Fleet Street (also known as Cheese for its distinctive album artwork), released in 2004, is the eleventh studio album by the collegiate comedy a cappella group the Stanford Fleet Street Singers. It was the first entirely original album in collegiate a cappella, for which it received critical recognition.
| Fleet Street (Cheese) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | December 3, 2004 | |||
| Recorded | 2002–2004 | |||
| Studio | Bill Hare Productions in Milpitas, California | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 54:02 | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Stanford Fleet Street Singers chronology | ||||
| ||||
Background
editA cappella, and especially collegiate a cappella, has its roots in covers of popular music. As a cappella proliferated on college campuses across the United States in the 1990s, the genre found favor with audiences by reinterpreting familiar songs.[1] In 2016, music professor Joshua Duchan observed that audiences are drawn to a cappella because "the repertory includes a lot of covers, and it's often interesting to hear how popular songs... are reconfigured for the a cappella medium."[2]
The reliance on covers had its critics. In 2004, Broadway producer and a cappella critic Elie Landau wrote about Deke Sharon's[A] long-standing concern with cover songs:
"For nigh on forever, Deke has been urging collegiate (and professional) groups to consider a shift to performing some, if not entirely, original material lest modern "pop" a cappella go the way of the cover band—a novelty to listen to once in a while, but not anything anyone wants to buy or consider seriously and artistically."[3]
In the early 2000s, Sharon described a shift toward original music as "the biggest possible step for collegiate a cappella." In 2006, the Contemporary A Cappella Society added a new category for best original song to its recorded a cappella awards.[4]
Critical reception
editThe album was recognized[by whom?] for its status as the first collegiate a cappella album made up entirely of original songs.[4][1]
Critics praised the lyrics and the broad scope of its fifteen songs. Contemporary A Cappella Society president Deke Sharon called it "the most important collegiate a cappella album to be released in a decade."[5] Noting that Sharon had urged collegiate groups to pursue original material, Broadway producer and a cappella critic Elie Landau said, "the Fleet Street Singers of Stanford have answered Deke's call with probably the most gutsy and original collegiate album I've listened to in almost 20 years of active collegiate a cappella listening."[3] Landau also praised lyrics written by Mike Solomon, saying they seemed "equally informed by the cadences and meter of Eminem as they do by the alliteration and internal rhyming of Sondheim."[3] Critic Joshua Diamant called the album, "some of the most clever and sophisticated writing you'll hear all year."[6]
Former Contemporary A Cappella Society president Jonathan Minkoff described the album as, "Some rock, some jazz, some really funny comedy."[7] Minkoff highlighted the album's storytelling, commenting, "The stories are so much more interesting than the typical baby-I-miss-you-cause-you're-gone crap clogging the airwaves."[7] Writing for The Recorded A Cappella Review Board, theater producer Elie Landau characterized the album's style as "Always wacky and zany... somewhere between the eccentric intellectualism of The Bobs and the somewhat more boisterous, more simplistic Da Vinci's Notebook."[needs context][3]
Critics took issue with the mixing and the blend of the album. Landau wrote that he "[wished] the group and/or Bill had featured a bit more sensitivity to dynamics."[3] Diamant wrote, "some seriously bad blend mars many of the tracks on Fleet Street, as though the group had spent too much rehearsal time writing songs and not enough singing."[6]
Accolades
edit| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards | Best Humor Song (Professional) | "Teen Angst"[a] on Fleet Street (2004) | Nominated | [8] |
- ^ Original song.
Impact on the group
editThe release of Fleet Street marked a turning point in the group's identity.[original research?] After the album's release, members spoke more often of the group's original music than of their humor, which had previously dominated the group's identity.[original research?] At the group's 25th reunion in 2007, former music director Youngmoo Kim pointed to a change: "There are more originals now."[9] In 2011, then-music director Joel Chapman said during an interview, "One of the most important things we focus on is originality."[10]
In a 2018 interview, singer Connor Meany characterized the group: "We've definitely evolved over time, but I think we still have the same core values—writing our own music and being funny."[11]
That shift in identity was reflected in Fleet Street's recorded music, as well. After the release of Fleet Street, Fleet Street went on to produce original music at a significantly higher rate than they had done previously. While the group's previous release (2001's Fearless) contained just 2 original songs, the group's next album, Through The Roof (2011) featured 10 original tracks[12] and the following album featured another 11 original tracks.[13]
Influence
editAlthough Fleet Street was hailed by critics as an "exciting new direction for collegiate a cappella",[3] as of 2019, Fleet Street's impact on original music production by other collegiate a cappella groups has not been documented.[original research?]
