The Decade in Music

Comicopera - Robert Wyatt

2009-12-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

Released: October 9, 2007
Metacritic Score: 86 (102nd)
Genre: Progressive-Rock, Jazz
Length: 1:00:15 (16 Tracks)
Label: Domino Records
Follows: Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974

One of the most highly regarded albums of 2007, Robert Wyatt's most recent effort is a deeply layered post-rock/jazz amalgamation from the label that brought us Animal Collective, Franz Ferdinand, and the Arctic Monkeys.

Listen To "Stay Tuned"

I was pretty excited

About listening to Robert Wyatt’s 2007 album, Comicopera for three reasons:

I like jazz, but for whatever reason don’t listen to it all that often. This being listed as a jazz-fusion/post-rock album, I figured it would probably strike a few favorable cords.
To a great extent, Metacritic’s list is filled with artists who are relatively new on the scene (or were when their Top-200 album was released). Wyatt on the other hand, has been active for something like… a half-century or so. Sometimes it’s nice to get away from the new faces and hear what a true veteran has to offer.
Any album that can render Thom Yorke (of Radiohead fame) unable to continue listening beyond the first track because it is “too beautiful” has got to have something going for it.

Thoughts on the Album:

Comicopera ranks in at a modest 102nd on Metacritic’s Top-200, and at just over an hour in length, it has quite a bit more complexity and depth than the three albums I’ve already finished write-ups for.

It’s safe to say that an hour is on the long side for a typical album, and to be honest, with longer works I often find myself wishing the artist had done some self-editing. Comicopera is far from typical however, and thanks in part to its three-act “operatic” structure, it successfully avoids the shortcomings that often plague longer pieces.

Act 1: Lost in Noise

While the first two acts don’t sound all that different from one another, they do carry significant thematic disparities. Act one is the more emotionally gripping and personal of the two, with a mood that borders on melancholic. “Stay Tuned” and “A.W.O.L” are easily among my favorite tracks on the album, and as a whole the first act was probably my favorite section.

Act 2: The Here and The Now

The second segment is a bit quirkier and upbeat, but definitely plays more politically minded than the first. I actually like “On the Town Square” as a sort of interlude for Comicopera’s mid-point, and appreciated the unexpected incorporation of steel drums into the album’s repertoire. The second act was initially my least favorite of the three, but having listened through a couple more times, it’s not any worse, just different—less immediately accessible, perhaps.

Act 3: Away With the Fairies

The third act is notable for being sung almost entirely in Italian and Spanish, and the final five tracks prove to be quite a different experience than the first eleven—the fresh point of view in act three means that the album never feels overly long. Being unable to understand the lyrics actually proved to accentuate Wyatt’s voice, which is absolutely stunning through the final five tracks.

The Bottom Line:

Different music calls for different listening tactics. Some albums sound best in the car, accompanied by a cloudless blue sky and the freedom of the open road. Some can be most interesting in the uninterrupted solitude of your own room through a pair of nice headphones. Others simply cannot be experienced fully unless heard live, directly from the lips of the artist.

I don’t know if Robert Wyatt ever performs live anymore—from what I’ve read it seems to be a rare experience these days, but Comicopera is the type of album I would pay a pretty penny to hear in person. It just feels like the kind of music that would be about fifty times more awesome if you were in the room with Wyatt himself.

It’s probably quite likely I’ll never get to experience that, which is unfortunate, but even through headphones or Comicopera is a true pleasure to listen to. It very much deserves its place on Metacritic’s list, and is probably my favorite of the albums I’ve written up so far.

If you decide to give it a listen (which I recommend), keep an open mind. Robert Wyatt isn’t the most accessible artist on Metacritic, but it should be pretty easy for any music fan to find something they like on Comicopera.

*edit: I was doing a little more research and discovered something that makes perfect sense in light of the comments I made about this album probably being best heard live. Apparently, Wyatt wanted the album to sound as live as possible, and therefore the album was recorded “live” with Wyatt and the full band performing simultaneously from the same room.

