Hear Me Out: The "Art" of the Set-Up Single
But you wouldn't know that from the album's first single.
Tattoo, released last month alongside a basic B&W (and horribly lip synced) video, was absolutely positively overwhelming in its awfulness. It was such a painful, eye-rolling mess that it completely killed any anticipation I had for yesterday's album release.
And maybe that's the point.
Nearly every fan and critic review makes mention of how terrible Tattoo is; the universe is practically... well, universal in its disdain of the track. Why, then, would Van Halen want to not only release it as the album's first single but also actually lead off the album with it? Especially when the rest of the album is so much better? To me, it smacks of one of rock history's most extreme examples of the set-up single.
For the uninitiated: a set-up single refers to any lead single knowingly released by a band and/or label in lieu of obvious superior song choices. There are a variety of reasons for choosing the set-up, the most common of which is consumer demand. The reasoning goes that, when anticipation for a new album by an established act is high enough, it literally doesn't matter what song goes to radio; the album will sell a ton of copies anyway, allowing for more longevity in the album's promotion; the superior song goes out as second (in extreme cases third) single, giving an album an extra 2-3 months of high exposure that it wouldn't have gotten with a lesser single. A couple of good recent examples of this strategy are releases by The Black Keys and Foo Fighters. Wasting Light is an excellent record chock full of potential singles, so it wasn't hard for the Foos to get prolonged exposure. Walk was a huge hit, and Rope built up a ton of excitement leading up to the album's release. But it was preceded by White Limo, the punky, snotty black sheep of the album via a video six weeks before the album's release. That track got the wheels rolling, Rope gave radio something to sink their teeth into, and Walk carried the album's momentum to the end of the year.
When the Black Keys were gearing up to release Brothers (the album that would eventually make them one of the biggest bands in the world) in 2010, it was Next Girl that led the charge. Despite it being my personal favourite on the album, it wasn't necessarily the best choice; that much was proven when Tighten Up wormed its way into the world's collective brain and refused to budge for the better part of a full calendar year. They employed the same strategy for last year's El Camino; leading off their run with Lonely Boy was a good choice for two reasons; a) it's a supremely catchy track, and b) its hook pales in comparison to that of Gold On the Ceiling, which was just released as second single.
But, for now, back to Van Halen; what possessed them to release such an awful song first? Could be a hype deflection tactic although, considering the egos involved, that's kind of unlikely. Regardless, one must consider the pressure inherent in releasing your first album with your original singer in almost thirty years. That's an incredible amount of time for DLR fans to wait, hope and pine. To take the edge off the pressure, what if you intentionally release a lesser song first and whittle away all but the true fans? It's a tactic perfected in the 90's by Pearl Jam, but more on that later.
Another possibility is that it was released due to the aforementioned consumer demand. Could be that because they knew once word got out that it was a return to form, the album would sell no matter what they released, so they went with the worst song; still doesn't explain its placement as lead track of the album, but I'll assume it's to get the worst out of the way and/or to allow listeners to easily listen to the album without it by skipping to track two.
The most far-fetched scenario is that band and label actually agreed that it was the right choice because it was the album's highlight. Which would be batshit crazy, but would also explain a lot about the state of the music industry.
Whatever the reason, Tattoo is a textbook set-up single; now that the initial shock of the awfulness is dying down and word of mouth is unanimously hailing the track as the exception instead of the rule, those scared away by it may come back in droves when the next, guaranteed to be better, single is released. However, it must be duly noted that the set-up single isn't always the best idea; while it serves a very good use if the song has at least marginal merit on its own, it also runs the risk of losing you sales in that those who decide the single isn't up to snuff aren't always going to come around when you do something better. Believe it or not, some music fans can be pretty fickle and unforgiving. And, when you release a single as bad as Tattoo is, I wouldn't be surprised if there's at least a handful of VH devotees who have vowed they're through with the band. I presume Sammy Hagar is one of them, but that's an op-ed for another day.