In 2007, three years after the album's release, music scholar Joshua Duchan wrote that, "at its core, a cappella is about originality achieved through some form of emulation." Later in the same paper, he wrote, "in recent years, original compositions have become more common," but the lone example Duchan gave was the Stanford Fleet Street Singers' Fleet Street.[1] In 2016, he re-affirmed that audiences should enjoy collegiate a cappella for its frequent use of cover songs.[2]
Track listing
editCredits adapted from liner notes. All writers and arrangers are Fleet Street members and alumni.[14]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Arranger(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The King of Plumbland" | Matt Breault | Mike Solomon | 0:16 |
| 2. | "All Original" | Mike Solomon | Mike Solomon | 3:56 |
| 3. | "Life-Sized Barbie" | Mike Solomon | Mike Solomon | 2:33 |
| 4. | "Everyone Pees in the Shower" | Jason Mayland and Ben Evans | Jason Mayland and Martin Puryear | 3:27 |
| 5. | "Love Song" | Mike Solomon | Mike Solomon | 3:06 |
| 6. | "Lawyer" | Mike Solomon and James Pierson | Mike Solomon | 3:53 |
| 7. | "Olympic Recession" | Mike Solomon | Mike Solomon | 3:24 |
| 8. | "Losing Laura" | Mike Solomon | Mike Solomon | 5:06 |
| 9. | "Clear Skies" | Doc Edge | Doc Edge | 4:41 |
| 10. | "Teen Angst" | Michael Bernstein | Michael Bernstein | 3:46 |
| 11. | "Pokey the Penguin" | Mike Solomon | Mike Solomon | 4:18 |
| 12. | "Life" | Mike Solomon | Mike Solomon | 2:19 |
| 13. | "Silver Jacket" | Ben Rosebrough, Michael Bernstein, and Michael Feldman | Ben Rosebrough, Michael Bernstein, and Michael Feldman | 4:28 |
| 14. | "Gift of the Gods / Dawn of Battle" | Doc Edge, with Ben Rosebrough and Sanjay Kairam | Doc Edge, with Ben Rosebrough and Sanjay Kairam | 2:20 |
| 15. | "Lords of A Cappella" | Rory Everett and Doc Edge | Rory Everett and Doc Edge | 3:58 |
| Total length: | 54:02 | |||
Personnel
editCredits adapted from liner notes.[14]
- Michael Bernstein – producer
- Michael Feldman – vocal percussion (tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, and 15)
- Bill Hare – recording, engineering, and mixing
- Bill Hart – additional vocal percussion (track 2)
- Edward Requenez – producer
- Ben Rosebrough – album artwork
- Mike Solomon – producer, recording, engineering, and mixing
See also
edit- 50-Minute Fun Break (1992)
Notes
edit- ^ Founder and longtime president of the Contemporary A Cappella Society.
References
edit- ^ a b c Duchan, Joshua S. (Winter 2007). "Collegiate a Cappella: Emulation and Originality". American Music. 25 (4): 447–506. doi:10.2307/40071679. JSTOR 40071679.
- ^ a b Logue, Josh (March 15, 2016). "'Powerful. Voices': Author discusses book about the history, inner workings and social role of college a cappella". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Landau, Elie (June 14, 2005). "Review of Fleet Street (2004)". The Recorded A Cappella Review Board. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ a b Duchan, Joshua S (2012). Powerful Voices: The Musical and Social World of Collegiate A Cappella (print). p. 182. ISBN 978-0-472-11825-0. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
- ^ Agarwal, Avantika (May 27, 2010). "Bowties and ballads". The Stanford Daily. Vol. 237, no. 69. Stanford, CA. p. 2. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
- ^ a b Diamant, Joshua (June 14, 2005). "Review of Fleet Street (2004)". The Recorded A Cappella Review Board. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ a b Minkoff, Jonathan (June 14, 2005). "Review of Fleet Street (2004)". The Recorded A Cappella Review Board. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ "2005 Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award Nominees". The Contemporary A Cappella Society. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
- ^ Halyard, Isaac (December 7, 2011). "Fleet Street brings originality, laughs with 'Dorm Alone'". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ Halyard, Isaac (December 7, 2011). "Fleet Street brings originality, laughs with 'Dorm Alone'". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
- ^ Toler, Ellie (November 6, 2018). "Mendicants' 55th reunion highlights history of a cappella at Stanford". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ Sailor, Kimberly; Dietz, Robert; Anderson-Frey, Nick (June 23, 2011). "Reviews of Through the Roof (2011)". The Recorded A Cappella Review Board. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ Sailor, Kimberly; Thomas, Kevin; Lanza, Stephen (December 23, 2017). "Reviews of Cold Fury (2017)". The Recorded A Cappella Review Board. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ a b Solomon, Mike; Bernstein, Michael; Requenez, Edward (2004). Fleet Street (booklet). Stanford Fleet Street singers. Milpitas, CA. p. 2.