So in a way, we got to hear Comicopera live after all…

Rapid Fire:

Best Song: A.W.O.L
Runners Up: Stay Tuned or "Hasta Siempre Comandante"
Least Fave: Not digging “Be Serious” so much.
Best Lyrics:

"Memories fading for patty now
There’s nothing and no one to trust
Just the tick and the tock
Of the damnable clock
As the world that she does turns to dust"

Accolades: Best album of 2007, Wired Magazine

Robert Wyatt on Last.FM
Comicopera on Amazon

On Deck: Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine - Cee-Lo

Pause - Four Tet

2009-12-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

Released: October 2, 2001
Metacritic Score: 85 (155th)
Genre: Electronica, Post-Rock
Length: 43:08 (11 Tracks)
Label: Domino Records
Follows: Dialogue

Seeing the genre listed as “electronic,” I wasn’t completely sure what I was getting myself into with this album until I started playing it. Obviously electronica comes in a lot of different forms, some of which I’m not usually a big fan of. I don’t really listen to pure electronica, and I’m definitely not a dance-techno fan.

Listen to "Everything Is Alright"

However, I do very much enjoy the downtempo style offered by bands like Zero 7 and Thievery Corporation, especially as background music when I’m either falling asleep or working on my computer. Thankfully, Four Tet’s style tends to be much closer to downtempo than dance, although comparing Pause to albums by Zero 7 or Thievery Corporation is still something of a stretch.

The most notable disparity between Pause and my favorite Zero 7 material, is that the use of vocals is pretty sparse, with the emphasis obviously placed on production, sound manipulation, and experimentation. Personally, I enjoy one or two fully instrumental tracks on an album with a lot of vocals more than one or two vocal samples on an album with mostly instrumentals.

Perhaps the root of that preference is that as a non-musician I have a harder time recognizing brilliant musicianship than I do excellent lyricism. Whatever the reason, my preference for lyrical-based music is personal taste, and there are plenty of people who would just as soon have it the other way around.

All that aside, Pause was still quite an interesting and enjoyable listen. While I can't guarantee you'll like it, I can say with certainty that you'll hear sounds and instrument combinations you probably haven't encountered before unless you're already into the whole ambient-electronic scene in which case you probably know a heck of a lot more about Four Tet than I do anyway.

Things I loved

Variety. One of my main criticisms with this type of electronic music is that, to me it can start to feel monotonous. Four Tet succeeds at bringing wide variety of sound to the table, and packs an eclectic mix of influences, instruments, and techniques into the album’s eleven tracks. It gives the album a sense of exoticism and unpredictability that added a lot to the experience without ever making it feel disjointed.

The fact that an acoustic guitar is used so prominently in an electronic album is a fantastic example of my last statement.

The recurring type-writer motif definitely provided a nice sense of cohesiveness to the album and helped to rein everything in. Actually, Four Tet's overall use of found audio samples was one of the album's strong suits.

Bottom Line

Definitely not my favorite album of all time, but so far the more I’ve heard it the more I’ve liked it. To me it isn’t captivating enough that I’ll sit and listen with my focused attention, but I have no doubt it'll find its way into my rotation as something to play in the background while I’m working on paintings, designs, etc.

Rapid Fire

Favorite Track: Everything is Alright
Also Loved: You Could Ruin My Day

Least Favorite: Tangle, I'm gonna say.
Best Moment: There’s this segment during the end of the second track that stood out to me…I don’t really know how to describe it—sort of a gradual metamorphosis in sound (almost like a switch from stereo to a lo-fi mono recording) that I thought was pretty interesting.

Pause on Amazon
Four Tet on Last.FM

Up Next: Comicopera - Robert Wyatt (#101)

Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins

2009-12-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

Released: October 21, 2003
Metacritic Score: 88 (40th)
Genre: Indie, Pop
Length: 33:50 (11 Tracks)
Label: Sub-Pop
Precedes: Wincing The Night Away

Like so many others my age, I was first introduced to the Shins by Natalie Portman in Zach Braff's 2004 indie-flick Garden State. If you haven't seen it, Natalie's character hands Braff a set of headphones and says, “You gotta hear this song. It’ll change your life, I swear.” Man was she right.

