MrFriendly

I've been an internet junkie since the age of thirteen, and almost since I've gotten the internet, I've enjoyed the pleasure of downloading MP3's.

But here in Aus, we've had a brilliant TV show on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) called Rage. Rage is a show, hosted by other musicians, where they pick the video clips to songs they like, until about 4am when they just start showing what is top of the charts.

Either way, this is the show the introduced me to a lot of bands that would have been left undiscovered to me. People such as Gary Newman, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Aphex twin. But it was these teenage years downloading their albums on mIRC that I discovered an art form in music that seemed to be going by the way side. The musical art form of the the album.

The internet opened up a whole world of music to me that I never imagined exploring before, which incidentally, led to me buying a shit load of albums and cd's.

But albums to me were more than just a cd or a collection of songs. The album came to represent a moment in my history and growth, a chronicle of time and space that I was experiencing. A reference point, if you will. But the album was a way to become more intimate with a group or artist.

Buy the time I was 17, I couldn't stand listening to singles or top of the charts, if I was going to experience music, it was through a full album or nothing.

To this day, not much has changed. I listen to pretty much only albums or EP's. And to this day, certain albums are a soundtrack to my very existence. If you play me Rockin The Suburbs, Dark Side of the Moon, or a whole host of other important albums to me, I can recall sights, smells, emotions and sounds from the time I really got into those albums.

Music is more than pleasure for me, it's always has been a serious passion. For every point in my life in the last 12 years, there has been an album to go along with it.

In a world increasingly obsessed with what latest singles Itunes has to offer, the album will still be the bench mark for any band or musical artist. You either to have the ability to grab my attention for 40+ minutes, or you don't.

Any ways folks, I've consumed quite a number of classes of wine. So before I start ranting nonsensically, what are you thoughts on the album?

__________________
You are not a slave

Derwood

sadly, the ease of "shuffle" and buying individual tracks has greatly lessened the impact of albums. artists put a lot of time and energy into selecting not only what tracks go on their records, but in what order. the era of the mp3 has greatly compromised their vision

MexicanOnABike

I agree with you on most points. Full albums are such a great thing to listen to!

unfortunately, The artists I hear the most in the top 40 with their awesome singles often have horrible albums to follow.

All the albums I own are because by themselves, they can be fucking awesome just like all the songs individually are as great. most are from the pink floyd or led zeppelin style where the whole album as 1 feel to it and one story going through it.

but I can't say I've heard a great one in a few years now. What are the best complete cds you've heard?

__________________

- Movie Reviews - Ratings-

Derwood

Certainly the Pink Floyd records, especially Meddle --> The Final Cut qualify.

Recently, I'd say The Mars Volta's "Frances the Mute" is an album that has to be listened to as a piece.

aberkok

Great topic, and also very topical.

I grew up in the age of the CD, so my formative music listening days were spent listening to albums. Up until very recently, I was getting swept up in the digital revolution, buying and downloading a lot of mp3s and mp3 albums. But I started to notice something was missing in my experience. When I listen to music at the computer, it's always as an accompaniment to something else, and I'm not really listening the way I once used to.

So I'm going to start buying discs again... I miss the ritual of putting the album in and sitting down and doing nothing else. It's a great ritual, and a more effective way of making a connection with the music.

__________________
!check out my new blog! http://arkanamusic.wordpress.com

Warden Gentiles: "It? Perfectly innocent. But I can see how, if our roles were reversed, I might have you beaten with a pillowcase full of batteries."

Leto

so... what can you buy on vinyl? these days? And is the product actually served in an album concept these days? I suppose the Tragically Hip still think in Album concept, but a lot of music is, as pointed out above, cafeteria style, and doesn't hing together.

vanblah

One of the great things about vinyl was the two-sides. The LP really was a perfect medium ... in the sense that the music could actually take you on a journey ... not so much durability.

Good album writers (Pink Floyd; Led Zep; and others) would put a song that ended on side A leaving you in a state of almost hypnosis. There would be this moment of silence while you got up and turned the record over -- then the first song on side B would (usually) just sort of fill the silence. (Good example: Great Gig in the Sky / Money). For an even better experience they'd release double albums (The Wall was probably perfect in it's track order; wish I could say the same about the production).

