“My Level of Fame/Longevity Enables Me to Do This”

[doso]

Are these things that artists dream of doing? Are they fresh out of ideas, but need cash to feed the monkey? Are these lovely artistic choices made possible by a successful career? Etc.

[llamaoftime]

I'm in general kind of anti-full albums of only covers, with limited exceptions. I've always thought that was kind of lame. A cover or two on an album doesn't bother me at all, just when it's only covers I generally don't have any interest. So that's the vote

There are bands who have done the symphony orchestra thing that certainly do not need to do, but there are plenty of good examples of it. The only time of recent I've experienced this in person was with Father John Misty at Red Rocks back in 2022, I thought it was neat.

I also don't hate album anniversary tours, and I've been sucked myself into buying tickets I probably wouldn't have on a regular tour for bands doing this, although I think bands shouldn't just stick to the playing it in order thing most of them do.

[scoots]

Yeah I don't have an issue with any of these.

[venom]

Record an album covering either standards or songs by your musical hero

i don't know why this fell out of favor. buck owens recorded albums of songs by harlan howard and tommy collins. nilsson covered randy newman songs. those were released more or less in their primes. there are a few similar frank sinatra albums. as long as there are more albums of originals and the covers are fresh, i don't have an issue with this.

[thebosma]

A lot of artists don’t benefit from doing the symphony thing but for the most part I think it’s a cool thing to do. Also notable that it is typically VERY good for whatever city’s symphony is hosting the event which is net positive societally.

The covers album thing can be good or bad but is usually inoffensive at worst from a good artist. Probably bad from a bad artist if I had to guess.

Album sets are good for me as a casual fan of a lot of bands who seem to do this with an album of theirs I care about/know. I don’t really care if they play it in order or whatever.

[scoots]

Hoobastank should cover Make Yourself.

[teekoh]

I’m never going to listen to a covers album (unless it’s something like Rise Above, which doesn’t really count), but none of these bother me.

[mookie]

I voted for the symphony thing only because that will end up jacking up the ticket price and have the show at somewhere like the Chicago or Auditorium where I absolutely hate the ticket purchase process.

With the album of covers thing, it can be done well, Lyle Lovett's album Step Inside This House was fantastic and helped me discover artists I hadn't paid attention to before. And 95% of the time I hate the album set played live thing, but if the band does it as a surprise on the anniversary of an album, or if it's of course an album I really love, I'll make exceptions

[kb]

love bowie's pin-ups and ty segall's ty rex off the top of my head, i'm sure there are more.

none of them are bad/offensive/lame, though i probably wouldn't go to an orchestra thing.

[chvrchbarrel]

i saw death cab with a small orchestra and thought it was amazing

albums sets are cool

not much for full cover albums (even though there are a few good ones) so i voted for that

[monasterymonochrome]

Voted for the covers option exclusively because I got excited that Lady Gaga was doing a Vegas residency, then saw that it was largely Sinatra/standards on the setlist.

Covers albums in general can slap though. Introducing Karl Blau got me into Tom T. Hall and the self-titled Link Wray record. Can't imagine much bigger W than that.

[rango420]

I'm less annoyed by full album play shows now than I used to be but that is the only one that could potentially have any effect on my life in any way so I guess I voted for that. If its a symphony orchestra show that is two shows or whatever and if its a covers album I dont want to listen to I just wouldnt listen to it.

[sthubbins]

full album set because I've never preferred the full album set when an artist I've seen multiple times has done it. I can't immediately think of a symphony show I've seen in person but I've enjoyed some videos of that nature. Covers albums can be very good.