Listen to "Saint Simon"

Five years later,

I don’t think there’s a single song I’ve listened to more times than “New Slang” from The Shins’ debut, Oh, Inverted World. It’s one of my favorite songs of all time, and at least in my case the famous line from Garden State was true. Before seeing that movie, I was pretty single minded in my listening habits, which at the time included a lot of DMB, Dispatch, and little else.

“New Slang,” and a couple other entries from the Garden State Soundtrack opened my eyes to the indie scene, and showed me that there was life aside from jam bands. Now, I know that some have insisted that the Shins’ initial success was due more to the hype machine surrounding Garden State than the quality of Oh, Inverted World, but I politely disagree.

I acknowledge that there were probably more than a few people that “liked the Shins,” because liking the Shins was cool. However, for every one of those there were probably three or four *real* fans, since…you know… the music is pretty freakin’ awesome.

Thoughts on the album

Metacritic has The Shins’ sophomore effort Chutes Too Narrow ranking in at number 40 on their top 200 with an overall score of 88. For whatever reason, it looks like Metacritic never catalogued Oh, Inverted World, which is unfortunate because I would have been pretty interested to see which album the critics preferred.

(Actually, Pitchfork does have both in their top 200 of the decade, with Chutes at #41 and Oh, Inverted World at #115ish).

Anyway, the album opens on a high note, with the strange, image-evoking “Kissing The Lipless,” and never really misses a step. While I don’t think any single track is as atmospheric or “life-changing” as “New Slang” was, I would say a few come close. The final track “Those To Come” is probably the most comparable in mood and character, and also the most poetic.

Whether due to improved production or a conscious transformation by Shins front-man James Mercer, I like the vocal delivery better on Chutes Too Narrow than Oh, Inverted World. Mercer sounds different somehow, clearer perhaps, or more contemporary.

Either way, plus one for the Shins. I don’t want to go on too long, so I suppose I’ll get down to—

The Bottom Line

While “New Slang” and “Caring is Creepy” are probably still my favorite songs from The Shins’ first two offerings, I can’t say for sure whether that’s musical quality speaking or just pure nostalgia from having heard them first.

I will say that I enjoy listening to Chutes Too Narrow cover to cover a bit more than I do Oh, Inverted World. I tend to favor the crisper production on Chutes, and think some of the tracks on the Shins’ debut would have fared better with the same high-budget treatment. Apart from that, I think the stylistic tweaks the Shins made between albums, and the decision to feature guitars over Oh, Inverted World’s keyboard were well implemented.

Chutes Too Narrow is a great album from a great band, but you probably already know that. If somehow you missed it, totally go give it a listen. Here’s hoping 2010 brings us a fourth entry in the Shins’ catalog.

Rapid Fire:

Favorite Track: For me, I think it’s gotta be “Saint Simon.”
Close Second: Album-closer, “Those To Come.”
Best Lyric: From Those To Come:

“quaking leaves and broken light
shifting skin the coming night
the bearers of all good things arrive
climb inside, twist and cry
a kiss on your molten eyes.”

Favorite Moment: The minute or so of soft whistling at the end of “Those To Come.” Even though it closes out the album, it has the effect of sticking with you to the point where its almost impossible not to keep whistling the melody long after the song fades away—and in this case that’s a good thing.

The Shins on Last.FM
The Shins on Amazon

On Deck: Four Tet – Pause.

I Am A Bird Now - Antony and the Johnsons

2009-12-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

Released: February 1, 2005
Metacritic Score: 88
Genre: Indie, Rock
Length: 35:29 (10 Tracks)
Label: Secretly Canadian
Follows: Hope There's Someone
Precedes: You Are My Sister

Playing this for the first time, I really had no idea what to expect. Most of Metacritic’s reviews focused on Antony Hegarty’s top-notch vocals, and listed the genre as indie/rock (can’t get much broader than that, can we now?) Apart from those two things, I had neither heard nor read anything else about Antony and the Johnsons.

Listen to "Bird Gehrl"

I really, really like the way the album kicks off; there’s no denying the power and beauty of the opening track, Hope There’s Someone, and the piano crescendo toward the end of the song is probably the best moment on the album.