Tom Petty paid homage to the silence on one of his CDs, "This is the spot where you would normally turn over the record." Or something like that.

I miss the silence. It was euphoric.

roachboy

one way to defeat shuffle is to make 74 minute tracks.

anyway, i've been drifting away from the 4-minute-attention-span of pop for a long time. this isnt to say that i dont enjoy pop--but i find the 4-minute constraint to be tedious. pop works via declarative sentences. i like paragraphs.
and i think it is enough that other people find popform a vehicle that works for them.
i dont.
straight tonality is a bore.
straight chord progressions are a bore.
a single rhythm that operates in 4 is a bore.


the cds that i have been stuck on---stuff like david tudor's "rainforest" luc ferrari's acousmatrix 3, eliane radigue's "adnos"---have nothing to do with pop forms. the closer-to-pop stuff--like the work of asa chang and junray--ignores most of the constraints that pop imposes.

i agree with vanblah about vinylsound and its organization, which i sometimes miss. that and the disappearance of a lovely huge platform for graphics in the album cover. cds that copy album cover formats just make this vague nostalgia worse--but there are other folk who design for cd form who have done cool work. no jewel cases, of course. check out the packaging for aki onda's releases for examples.

aside: i dont get the collective affection for later pink floyd above, particularly not the wall, which i really didnt like, nor for dark side of the moon, which i think that the terminal point in pink floyd's relation to the interesting...their earlier stuff up to ummagumma is excellent. i was obsessed with meddle for quite a while---now it sounds to me like a blues album and gilmour like a good blues guitarist.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

LoganSnake

I am actually the opposite. It is very rare for me to like an entire album. Those albums that I do own, I end up skipping songs to get to the ones I like and seems like a great waste of money. The last CD I bought was over two years ago. It was a Gorillaz mix CD with 22 songs on it. I love Gorillaz, but of those 22 songs I listen to 8 and simply don't like the rest. I prefer single MP3s. This is also the reason I've never had a favorite performer because I never like every single thing they put out.

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

Frosstbyte

I am also a strong advocate of the album as an art form and I tend to go out of my way to find artists who still respect it and try to work with it, which accounts for my taste in progressive rock and symphonic metal. A lot of the bands I listen to also tend to go for concept albums which, by definition, are best listening to in the context of an album as opposed to simply individual tracks in random order.

I think radio and music videos have done the album a great disservice, simply because neither of those methods for distributing music are conducive to allowing the entire record to be played in order, bu rather only taken in small increments. I was not a music listener in the era of the record, unfortunately, so I can't really speak to that.

Challah

For most relatively popular music, song order is unimportant. Many songs are meant to deliver their dose of catchiness in three or four minutes, and that's all. They can be listened to outside the framework of an album because they're designed that way.

Some music, as was mentioned earlier, does benefit from being part of a greater picture.

Honestly though, after looking at popular music, environmental concerns, the simplicity of buying from your home, etc. it seems that purchasing MP3 files will become the norm.

Redlemon

If I want a story that goes from one end of the album to the other, I'll put on some Broadway. Otherwise, for rock music, I enjoy the serendipity of shuffle.

__________________
I can't read your signature. Sorry.

Manic_Skafe

Two hours into owning it, I filled my 4 gig K5 to capacity and realized that it simply wasn't enough and while I'm only two weeks into owning an 80 gig iPod classic (which has over 5,000 tracks on it) - I glance at my cd collection and am slowly coming to the conclusion that it probably won't be enough either.

And it's those albums not their individual tracks that I favor the most. Even if a single track is the reason why I want to listen to an album - there's just something special about the tension built by each track and the transitions between the songs and that something special is lost when your playlist is on shuffle or you've only downloaded the singles.

To me, it's barely music without the whole album.

__________________
"Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian

Jetée

Okay, I honestly do not know what took me so long to reply to this thread.

