Self-titled album with subtitle

MusicBrainz
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I’m a bit unhappy with the title of the German version of this album:¹

I don’t think “Ein deutsches Album” should be the title of this album. In my opinion it is self-titled like the English version and the rest should be a subtitle: Peter Gabriel: Ein deutsches Album

In fact, it’s more of an ETI than a title at all, possibly Peter Gabriel (Ein deutsches Album)
This is probably more what the artist intended to do. A disambiguation compared to the English album:

¹) If necessary, I add a special “self-titled Peter Gabriel titling rule” into the title script for Picard, but thought I’d ask for opinions on this first :slight_smile:

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I’d totally agree with you. Gabriel is well known for naming albums after himself so no reason that should change in German. I’d lean on the subtitle option with the colon.

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Fine, I actually already have a renaming rule built in, but I’d really appreciate that for the database too.

I have initiated a corresponding renaming, for consistency for all “deutsche Alben”: Search for Edits - MusicBrainz

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I voted “no”, I’m afraid.

Gabriel’s official site seems pretty clear that’s the title:

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Well, the English version is self titled but the German version is titled “Ein deutsches Album” wherever you look. e.g.
https://petergabriel.com/releases/

So I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to change the title because your “unhappy” with it :wink:

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“Peter’s German language version of his third self-titled album”
Yes, and it’s certainly always referred to as “deutsches Album” - necessarily, because you have to disambiguate if you are talking about. But I would still prefer a subtitle.

(as I said, for tagging I can do without, but I think it’s better)

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Please yes voters, please vote.
I added a no vote.
It seems good like it is today, IMO.
And it should move to a separate release group as recordings are all different, shouldn’t it?

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That’s a good point. Although most of the tracks seem to be remixes of the English versions, they are certainly different recordings.

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As I understand, the music is the same, the vocals are different.

He also did it with his 4th self-titled album:

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(I know, but I haven’t touched this yet)

Regarding release group, this was even more a separate RG, as there were certainly different recordings.

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After seeing that petergabriel.com page I would now lean towards not having his name in the title. As that is the artist’s own discography then it should be followed. Anyone got a biography of his? I guess they are titled in the same way in there.

If a separate Release Group is made it does cause MB an interesting issue. It means counting how many albums he has released can’t be done via MB. His “fourth” album will now show as “ein deutsches album” and sixth will be “deutsches album”. I believe it should stay in the same RG as in the artist’s head this is still his third and fourth albums. This still came out of the same studio session as the English Language version.

I’d treat it like a German Deluxe (but then this is just my opinion and I can see arguments either way)

Interestingly I notice that Wikidata has as separate page for it ( Ein deutsches Album - Wikidata )

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Peter didn’t think about the problems he will cause with databases… :laughing:

Because of the reasons you mentioned, I would also prefer to refrain from separate RGs.

… although that’s not true. The German versions were recorded in other studios (Crescent Studios and Trident Studios), with different engineers (Colin Green and David Lord).

Even more interesting, this page is not available in German. :upside_down_face:

Due to the fairly uniform opinions on the title, I will probably cancel the edits and keep my P.G. special script.

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I think guys like that just like to say “this is my album” and let the music speak for itself.

But artists love this kinda confusion… looks at the Beatles “White” album, Metallica “Black”, Led Zeppelin’s fourth… It could be a fun series to put together.

Okay…don’t you come at me with facts. :laughing: It came out of the same space in his head. Same thought process as the English album. When singing in German he still thinks it his third album.

Yeah - I spotted that and it made me laugh.

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Except that he had to worry about whether the pronunciation was good enough now. But yes, it was certainly still his 3rd (and afterwards 4th) album.

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I am impressed he did it. So many artists don’t bother to translate. Made all more more obvious by this thread needing to ask the question as to where to file it.

I’ve seen a few singles translated, but rarely a whole album.

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“[English and American musicians] didn’t care at all about the language of their audience. I found that arrogant.” … from the German liner notes of the 3rd (self-titled) album (translated to English).

It was really a difficult task - I was impressed too.

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