All things considered though, the final two tracks Free at Last, and Bird Gehrl are my favorites. Free At Last is an avant-gardeish number that opens to a mysterious message pounded out in morse code, and ultimately sounds more like recited poetry than song. Tracks that lean toward the conceptual or experimental can throw off the flow of an album if placed or used improperly, but in this case I just think it works so ridiculously well

Free At Last finishes with a deceiving, “Ladies and gentlemen, Anthony and the Johnsons,” that really fooled me into thinking the album was over. Not so—thankfully, Antony gives us one more offering, and ladies and gentlemen it’s a winner. Much as Hope there’s Someone at the album’s beginning, Bird Gehrl closes the collection by gradually building toward a stunning peak that plays on and resolves the album’s title and concept, “I am a bird now.”

Structurally, I thought the way the album closed was absolutely amazing. I was deceived enough by the closing line of Free at Last to be genuinely surprised when Bird Gehrl started. It was probably the only time I’ve ever felt like I was listening to an encore on a studio recorded album. Cool stuff.

The Bottom Line:

I couldn’t be happier to kick off this project with an album like this. This is an incredible collection, and hearing music like this is exactly why I decided to begin this project in the first place. It’s only fairly recently that my interest in music has become pronounced enough that I actively spend a lot of time seeking out new and interesting artists, rather than passively waiting to hear of them from someone else.

The fact is, in all likelihood I never would have heard this album if not for this project, and that’s a real shame because it’s pretty dang good.

Quick Picks

Favorite Song: After about three times through the album, it’s probably Bird Gehrl.
Close Second: Fistful of Love: Really great song, making a real strong case for favorite.
Least Fave? The whole album is very, very good, but ultimately Spiraling probably interests me least.
Outstanding Lyric? I love what’s going on in the second to last track, Free at Last. “Some of these mornings, bright and fair / I thank God, I’m free at last.
Favorite Moment: Hands down, from about 2:40 until the end of Hope There’s Someone. Can’t think of a better way to close out an album than the pounding crescendo offered here by Hegarty.

On Deck: Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins

The List

2009-11-29T15:14:00.000-08:00

The 200 Best-Reviewed Albums of the 2000s

101 - 200

Comicopera - Robert Wyatt
Monoliths & Dimensions - Sunn O)))
Welcome To Mali - Amadou & Mariam
Mirrored - Battles
Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts - M83
Fixed::Context[EP] - Labradford
Hercules And Love Affair - Hercules And Love Affair
Estudando o Pagode - Tom Ze
Robyn - Robyn
Separation Sunday - The Hold Steady
The Decline of British Sea Power - British Sea Power
Quicksand / Cradlesnakes - Califone
Blues Dream - Bill frisell
Rings Around The World - Super Furry Animals
You Forgot It In People - Broken Social Scene
Minimum-Maximum [Live] - Kraftwerk
Thunder, Lightening, Strike - The Go! Team
Beautifully Human: Words And Sounds Vol. 2 - Jill Scott
'Sno Angel Like You - Howe Gelb
Welcome Interstate Managers - Fountains of Wayne
45:33 - LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
Black Sheep Boy - Okkervil River
Feast of Wire - Calexico
What Does it All Mean? 1983 - 2006 Retrospective - Steinski
The Futureheads - The Futureheads
Chavez Ravine - Ry Cooder
Trancendental Blues - Steve Earle
Harps And Angels - Randy Newman
Fortress - Protest The Hero
Boxer - The National
White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
The Wind - Warren Zevon
All Hands on The Bad One - Sleater - Kinney
Little Sparrow - Dolly Parton
Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine - Cee-Lo
The Lemon Of Pink - The Books
Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Bob Dylan
Hospice - The Antlers
Ocean's Eleven OST - David Holmes
The Intercontinentals - Bill risell
OST - 24 Hour Party People
The Convincer - Nick Lowe
The Mysterious Production of Eggs - Andrew Bird
Rook - Shearwater
Party Music - The Corp
Life... The Best Game In Town - Harvey Milk
I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - Bright Eyes
Third - Portishead
Don't give Up On Me - Solomon Burke
Didn't it Rain - Songs: Ohia
Holopaw - Holopaw
Girls Can Tell - Spoon
Stay Positive - The Hold Steady
Pause - Four Tet
Magnolia Electric Co. - Songs: Ohia
Murs 3:16 The 9th Edition - Murs
Hail To The Thief - Radiohead
Laulu Laakson Kukista - Paavoharju
Mesmerize - System of A Down
Beauty And The Beat - Edan
Twin Cinema - The New Pornographers
For Hero: For Fool - Subtle
New Moon - Elliot Smith
The Drift - Scott Walker
Streetcore - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place - Explosions In The Sky
Source Tags & Codes - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Happy Songs For Happy People - Mogwai
Oceans Apart - The Go-Betweens
Vekatimest - Grizzly Bear
Kicking Television: Live In Chicago - Wilco
The Real New Fall L.P. (Formerly country On The Click) - The Fall
Bubblegum - Mark Lanegan Band
Tenacious D - Tenacious D
The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
Journal For Plague Lovers - Manic Street Preachers
Wind's Poem - Mount Eerie
I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass - Yo La Tengo
Chemistry of Common Life - Fucked Up
Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors
Crimes - The Blood Brothers
Blinking Lights And Other Revelations - Eels
Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie
Run To Ruin - Nina Nastasia
Dongs of Sevotion - Smog
The Meadowlands - The Wrens
Boys And Girls In America - The Hold Steady
Ys - Joanna Newsorn
Late Registration - Kanye West
Supermodified - Amon Tobin
Kish Kash - Basement Jaxx
Revolution - Miranda Lambert
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Miranda Lambert
Axe To Fall - Converge
One Beat - Sleater-Kinney
This Right Here Is Buck 65 - Buck 65
Cole's Corner - Richard Hawley
Emeritus - Scarface
Lookaftering - Vashti Bunyan

