this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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Bands that title their album random symbols (or a series of them) are assholes.
I'm looking at KMFDM (can't even encode "symbols" accurately) and Justice (their first album, often called latin cross). Both great albums that suffer from fucking horrible visibility because of their shit names.
What?? KMFDM back in the 90s were groundbreaking with their name and album art alone. Very stylized, nihilistic vibes aesthetically when I would see their albums in the record store - even before I ever listened to them. Hell, I even shoplifted a cassette tape from Camelot Records when I was a teenager just cuz I was so intrigued as to what this band was about.
You’ve awakened my “old man yells at cloud” vibes with this one.
Hey, both the bands I mentioned are awesome - I just object to the symbolic naming of albums. If you read "KMFDM's Symbols album" and knew exactly what I'm talking about then you're part of an in-group and everyone not in that in group standing with us in a record store in the 90s wouldn't have a clue which album we were talking about... if we were talking about the album over lunch and they went to a record shop to pick up a copy they wouldn't be able to find it without awkwardly asking a clerk.
Obscure symbol album names create elitism that we don't need - you could easily find Nirvana's Nevermind but by naming their album... that untranscribable string of symbols they made it less accessible to new listeners.
I don't think I'd call them assholes... more just shortsighted about the realities of selling an album, specifically in how you refer to the album both in speech and in writing.
Everyone calls it "KMFDM - symbols" for a reason. I agree only in that it drives me insane when I would rip CDs and have to deal with trying to figure out what to name them. Also, fuck Leæther Strip for their stupid "æ" in the name.