When I think about great albums, I think about their arrangements. One of the things that Thriller, The Chronic, No Way Out, Ready To Die, The Blueprint, Confessions and other albums have in common was their sequencing which contributed to them becoming classics.
I’ve been arranging songs and independent projects since 2006 and it’s probably one of the most exciting parts of executive producing. It’s almost like directing a movie because I can bring the mood up or down based the instrumentation of the song. Just as projects shine with a great arrangement, they can also suffer. I personally think that there’s no right or wrong way to sequence an album but it’s definitely an art to doing it well.
I recently heard Nicki’s ‘Pinkprint’ album. I was blown away by how good it was. Its better than her previous albums in my opinion because it doesn’t have any weak points, solid all the way through. But what would it sound like if I arranged it? So I partnered up with my engineer of 10 years, StayLookingOut to start a series called ‘The New Order’.
The idea was, we would rearrange studio albums as if we were assigned the task of sequencing it. This is fun for us and we’re not gaining anything financially from this series. Our hope is that someone hears our arrangement and sees these albums from a new perspective or discovers an album they may have slept on.
We hope you enjoy our take on these albums.
-Vince Valholla
To start The New Order series, Vince & StayLookingOut Rearrange Nicki Minaj’s latest studio album, ‘The Pinkprint’. It’s available for streaming on AudioMack and YouTube. If you bought ‘The Pinkprint’, send proof of purchase to [email protected] for a copy of this arrangement. Buy The Pinkprint on iTunes