Return to 1 - 100

The List

2009-11-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

The 200 Best-Reviewed Albums of the 2000s

1 - 100

Smile - Brian Wilson
Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn
How The West Was Won - Led Zeppelin
Live at Reading - Nirvana
Stankonia - OutKast
Savane - Ali Farka Toure
Madvillainy - Madvillain
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads [2004 Release] - Talking Heads
Love and Theft - Bob Dylan
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards - Tom Waits
Boy In Da Corner - Dizzee Rascal
Elephant - The White Stripes
Live In London - Leonard Cohen
A Grand Don't Come For Free - The Streets
Speakerboxx/The Love Below - OutKast
Canto - Los Super Seven
From Here We Go Sublime - The Field
Illinois - Sufjan Stevens
Original Pirate Material - The Streets
Alice - Tom Waits
Is This It - The Strokes
Funeral - The Arcade Fire
London Zoo - The Bug
Untrue - Burial
XTRMNTR - Primal Scream
Z - My Morning Jacket
Since I Left You - The Avalanches
Neon Golden - The Notwist
Rounds - Four Tet
Modern Times - Bob Dylan
Miss E... So Addictive - Missy Elliot
HoboSapiens - John Cale
Bachelor No. 2 (or, the last remains of the dodo) - Aimee Mann
Fed - Plush
Last Exit - Junior Boys
Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective
Songs For The Deaf - Queens of the Stone Age
Wearemonster - Isolee
Hell Hath No Fury - Clipse
Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins
Yours, Mine & Ours - Pernice Brothers
Hypermagic Mountain - Lightening Bolt
69 Love Songs - Magnetic Fields
Ta Det Lugnt - Dungen
Dear Science, - TV On The Radio
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II - Raekwon
Return To Cookie Mountain - TV On The Radio
Wicked Grin - John Hammond
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - PJ Harvey
Up In Flames - Manitoba
College Dropout - Kanye West
Where Shall You Take Me - Damien Jurado
Rejoining In The Hands - Bevendra Banhart
Vespertine - Bjork
From A Basement On The Hill - Elliot Smith
The Blueprint - Jay-Z
In Rainbows - Radiohead
The Woods - Sleater-Kinney
Destroyer's Rubies - Destroyer
Kill The Moonlight - Spoon
Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
I Am A Bird Now - Antony And The Johnsons
Fishscale - Ghostface Killah
Arular - M.I.A.
Remedy - Basement Jaxx
Exit - Shugo Tokumaru
For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
Leaves Turn Inside You - Unwound
Person Pitch - Panda Bear
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
The Argument - Fugazi
Decoration Day - Drive-by Truckers
Showtime - Dizzee Rascal
Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
The Dirty South - Drive By Truckers
The Town And The City - Los Lobos
The World Without Tears - Lucinda Williams
Things We Lost In The Fire - Low
Cold House - Hood
Now, More Than Ever - Jim Gutherie
Raising Sand - Robert Pland And Alison Krauss
Let's Stay Friends - Les Savy Fav
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros
Neon Bible - The Arcade Fire
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
Congotronics - Konono No. 1
Stumble Into Grace - Emmylou Harris
Phrenology - The Roots
Favourite Colors - The Sadies
The Creek Drank The Cradle - Iron & Wine
Children Running Through - Patty Griffin
Seven Swans - Sufjan Stevens
Kala - M.I.A
Phantom Power - Super Furry Animals
Mass Romantic - The New Pornographers
Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem
American Saturday Night - Brad Paisley
One Word Extinguisher - Prefuse 73
Time (The Revelator) - Gillian Welch

