P.O.D. - Lights Out

[pen]

Apparently they have a video for this track on Yahoo Music now, so I guess it must be the second single but damned if I know when or if it's going for adds.

I'm pretty disappointed with the way that this album is being promoted. Honestly, I think Goodbye For Now was a poor choice for the first single. It was a good song, but it should have been a second or third single, not the lead release. They should've taken cues from their promotion of Satellite: started by releasing a middle ground track like Roots In Stereo, then the slower Goodbye For Now, and then this and/or If You Could See Me Now for a harder closing single.

As it is, I guess the presence of Matisyahu on Roots In Stereo could still be used as a last-minute rescue attempt if the track is promoted correctly, but I'd hate to see the band have to resort to that kind of tactic, and I really doubt it would be that effective anyway.

[American Idiot]

Lights Out is what I was hoping would be the second single. It stood out to me more than all the other tracks on the new album. I think it sounds a lot like Boom or P.O.D.'s old stuff for that matter. Hopefully this does better then Goodbye For Now, since that didn't go anywhere compared to their previous success on past albums. Like penance said, I think it was just a poor choice for a first single.

[pen]

penance said:

Honestly, I think Goodbye For Now was a poor choice for the first single. It was a good song, but it should have been a second or third single, not the lead release.

I was kind of rushed when I posted this so now that I have the time I'd like to elaborate.

Goodbye For Now was a fairly mellow track, which is fine because it demonstrates the softer side of P.O.D., and I actually think it was a single worthy song, but not as the lead single. A lead single to me should not only be representative of the album, but of the band in general and should serve to remind people of why they like the band to begin with.

P.O.D.'s best-selling albums are Fundamental Elements Of Southtown and Satellite, unsurprisingly when they were heavier and more in line with their genre. Singles like Alive, Rock The Party, Southtown, and Boom are what P.O.D.'s foundations were laid on. For whatever reason, their marketing for Testify seems to go against that, probably because their label assumes what a lot of labels have apparently been assuming lately: slower songs sell. But that's obviously not the case.

Now, Payable On Death was in my opinion a pretty sloppy release. It neglected a lot of key elements of P.O.D.'s sound in favor of a more streamlined rock experience and really a lot of the songs were pretty unmemorable. The fact that the singles did poorly and the album only went gold IIRC could probably help to explain why Testify is doing so sluggishly now: lowered interest from a prior release that failed to meet expectations. Happens all the time.

I think that Atlantic really could have reversed this around though. First of all, Matisyahu appears on two tracks of the album: Roots In Stereo is the one to focus on here. Now I know that Atlantic could not have predicted Matisyahu's success, but they could have just as easily thought to use Roots In Stereo to help boost Matisyahu's profile through his appearance on Testify. Of course now in hindsight it seems that almost the reverse effect could have been achieved as well.

But more importantly, at the heart of it I think that a strong heavy track was what P.O.D. really needed. Mudvayne, Disturbed, and Korn have proven that heavy songs still have a powerful presence in the market, and Roots In Stereo would have been a nice way to open the album push, similar to how Alive worked for Satellite. It would have given Matisyahu more exposure, and to make an incredibly large assumption, I have every reason to believe that it would have gone a long way to recapture the attention of people turned off by Payable On Death, by proving that P.O.D. has still "got it".

As it is, they chose a single that misrepresents P.O.D. as "mellowing out" and paints the album in a very different light than Roots In Stereo would have. It just wasn't the kind of single to start out with. It's the kind of single that you turn to after you already establish an album, so that you show off different sides of a band. Labels have made this mistake before with similarly dismal results.

Now, I have no problem with Lights Out being the next single, but only if Atlantic really pushes it hard. Judging from the fact that the video is already airing and there's no radio add date, I can only assume that Atlantic has abandoned hope. That's a damn shame, but even as it is, I don't think Lights Out is enough to save Testify. Lights Out is a good song, but it strikes me as too restrained (especially during the chorus) to really have the same impact as a song like Boom.

If I were Atlantic, and I wish I were cause they've made a lot of really dumb decisions, then I would've used Roots In Stereo as the first single, then If You Could See Me Now, and then probably choose to release Lights Out on Active and Goodbye For Now on Alternative. But that's me. And I don't expect anyone to agree with this either.

