I’m writing this blog in response to a recent blog ‘Eclecticism and what makes a good album’ by the electronica artist Dementio13 on his website. The blog started me thinking about the reason why the album still exists in an age of digital music; the point is made several times in the blog and subsequent comments that the album isn’t as important as it used to be. When its so easy to pick and choose, download only your favourite tracks, and play them in whichever context you want, what is the point of an artist putting out an ‘album’ rather than just ‘a collection of tracks’?
I’m going to make the declaration straight away that I don’t think I’m ever going to stop listening to albums as albums. I very rarely put my ipod on shuffle, when I decide to listen to an artist, I generally listen to one of their albums or EPs, front to back. This definitely makes me a more demanding listener – an artist can have great tracks, but if they fail to put an album together without a few tracks that need to be skipped, either due to the quality or due to them being completely out of place in the collection, I’m likely to listen to the artist much less than I would otherwise. I’m aware that I may be unusual in listening like this, but I don’t think I’m unique, and the important point I want to make here is that I feel I get more out of the music by listening to it this way. This might be one reason why my favourite artists are all good at this. I get frustrated with them when an album is just that bit too long, or contains a few weak tracks that should really have been left out.
People can of course listen to music however they want, as a random shuffled collection of tracks or whatever. But as a fan of the album, I think they are losing something fairly significant by doing that if the artist has released the tracks as a coherent whole. The best albums really are a lot more than the sum of their parts and form a story, whether it’s done with similarity, contrast or progression it adds something subtle to the meaning of the individual tracks and builds something bigger. I agree with the point on Dementio13’s blog that this can be done with contrast, even jarring contrast, as well as with similarity. In fact the album, by its very format, forces you to listen to more challenging tracks that you otherwise might not have given a chance, and it’s these that often stay with you, and also make the sense in context that they might not have made in isolation. But it’s important to point out that the best albums don’t make this completely opaque either. Whatever the intention of the artist was, if to the listener the album does indeed sound like just a collection of tracks and doesn’t communicate something more, in my opinion it has failed. One of the things that keeps motivating me to make music is the idea of the album that really does hold together and communicate something more profound than the individual tracks on their own. It’s obviously less important for pop music which has always been all about the single, but I can (subjectively) list great artists in a range of genres, from Boards of Canada to U2, and they are almost invariably associated with a strong and successful album (normally more than one), not a collection of (even great) tracks. In the past, making an album as a clear statement of intent has repeatedly made musical reputations. I also believe that, even today, it’s the artists who are able to do this that really make a name for themselves in the genres that I prefer to listen to. But even if I’m not right about this, I’m not planning to put the album aside as, whatever the state of technology, I don’t want to lose that more subtle and sometimes more profound listening experience.
As an artist, the challenge of this really appeals to me. It’s relatively easy to put together a collection of tracks, even good tracks. Putting together something that flows, or not, in a logical way that really makes sense to the listener, has a signature sound or a clear evolution of sound, a strong unifying idea or concept, and transcends its individual components is much, much harder. And getting it right must be that much more satisfying.
I agree with everything you’ve said here, Alastair. I often have to tell people “I can’t listen to this link yet as I am listening to an album.”
In fact so much do I agree that I am going to re-evaluate the latest album I’m working on. I realise it needs about another half year of work, when I was getting so frustrated with it I was about to say “Fuck it”, and release what I had. It would not have made a statement, it would not have been progressive, it just would have been boring.
I’m guilty of this on a few albums but I think the more popular ones like Magick, The Ghost Of Muses Past, and Psychosis stand tall and proud as “Peach Tree Statements”.
As a point of contention however, I don’t think the album has to define the artist, however, the album should define a sound, freeing it from the constraints of a single unit brain (artist) or a few single units lumped together. Ie. sound derives from the collective subconscious, so when we listen to an album is it really that important to define The Artist, or should we be content with waves of sound washing over us and coalescing into something bigger than what created it (in short, Album > Artist?)
Thanks for the response! I also sometimes can’t do anything else until I’ve finished the album I’m listening to. I agree with your comment about album > artist. In the same way as music > artist… Regarding making your own music, yes I have the same problem with patience sometimes, making an album requires both patience and ruthlessness, sometimes you have to drop tracks you really like… but it’s all part of the process. Glad the blog communicated something!
Guess I’m not weird! I do like to listen to an album, in context, to feel the story. Can’t imagine listen to Rick Wakeman, 6 Wives, out of order.
But there are those tracks that seem to connect more than others, and will get a few more plays than the rest.
Wonder how this will all play out with CLOUD MUSIC being the next wave. Google Music is making noise, Spotify is hitting North America. INTERESTING TIMES.
I miss the simpler times of the 70’s! 😉
I agree totally. My point was that the *perceived* importance of the album as a format is less than it used to be. But I wanted to try (perhaps unsuccessfully) to make a point that I, as a musician, try to make coherent albums despite the fact that the tracks might be wildly different at times and might be of different genres. And, like you, I always strive to have a ‘narrative’; even if this is just in the way that it is recorded, or structured. I have, of course, also had explicit themes in my music, whether those be: space exploration, our past perceptions of what the future might hold technologically, the cosy mundanity of suburbia, or just the activity of being an independent recording artist itself. But there’s always some narrative. Good post Al!