Continue to 101-200

Technorati Claim Post

2009-11-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

Not a real post, just claiming my blog with technorati.

SDP5QTYWB7BQ

Hey, who am I?

2009-11-17T15:27:00.000-08:00

Well, allow me first to introduce myself:

I'm Justin.

There, now that's over with I suppose I can tell you a little bit about where I'm coming from and how I ended up writing this blog:

I just graduated a few months ago with an unfortunate degree in Psychology. No, I'm not saying Psychology degrees are worthless, it's just that I've long since decided that it isn't really where I want to pursue a career.

See, about halfway through my college years I began studying digital arts, or more specifically 3d Modeling, Animation, and Visual Effects. I fell in love with it almost immediately, and it really is where my passion lies. However, my school's program was brand new and not yet offered as a major, so....

So, I finished my psychology degree, and with the rest of my schedule space I took every digital arts course available and worked hard to learn the craft.

Now what on earth
Does any of that have to do with a blog about music?

Well, in the process of learning digital arts, my time spent in front of a computer increased drastically, and so did my time spent listening to music.

When i read, and to a slightly lesser extent when I write, I find music to be very, very distracting, almost to the point where it's pretty impossible for me to effectively read with music on.

Working on art is an entirely different monster though, and when I'm drawing, painting, modeling, or animating, playing music is far from distracting and can really inspire my ideas and creativity.

Naturally, as my hours spent listening to music increased, so did my interest in finding new artists and albums to listen to, and I started using Pandora, Last.Fm, Amazon, Metacritic, iTunes, etc. to build my awareness of what's out there in the music world today.

Like many, I'm very interested in how music has been revolutionized and influenced by technology over the last decade or so, and this interest paired with my recently increased interest in music discovery are really the impetus for initiating this project of mine.

To conclude,

I want to emphasize that I don't have any sort of special training in music, nor am I particularly knowledgeable on the subject. I don't intend to "review" any albums here, nor do I intend to listen with a particularly critical ear. My write-ups are meant more to convey my personal experience and reaction than anything else, and maybe give readers a better feel for artists and albums they haven't heard.

This project of mine is really about discovering and listening to a lot of artists and albums from the past ten years that I probably never would have heard otherwise, and maybe helping others do the same.

Music in the Digital AgeAnd the Imminent Decline of the Album

2009-11-17T12:58:00.001-08:00

Software and websites like iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Metacritic, Last.Fm and BitTorrent in all its manifestations have made the discovery of new and interesting artists faster and easier than ever before in the history of music.

Go to Pandora and type in the name of an artist or song, and the website returns to you an entire radio station built around your entry’s “musical genome.” Last.fm and iTunes will track your listening habits and offer suggestions for artists and songs you might like to investigate. iTunes and Amazon make it easier than ever to purchase just about any song or album you’ll ever want, immediately. And of course, BitTorrent and other p2p applications make it possible for you to have it for free (or if you’re in the unlucky minority, for a flat settlement of about three grand).

