Let me start with- yes, I'm excited about these. But "musical variety?" Not really. Every title is rock. And rock on the harder, edgier style. Red Octopus is probably the most "pop."
Personally, I was really hoping for Better Midler or The Spinners in there to make some fun variety, but I'll have to wait for the next batch.
Well, listen, these will all promote each other well and result in a buyer who wants Paranoid to go and snap up at least two others, maybe three. If they gave us Randy Newman, Alice Cooper, Charles Mingus, and Seals and Crofts (how's that for variety) you see how the buyer might want one of these, but pass on all of the others? So for next round, I could see Spinners, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and America which would be the kind of things one buyer would take all again. Or drop America and do Donnie Hathaway in it's place?
Or get this, which I would love: Mingus, Modern Jazz Quartet, Randy Newman, and Joni's "Hissing of the Summer Lawns." A very artistically high caliber set of releases, and way way off the "hit" single route, not everyone's cup of java either, but very respectable musically creative efforts.
Then Jackson Browne's Late for the Sky, a Gordon Lightfoot (2-fer), a Carly Simon (2-fer), and then Seals and Crofts (again 2-fer), so 7 albums out of 4 brand new Quadio releases. See how that would sell!!! Oh, the S&C's estate do not agree to a 2-fer???? OK, drop them like a hot potato and America "Holiday" gets that slot no problem
at all.
But my point is the releases need to cross-promote each other, and they need to all be snapped up in one cool purchased package. And the way to do that is exactly what they have done with this first batch, tie them together with a lovely listening night of playing all of them one after the other. I'm not sure how Bette Midler would go after listening to Sabbath or Alice, Geils??
There is a fairly deep catalog of potential "complementary" releases here. And these first four imo position these albums perfectly as a set of four "must haves".