Upcoming Song Speculation

[OneWAY]

I heard that back in 1994, Al had just finished recording Headline News, but he started playing it live before it was released. That got me thinking this might be concert-only for a while, just to surprise the fans with something new and completely unexpected.

[minnick27]

The difference is in 1994 they didnt have YouTube. It would only be exclusive for 1 show.

As far as a Tuesday or Friday release, So isnt on a label, couldn't he release it whenever he wanted?

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[mrmeadows]

Out of the songs at the top that have already peaked at number one and seem to have been trending for a while, the songs I could see him parodying the most easily (and yes, I have actually heard them as well) are "New Rules" by Dua Lipa, "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran and "Havana" by Camilla Cabello.

Of the bunch you list, I like the idea of "Perfect" the most, but I think "Havana" has the kind of hook that makes it the most ripe to be parodied.

"Wakanda, ooh na-na..."

[Killingsworth]

Of the bunch you list, I like the idea of "Perfect" the most, but I think "Havana" has the kind of hook that makes it the most ripe to be parodied.

"Wakanda, ooh na-na..."

Wow! Thank God someone else out there thought the same thing I did about the possible Havana/Wakanda connection! With "Black Panther" currently proving to be a massive hit at the box office, that would be perfect for Al to do right now if it weren't for the miniscule amount of lead time he would've had thus far to pull it off.

Still, AL could put this put AFTER the tour if he doesn't have too much of a fear of both the song and film appearing too dated but it would work perfectly well in Al's favor in this post record contract/Internet only release Era of releases.

Also, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced Al may want to tackle "Shape Of You" rather than "Perfect" if he wanted to do an Ed Sheeran parody.

I could also see Al wanting to debut whatever this new song is on the first date of the tour on Tuesday the advent of YouTube be damned but I'm not convinced he will end up doing that just yet. I'm sure he knows full well it would only be a "surprise" to one audience.

Then again, he did debut "Party At The Leper Colony" a full year before Poodle Hat came out and bootleg footage of that one existed at the time. I'm sure he knew full well that even back then it would get around. Plus, he did the exact same thing with "Polka Face" on the 2010 tour before Alpocalypse was out. He didn't really have a choice anyway and I'm sure he knew it would circulate like wildfire (which it did).

After that, the Mandatory tour was nothing but fully released songs so while I won't deny that as a possibility,
something does make me think Al may be done with debuting any brand new unreleased songs in concert for good.

...and if he does release just one new single on Friday, I'm positive that a weekend and a Monday would be all WE really need to familiarize ourselves with it anyway.

[TMBJon]

I really doubt it would be a parody. That would undercut the whole point of this tour.

[TMBJon]

Hell, I'm starting to think Al may just pull a Beyonce and surprise release this at midnight without telling anyone at all.

It's not even "pulling a Beyonce" anymore. A surprise release is more and more the normal way of releasing things. I would be surprised if we get any advance warning. I expect a tweet that says "Hey, my new song is out!"

[Killingsworth]

I expect a tweet that says "Hey, my new song is out!"

Yeah, I remember how he did pretty much this exact thing to let us know that he had gone to the trouble of recording PTW. Of course, that was accompanied by a LONG blog post explaining why he was doing that. I'm sure this one won't be (partly because he won't NEED to explain why he recorded this song and partly because he seems to have abandoned blogging all together in the past five years).

Seriously, I know Friday releases are now common place but since when have SURPRISE Friday releases become that common? I can see it for singles sure, but I can only name one artist who has done this for an entire album. Nowadays, most artists have quite a lot of build up and promotion for an entire ALBUM being released on a Friday.

[TMBJon]

I know Friday releases are now common place

I don't think you get what I am saying. New Music Tuesdays is a thing of the past. Friday is now the day that all albums are released. That does not mean Al has to release a digital single on a Friday, of course. Could happen any time!

[Killingsworth]

Oh, I completely understand that all new albums are released on Fridays now, Jon. I've seen this be the case for about the past two years now. I was simply asking if anyone knew about the when and why of this change.

Mandatory Fun was the last album I legitimately remember being released on a Tuesday and that one was almost four years ago. I'm sure this couldn't have been something that just happened gradually on an album release by album release basis.

[TMBJon]

The when seems to be around 2015. The why is apparently because such a high percentage of music listening happens on Spotify and other streaming services that they were losing out on potential statistics that count toward album sales by cutting off that weekend leading up to a Tuesday. If you drop an album on a Friday, people will listen to it all weekend. The original reason they were released on Tuesdays was so that the albums could be shipped by Monday and put out on display after closing up on Monday night so that they would be ready to go first thing in the morning.