 A few thoughts that crossed my mind during the "Annual Collegiate A Cappella Overload Festival" aka BOCA selection:
This year's median quality level has taken a significant step upward, with perhaps 85% of the albums having been carefully tracked and produced. Gone are the days of "stereo pair in the chapel, two times through each song, pick your favorites" recordings, which I always likened to yearbook photos. People now are using digital technology wisely, often on their own, and then making sure it's well mixed (often with a professional engineer). The result is that most collegiate a cappella albums this year are solid.
However, this means the selection process was far more difficult. Most albums might have a hidden gem on track 11 (please frontload your best tunes, people!), so we extra-carefully tiptoed through a bumper crop of complete albums (close to 100). A-list tunes abounded.
Also, more than any year in the past, there were several albums from which multiple tracks could have been chosen. Don and I have many favorites, but we're not choosing these tracks for ourselves or for the a cappella community; we're choosing them for the uninitiated listener, in hopes of drawing them into our fold.
What pushed a group over the top and onto the BOCA 2008 playlist? Emotion. Technical excellence is almost a given, and a great voice is a great voice is a great solo voice. That hasn't changed since BOCA started. What seems to have turned a corner this year is that groups have recording technique under control and realize it isn't enough, so the carefully assembled, delicately nuanced Coldplay tracks of the last couple of years have given way to epic tunes and emotional powerhouses on which the lead vocal soars, swings, raps, chants and screams over a professional-sounding background.
BTW, great production can not hide a mediocre solo, no matter how much money you spend. Impossible for an engineer to create emotion or vocal prowess.
You can hear when groups are having fun.
Some album titles brought a giggle: "Acappacolypse" and "Sing Responsibly" (a large bottle of vodka on the cover).
Picking tracks is always difficult, as it's clear so many students put so much love and care into these songs. However, BOCA isn't for current collegiate a cappella singers (although a piece of it has always been a "pat on the back") but rather for the general public, and the general public likes "best of" lists. If I thought "Songs Deke Likes" would sell as well, I'd have called it that and saved people the feeling that they're not one of the best.
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