Death of the Album: Will Downloading of Single Songs Get in the Way Of Rob Thomas' Message?

A few months ago, USA Today ran an article about the demise of the album. The culprit, as it is with anything bad in music, is the downloading of music. How devastating is the effect of downloading music? If we weren't downloading so much music, Creed and Linkin Park would actually sound good. Pretty scary.

Anyway, the particular evil that was going to kill the album was the fact that people tend to download individual songs, rather than full length albums. This disturbed the artists whom were interviewed for the article. The performer whose reaction struck me the hardest was Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20. He was really worried that this would hurt the ability of his band to craft those 12-track masterpieces that will have historians of the 22nd Century invoking the band's name in the same hushed tones as The Beatles. As I read about Mr. Thomas's concern, I thought to myself, "As if Matchbox 20 had some great aesthetic statement to make over the course of 45 minutes, as opposed to keeping the A & R guy happy."

I listen to lots of albums every year. I like a lot of the albums I listen to every year. I write about a lot of those albums on these very virtual pages. Yet, putting aside concept albums, which are intended, for better or worse, to play as a whole work, the majority of albums are not sufficiently cohesive and more often play like, "Hey! We finally wrote 12 songs and recorded them and put them on one disc!"

This isn't to say that a lot of those type of albums aren't enjoyable. If most of the 12 songs sound really good, then the album is worthwhile. But the long playing disc that has that special flow, the feel that the songs belong together as a unit, is a much rarer thing. I think such unity is probably even rarer in the compact disc age, where albums now commonly run well over 45 minutes, which, back in the vinyl days, was a long album.

What makes for a cohesive full-length listening experience? It's probably just as often, if not more often, serendipity rather than intent. Still, with some artists, there is a clear intent that defines each long playing work. The Clash are a good example. Starting with Give 'Em Enough Rope until their real finale, Combat Rock, each album had a specific feel. Beyond the distinct feel of each album, there was also, on the last three albums of this sequence (London Calling, Sandinista! and Combat Rock), not just a diversity in styles (and how!), but the albums had a flow that added to the enjoyment of playing them. This isn't to say the best cuts on those records can't be separated -- I don't think that the enjoyment of individual tracks separate from their album context is indicative of how effective the album is as a whole.

One thing that characterizes those albums is that every time The Clash stepped into the studio to record an album, they came in with a certain purpose. Each album had a specific perspective and theme, adding to the unified feel of each album. Of course, great songs help. From that standpoint, Combat Rock certainly suffers. It has the distinct feel, but too many duff tracks. Now, I suppose the same could be said about the three album set Sandinista!, though I think it has more strong tracks, and the lesser tracks are generally more interesting, or on the final two sides of the album.

Of course, we really should go back in time to look at the first artists to make albums more than just a bunch of tracks slapped together. Many of Frank Sinatra's albums with conductor Nelson Riddle had a great flow, aided by the thematic concepts (a lot of songs about loneliness). Until The Beatles, rock albums that played like albums were few and far between. One artist who seemed to do a decent job of this was Bo Diddley, after the pop hits stopped flowing. He made albums that had diversity and were made to take you some place – into his demented mind.

The Beatles then ushered in the album as the essential artistic statement. From the ‘60s into the ‘80s, there were slews of albums that had that full feel. Since then, I think that the frequency of ‘true' albums has been in decline. A big reason, in my opinion, is the greater length of CDs. I think that many artists are more focused on filling 50 minutes, or more, instead of making something cohesive.

Moreover, the CD format itself may be part of the problem. This may seem strange -- a CD plays straight through, as opposed to having to flip over a vinyl album to hear the other side. So you might think that playing continuity leads to greater album continuity. However, I think the vinyl approach may have helped with the flow of tracks, by imposing a more rigid structure. The artist gets about 20 minutes on each side, and tries to create a flow from the first track to the fifth or sixth track, before the runoff groove, repeating that process on the second side. That structure goes right out the window on the CD.

Back in the vinyl days, the 20 minute structure usually led to a sequence where the first and last cuts of a side were strong, ‘hit single' or ‘definitive concert moment' type songs. Then the cuts in between would bridge those -- mixing in a ballad or a mid-tempo number, or a change up (like a reggae-styled tune). Though rigid, the format was not so defined that it prevented variety.

On the CD, there are no obvious places for peaks and valleys. So, instead, you get more plateaus. Four or five songs that sound roughly the same, back-to-back. Granted, some of this reveals a larger artistic problem, but I think that a lot of this is due to the format. Maybe this begs the question as to whether any albums sounded better on eight-track tapes. I'll save that for another column, that I hope I never submit.

What this really gets down to, is that sequencing is an important part of making an album play like a unit. On occasion, I get advances or rough mixes of releases. In many cases, the track sequence has not been figured out. And the final product, in a different sequence, can be a major improvement, or hurt how the album plays.

Nowadays, there aren't so many recent artists who make each album experience sufficiently distinct. While you'd think that in an era where many artists take two or three years between albums that there would be more separation as to how the albums sound, in fact, the inverse seems true. Maybe those layoffs make it harder to take chances. One of the reasons that Radiohead, Flaming Lips and Wilco have garnered so much acclaim, is that they do approach albums more like artists did in the ‘70s and ‘80s. They hone in on a sensibility, themes, and approaches to make each record different than the one before, and to make it a whole work. I'm certainly not saying that there aren't other bands currently doing this, but it seems to be a smaller number as time goes on.

Amongst recent albums, the disc that flows the best for me is Sparks' Lil' Beethoven. I think the sequencing of the album is terrific, as each song moves you to a different place. Yet all the songs share the musical sensibility that defines the album. By comparison, although I think the Franz Ferdinand debut album also plays through real well, it doesn't have as much variation. But it is totally committed to its sensibility and happens to be chock full of great tracks. This gives it a fair amount of ‘album' feel.

What does all this mean? Other than that I've managed to eke out another column, it shows that although there are certainly no bright line standards for when an album is really an album, certain characteristics elevate some long players to works that should be played as a whole. It's a product of intent in the studio, a specific sensibility, sequencing, an ebb and flow to the work and sometimes just luck (luck created by a number of outstanding songs).

Ultimately, it is about the songs. This opens a can of worms that I won't open right now. But the song is the thing. When an artist complains that fans only care about a song or a few songs, and not the whole work, the artist should think about two things: 1) maybe create more good songs, or, 2) pay more attention to the album as a piece of work, instead of a clearinghouse to market a 12-pack of songs that happened to be created at about the same time. I do think that in this CD era, that most artists could put a lot more thought into what the work as a whole represents.

__________________________________________

To reach any other page contained in this month's update on Fufkin.com, read the home page for the appropriate link and click on it. You can also search the site from any page using the search box located at the top of each page. Merely type in the word, phrase, name of the band, recording, name of the Fufkin writer that you are looking for or Whatever in the search box, and then click on "Search". If you would like to e-mail us, go to the About Us page for a list of e-mail addresses.

Go back to the home page by clicking here

____________________________________________________