Titles are strange things because music is abstract. We kid ourselves that something sounds like summer or is somehow a waterfall. Personally I don't like titles that are numbers. Or concepts unless they are funny. Space concept albums generally leave me cold. The best title and certainly the first title in many cases does not even go in quote marks but is untitled, it might even be just 'it' or 'that one'. Do I choose an album by its artwork? No, although I love it when an album looks good. Do I choose one by the reputation of the artist? Yes, sometimes. But I know I can be disappointed even by the greatest of my heroes and so try to wise up in that regard. Do I choose an album because of its titles? No. Listening is about doing that very thing and reacting in the moment whether putting that reaction into words or not. Nothing, whether a visual, biographical or titular clue prepares properly for the experience when it unfolds in real time. Dancing in the dark, is that a good way of putting it? As so often I turn to Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz ('Alone Together') for wisdom and end up listening to Tony Bennett's dazzlingly buoyant version of their great song 'Dancing in the Dark'. When there is a memory of that experience transcendentally gained later especially writing at a time of life or death contagion is another matter entirely. Meaning has somehow just turned up. Ask yourself if you called something 'Hope' would it actually be that very thing even when you can tell the difference between the literal and the figurative and suspend your cynicism for the duration? SG