Because I'm on a roll and having fun, here are some of rock history's most prominent set-ups:
GUNS N' ROSES: Welcome to the Jungle
Today, we look back on Welcome to the Jungle with fond nostalgia as an all-time classic track. But, it could have easily been a cult classic if not for its follow-up single. Originally released as the lead single to Appetite for Destruction in '87, Welcome to the Jungle failed to catch on at MTV and radio beyond light rotation on specialty programs. However, when second single Sweet Child O' Mine came after, Guns N' Roses instantly went from some new band from L.A. to the next big thing. Utilizing a tactic that was much more prominent back in the day, the label held back on third single Paradise City and opted instead to re-release Welcome to the Jungle as a single. This time it was a massive hit, proving that persistence pays off; that, and if you've got popularity behind you, people will devour what they turned their noses up at six months ago.
R.E.M.: E-Bow the Letter
Coming off the commercial success of Monster, R.E.M. found themselves in a pretty lofty position; they'd spent the better part of a decade building up their name slowly. They'd had a handful of hits and a boatload of critical acclaim. So, for their tenth album, they did what any band would do; they recorded it on the road (many tracks during soundchecks), and christened it by releasing E-Bow the Letter, a dirgy and artsy Patti Smith-assisted salvo that landed with a resounding thud. Bittersweet Me fared better, but the damage was done; New Adventures in Hi-Fi sold only a quarter of what Monster did. Bill Berry would leave the band a year later, which set in motion over a decade of aimless meandering and depleted energy that would eventually render the band dead and gone to anyone but the staunchest fans. Now, I'm not saying that E-Bow the Letter is responsible for killing R.E.M. But it definitely wouldn't have hurt to go with Bittersweet Me as lead single.
PEARL JAM: Almost Every First Single They've Ever Released
Undoubtedly, Pearl Jam are the poster boys for the set-up single. From the beginning, they've been using the technique, even when it's unintentional. Ten, now thought of as the mammoth multi-platinum smash that it is, took a long time to get going; in fact, the album didn't truly catch fire until third single Jeremy and its overplayed video. Alive and Even Flow, now regarded as essential parts of the Pearl Jam canon, did little upon initial release. However, when Jeremy turned them into a worldwide phenomenon, Pearl Jam began a run of willing restraint that would last for nearly twenty years.
Not only did Pearl Jam swear off videos for the majority of their post-Jeremy career, they also employed the set-up on a regular basis, mostly for the purposes of scaring fairweather fans away. Daughter, the soaring acoustic-tinged juggernaut of second album Vs., wasn't released as a single until abrasive thrashers Go and Animal each had a chance to run their course. They upped the ante for third album Vitalogy; an album that has such epic and melodic tracks as Immortality (third single) and Better Man (though one of their most enduring radio hits, never actually released as a single at all), they led off its promotional cycle with the incendiary Spin the Black Circle (which improbably went on to win a Grammy) and the defiant and ragged Not For You.
The practice continued on No Code (the driving anthem Hail, Hail passed on in favour of tribal mess Who You Are), Binaural (mood piece Nothing As It Seems was released before the epic and emotionally charged shoulda-been hit Light Years), Riot Act (dirgy I Am Mine and abrasive Save You released before the hopeful and melodic Love Boat Captain), and their self-titled 2006 album (punky World Wide Suicide over the more radio-friendly and equally thrilling Life Wasted). Their ninth album Backspacer seemed to turn everything on its head, though; the radio-ready, feel-good single The Fixer actually made sense as a first single (they even did a
RADIOHEAD: Paranoid Android
Some of the greatest songs ever recorded are great for many reasons that have nothing to do with airplay. In fact, when you think about it, Paranoid Android had no business being a single at all, let alone first single. It's a six and a half minute smorgasbord of sound, veering wildly from warm acoustics to pummeling rock power to avant-garde noise; radio wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole; the video was widely banned and/or censored due to its nudity and violent content. And yet, it still propelled OK Computer to an unlikely (at the time) #1 debut upon its June 1997 release. A difficult, schizophrenic freak-out of a song, it was likely designed to send the band-wagoners they'd amassed with The Bends off a very high cliff; instead, it ended up cementing their legacy as one of rock's most innovative and important bands. Karma Police followed, and was embraced heavily on radio and video outlets, and was a pretty big hit in the traditional sense but didn't necessarily help sell more records because the album was already huge. So, for its unexpected impact on not only OK Computer's sales but also their overall legacy, Paranoid Android is perhaps the only set-up single in history to both work beautifully and backfire horribly.
You know, I'm starting to think I have a little too much time on my hands.
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