Music is Better Than Words

Music Is Better Than Words is the debut album by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. The album was produced and conducted by film and television composer Joel McNeely, who is also one of the composers of American Dad!. On November 30, 2011, the album received nominations at the 54th Grammy Awards for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

The album includes songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Lowe, among others from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The track listing was chosen by MacFarlane.

When Universal Republic Records asked MacFarlane what kind of album he wanted to do, he said “a classic Sinatra-style album”. The album was in fact recorded at Capitol Records in the same room that Sinatra had worked. Moreover, MacFarlane recorded the vocals for Music Is Better Than Words with the microphone that Sinatra used on many of his classic albums.

In an interview with Joseph Llanes from AOL he said, “That mic is over 60 years old and you can see it. But it has a really nice, dark sound to it. It really plays a significant part on how this stuff sounds. You don’t want it to sound too crisp. We did a lot in the recording of this album to make sure it was not too perfect. We recorded to analog tape as opposed to recording digitally because we wanted a little bit of a hiss.”

“I really let the music guide me when painting album covers. It’s all about the feel and mood of the music!”

– Matthew Peak

Love Won’t Let You Get Away – Seth MacFarlane & Sara Bareilles duet. Have a listen!