbow will always be that girl and - as for the slander - I won't allow it

Your fave could never make a contractual fulfilment album with career highs like Petals, Bliss and Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme),

 

[POP!]

The last Blondie album on their original label and before their 15 year hiatus. Some had already moved onto solo projects before they went back in the studio to record it. The wheels were kind of already falling off. Frank Infinte already sued the band between Autoamerican and this project but was included on the front cover anyway, despite his essentially nonexistent involvement on the album. They replaced him for the tour.