The funny thing about all this is that Roots In Stereo originally was the first single. It's so stupid that they changed it. They really fucked it up.

[tortuga]

That's one really long essay! :o

Anyway, "Goodbye For Now" was hit for me. MTV2 played the hell out of the video and it even went to #1 on their rock countdown. I think it also did good on TRL.

[pen]

April 10th. That answers that.

Also, if the video did really well then I guess that's something. I don't really follow videos because I find I don't give a shit about most of them and to me videos are a waste of money half the time anyway, so it's a surprise to me if a video is pulling in more attention than radio.

[tortuga]

penance said:

Also, if the video did really well then I guess that's something. I don't really follow videos because I find I don't give a s**t about most of them and to me videos are a waste of money half the time anyway, so it's a surprise to me if a video is pulling in more attention than radio.

I don't like that way of thinking. Maybe its because most of the bands I have discovered were through video channels like Fuse and MTV2. Most of the stuff you don't hear on the radio ends up on cable tv.

[pen]

tortuga said:

penance said:

Also, if the video did really well then I guess that's something. I don't really follow videos because I find I don't give a s**t about most of them and to me videos are a waste of money half the time anyway, so it's a surprise to me if a video is pulling in more attention than radio.

I don't like that way of thinking. Maybe its because most of the bands I have discovered were through video channels like Fuse and MTV2. Most of the stuff you don't hear on the radio ends up on cable tv.

I guess it just stems from the majority of bands I listen to, which I feel usually don't get the video airplay that they really should, but most of their videos turn out to just be live footage or live recreations anyway. I don't really see the point in the band spending money to put together a video that's nothing more than a better looking version of them jumping around and playing in front of a camera.

There are bands that I think make really excellent videos (i.e. Radiohead, Tool, Linkin Park, the Gorillaz, My Chemical Romance) that obviously put a lot of thought and time and energy into their creation, but I guess I've always just considered them the exceptions instead of the rule.

I'm not saying that videos are completely useless, but it just feels like they're not really serving their purpose half the time. But that's just my experience.

[Love Plastic Love]

Goodbye for Now sucked to me. **shrugs**
I havent heard Lights Out, but I hope its the quality I used to expect from POD.

[Nicholas2.0]

Judging by "Goodbye for Now"-'s lukewarm radio performance, I really doubt "Lights Out" is going to save the album. "Lights Out" is exactly like "Boom" and "Set It Off" in that it's an audience hyping song. It may go over great and serve its purpose in a live setting, but songs like this don't make for good radio hits, usually, at least not from bands with a little more perceived depth to their fare, like P.O.D. has demonstrated in the past. Add that to the fact that the popularity of their sound peaked roughly 5 years ago; it won't be easy.

And to save their album with a Matisyahu duet would be a little embarrassing, personally, since he's such a newcomer, still in the process of proving himself. But you gotta do what you gotta do, I suppose.

[pen]

Which is why I wish they would've used the Matisyahu appearance when it would have been helpful promotion of a new artist instead of possibly as an attempt at a rescue. It is incredibly embarassing. I'm sure Seether knows the feeling (although they were doing well enough without the help at the time).

[letthemeatwar]

I forgot that they were releasing a new album. I'll go check everything out and give it a listen.

thanks

[Sox5452]

Well Lights Out has been playing a LOT during March Madness (College basketball). It has been on CBS promos and Pontiac commercials, so that should help.

[aaron3131]

From what I understand, Atlantic wanted "Roots in Stereo" to be the first single, but Matisyahu's label said no because they didn't want that song getting in the way of promotion for "Youth."

As sales cool off for Youth in the next few months we might see "Roots in Stereo" released, but I wouldn't count on it.

[JCMF3]

nicholas said:

Judging by "Goodbye for Now"-'s lukewarm radio performance

#1 Christian Rock SMASH!

[aaron3131]

"Lights Out" was the second-most added at Active Rock Radio this week.
www.radioandrecords.com/Formats/Charts/AR_Chart.asp

[aaron3131]

The song jumped to No. 44 on the Active Rock charts this week.

[tortuga]

This sounds way too much like "Boom".

[reception]

wm.allaccess.com/allaccess/podlight.wma