I could say I overlooked the thread, but that's not true. I might be able to say I had forgotten about the thread, but even with my spasmodic memory, unless I totally found no merit about the topic, I would eventually have found my way back here. My world is small, I tread circles in due time; what this means is that I know I saw this thread earlier this year, maybe in February or March, yet put it off once again to tackle the particular issue of whatever day I was saving. I think the truth is that I was trying to find my way back here specifically, for I had been lost in my thoughts with this issue, and each and every thread I had run into never quite "felt right" to intrude upon with my individual commentary.

So, finally, I have found where I was initially supposed to give my take.

I have been a child of the radio ever since I was a wee tyke. I had grown up listening hours on end to the radio, whether in the car, while running around the house, or even when about to turn in for the night, I always found an opportunity to listen to one more song. I had a deep affinity to it, and as a result, I have a deep understanding and affection for classic rock, The Beach Boys, sportscasters, 90s music, whatever was on...

I had no concept of albums, singles, LPs, EPs, anything, I was just a kid who enjoyed the soothing sound of what emanated from the radio dial. I may have even liked the muzak on elevators and in shopping malls, who knows? But as I grew older and reached the of 10 or so, I discovered the sister station of Nickelodeon, the conundrum now known as MTv. It wasn't that I liked it as much as the radio that had preceded it, but as I watched more and more of the various music videos and countdowns of the time, I eventually found it had taken the place of my former pasttime. It was entertaining for a good while, and I even got my first computer and taste of the internet during this time, so whichever video single that interested at the time, I sought out. It didn't take too long after that to realize I could rip and download the content, so after a certain period of consuming the MTv lifestyle, I had a collection of 100 or so singles. By this time, iTunes was revolutionary, so I guess I was in the majority to the consensus of my peers.

But I grew weary of what MTv evolved into, and I was entering a new phase of life, so I abnegated the computer, completely forgot about the radio, traveled the world, and when I returned to school, I was nearly a blank state in terms of media awareness. When I begun my second foray into the vast plains of the internet, I moseyed around for more singles on-and-off because I had no real template for an influx of new music. That was until, one day a professor of mine told me to submit a report on any single topic I desired, and off the top of my head, I chose a music album. This was the impetus that eventually resulted in my passion for the true music artist's album, from its structured listing, to its artwork, to the interludes that either flow the current mood or shift the tempo, to even B-sides and hidden tracks. I fell in love completely by serendipitous happenstance, and it was beautiful.

Now, as a semi-well-adjusted-dilettante with music, television, & film, I am voracious in my efforts to find and receive meaningful recommedations that will further expand my experience. I have remembered my love of radio, and even though I am connected with talk radio more, I have made a habit of listening to songs played on the radio with a pad-and-paper in hand in order to jot down potential albums I might consider. It has gotten harder though to listen to Top-40 radio and anything that MTv advertises in this age of "dry innuendo-pop" and "ringtone rap", but I have found my particular niches in the scope of it all.

Although my music album collection is still miniscule, it is a replete compendium of artists' whose albums are near perfect in their stance that they can be replayed time upon time without becoming stagnant. It is a singular thing when you can listen to an entire album and be reminded of the exact moment in time in which you came to cherish it. It's an awesome that cannot remotely be rivaled by a music video single that will fade away in a few months' time. The art of compilating an album is no easy feat, as I am discovering on my own, but the outcome of a truly spectacularly-composed one is one that will live forever in the consciousness of its admirers.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Martian

The album as an artform is not new, but it hasn't been the only way to release music... well, ever.

A good album is a wondrous thing, but it takes a real commitment. Sometimes I'm not looking to give a band 40 minutes or an hour (or more) of my time. Sometimes I want music for background, sometimes I want music for a mood, sometimes I just want to listen to something heavy or light without a huge investment.

Interestingly, vinyl seems to be making a comeback. It seems that there's a strong contingent of music fans who appreciate and miss that most unique of media. The characteristics of vinyl and the 78 are lost in digital media (including CD's). The gottahaveitnow nature of digital music takes away a certain feel to the appreciation of the music -- I'm not sure how to phrase this, except perhaps to say that 78's are lazy and hope that my meaning comes across.

But.

