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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Jim Kosmicki" <jkosmicki@cccneb.edu> |
| Subject | albums, albums, where are you? |
| Date | Mon, 8 Dec 2003 10:15:33 -0600 |
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Don't know how many of you saw this in the weekend USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2003-12-04-album-main_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2003-12-04-albums-under-siege_x.
htm
I had to buy a copy when I saw this pull quote from Rob Thomas of
Matchbox Twenty:
"On an album, the artist creates a full work of art with songs that fit
together and create a mood. If we become a single-minded nation, where
careers depend on hits, you won't hear challenging music that takes
risks." I don't actively hate Thomas' band the way some people do --
that would take too much effort. But hello!! your group is an almost
perfect example of a singles based band. Who's EVER heard or had pushed
on them any Matchbox Twenty song that wasn't also a single?
And no challenging music? Because we all know how challenging today's
popular music is, right? Brian Wilson, king of the pop single didn't
create challenging music?
Even the Beatles, who get so much credit in these "great albums" lists,
really only put out one album that was not really a collection of
singles (Sgt. Pepper), and that was really only in terms of some of what
was done to make suites and pull songs together, not as a single work.
Nobody remembers Jethro Tull's "A Passion Play" or "Thick as a Brick"
except true Tull fans because there was no single that can be played to
remind people of this particular work.
USA Today then listed 40 "true" albums:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2003-12-04-album-list_x.htm but
again, I have to quibble. Almost all of these are considered great
because of the individual songs on them, not as a work in its entirety
(Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder's examples on this list may be the
exceptions that prove the rule).
now, power pop is, and always has been, singles oriented. But have
there been any great ALBUMS? Works that just really have to be heard in
their entirety, as tracked by the artists, to really be "gotten?" Heck,
I'm willing to expand this out to Rock in general. I'm thinking "Surf's
Up" gains something in its entirety that the individual tracks don't
have when isolated, but that's about it.
Please note that there are albums that I love without exception
(Rockpile or London's Calling, for example), but when I think of them,
it's still individual songs that come to my mind, not the album as a
unified whole. Is there any albums out there that are just ruined by
people being able to pick their favorite tracks instead of having to
have the whole?
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