The possibilities of digital media excite me. The problem was that previously an artist was more or less confined to the album as a mode of release regardless of whether or not that was the best method. This is where we end up with albums that contain one or two hits and 10-12 filler tracks -- the filler is just there to take up space, the musical equivalent of styrofoam packing peanuts. Granted, there's occasionally a gem buried in all the excess noise, but that's decidedly rare.

Digital media, when it truly is embraced, will do away with this paradigm. It leads to more freedom to the artist, by not limiting releases. An artist will be able to release a single track, or maybe 6 or 8. Maybe a trilogy of trilogies -- the whole thing allows a lot more flexibility in terms of the how, when and where. It has the potential to destroy the whole one-album-every-three-years release cycle that so much of the mainstream music industry is tied up in, and that so many of the fringe players seem compelled to emulate. In fact, I foresee the short attention span of the online world dictating such a thing -- bands will be forced to innovate, to move out of the old way in favour of shorter release cycles and fewer, higher quality tracks. Less MSG.

The times they are a-changing. Whether this forebodes the end of the album as an artform I can't say. I will say, however, that holding up the seventies or eighties as the golden age of The Album As Art is a bit silly -- there was just as much filler in those days, but it's long enough ago now that most of the weightless stuff is thoroughly forgotten is all.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

fresnelly

Being able to put together a complete album of engaging songs is the main achievement that earns my respect for a musician. It shows not only that they have a deeper well of creativity than a singles artist, but shows their commitment as well. Singles are the demain of Top 40 and Producer led music.

Nothing wrong with that. I used to buy 45s and pop collections in the 80's and still look fondly on those choices (Terence Trent D'arby anyone?) but in the 8th grade, a friend slipped me his Led Zepplin I on cassette. That changed my taste in music for a lot of reasons but the fact that the entire album was balls out solid was the main thing. Each of their albums had a distinct personality to me and their progression tells a story. Their last one, released after John Bonham's death is called Coda after all.

So I thank them for developing my appreciation of a complete and well defined album.

Some mainstream contemporary artists who have put out full quality albums?

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood, Sugar, Sex Magic
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Radiohead - all of them (except maybe Pablo Honey)
Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
Beastie Boys - several
Tool - all of them (all w/some fantastic and twisted cover art - they really used the CD insert to it's maximum)
Lauryn Hill - Her Miseducation album has my vote for one of the best ever.
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Ben Folds - Supersunnyspeedgraphic
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Hayden - Everything I long For, In Field And Town
Blue Rodeo - 5 Days In July
Neil Young - Silver and Gold
Hawksley Workman - Delicious Wolves, Almost A Full Moon
Bill Bless - Squarnch
Jason Collette - Motor Hotel Love Songs
Paul Simon - Graceland (okay, not so contemporarty but still, it sets a high standard on a lot of levels)
Aimee Mann - Lost In Space, Bachelor #2, Magnolia Soundtrack
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells

I've been been listening to a lot of Comedy albums rather than music lately so I'm a bit out of the loop, but I think as long as there are artists who have a lot to say, we'll have the Album.

Even if it doesn't come wrapped in a package.

__________________
Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

cellophanedeity

I tend to do most of my casual listening on shuffle, but when the mood strikes me to listen to music, I need a full album.

When I say "album" here, I mean something with progression and theme and a great depth from first to last track. When I listen to an album, I want to feel like the third track was third intentionally, and that the sixth song is connected to it somehow, even if I don't immediately understand how. Every track mustn't be brilliant and fulfilling and meaningful, but it must be there purposefully and intelligently. Some of my favourite albums have songs that downright suck on their own, but are essential to the album as a whole. I want to finish listening to an album, and have a complex feeling of what was being communicated throughout, like after reading a complicated novel.

Of course, there are good "records" in which the songs are brilliant and fun on their own (like Kings of Leon, MGMT, Green Day's old stuff) but the arrangement of the songs means little to nothing at all. While I buy and listen to these too, it tends to be on shuffle with other things.

My consistent favourites are the albums that exist as a whole, rather than a collection of parts.

A few albums I'd recommend for full on listening:

Tool: Anything after Undertow
Radiohead: Anything after Pablo Honey
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall
Mike Oldfield: Any of them, but especially the Tubular Bells series and Guitars
The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love (though, this is a concept album, so they're cheating!)