In light of this, the climate is better than it’s ever been for the aspiring band with talent. In this day and age, any band with a little know-how can get their material out there through Myspace, Last.fm, YouTube, and the blogosphere, and if it’s good enough the chances are it'll find an audience. Click below to read the full article.

At face value, all of this is fantastic for the music consumer. The ability for independent artists to get their music noticed means that those of us whose tastes stray from the mainstream are no longer subject to the whim of record labels who’s bottom line is, and always has been financial gain.

Even more important is the fact that our musical purchases are more informed than they’ve ever been. If I’m on the fence about an album, I can open iTunes or Firefox and sample every single song (in their entirety if I so desire).

Today’s tools for music discovery are, in my opinion, invaluable to anyone with an active interest in music. I can say with absolute certainty that my musical tastes have been formed more fully through web or software based tools like iTunes, last.Fm, and Amazon than any other source of input, including radio, word of mouth, popular culture, and traditional media exposure.

Some of my favorite bands to emerge recently, like Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, and Grizzly Bear have garnered enough attention that I’d have heard of them regardless of web based discovery tools. But others artists I love, like The Constellations, The Hush Sound, and The Notwist are just obscure enough that I have very little confidence I’d ever have heard them if not for iTunes and last.Fm.

All of these points are what I consider to be the greatest advantages of music in the digital age, but progress has always been a double-edged sword where the advent of one technology usually means the decline of another. DVD replaced VCR. CD phased out the tape cassette, which had all but replaced vinyl. The cell phone has gradually caused a decreasing reliance on the landline.

Sometimes this progression occurs with virtually no adverse consequence—now that digital video recording (DVR) has become widely available, I cannot think of a single advantage held by VCD/VCR over DVD/DVR.

But when it comes to music, there is at least one cause for concern and regret. In the digital age, even as music continues to thrive and evolve, there is an increasing risk for the decline of the Album as an artistic medium.

I do admit that the album format itself was probably not originally intended to be a means of artistic expression. At the time it was conceived, it was simply the best means to deliver a collection of songs--at that early stage, all the artistry was in the individual songwriting.

However, the most capable artists quickly realized that presenting the songs as a coherent whole, with logical sequence, smooth transition, and a strong central idea, theme, or concept, gives the album an ability to connect with an audience much more strongly than any individual song. The album, when used well, is the embodiment of the Gestalt, where the sum is truly greater than any of its parts. The ability to craft a great album has served, more than any other benchmark, to distinguish the great artists from the good ones over the last sixty or so years.

But since the advent of the digital music revolution, album sales have dropped significantly. Picking up the slack is none other than the digital singles market, especially on iTunes where purchasing an entire album is the exception rather than the rule.

Now, when it comes to certain artists, the reemergence of the "single" as the reigning format is a blessing for both the musician and the consumer. There are many artists, especially in the popular music genre, who's careers would be better served if they simply focused on releasing a gradual but steady stream of killer singles, instead of following the current album release paradigm. This way, the artist maintains a constant public awareness, and the fan doesn't feel compelled to purchase an LP that more likely than not contains three singles and a whole bunch of pulp.

On the other hand though, there are still a lot of musicians out there making *really* good albums. If you don't believe me, listen to what the Fleet Foxes did on their eponymous debut--they're kinda good.

As much as I like Fleet Foxes (and believe me, it's a lot) the real reason I used them as my example is because despite their album being really, really great, the song that many consider to be their best, Mykonos, isn't on it. Nope, Mykonos was released a few months earlier on FF's Sun Giant EP. That's all well and good, this is a band that's talented enough that they can release their songs however they want and I'll listen--the album was still great without Mykonos, and I'm sure Fleet Foxes had good reason for releasing things as they did.

But there's another part of me that thinks, "Hey, Mykonos would have fit really nicely next to Blue Ridge Mountains, or White Winter Hymnal." And it would have, but I digress. The point I want to make is that the album experience is wonderful, but increasingly underappreciated because it's so easy to drop by iTunes and pick up the Mykonos digital copy.

The album format is far from dead, and there are certainly artists out there that know how to use it amazingly well. My concern, and the question that has been on the minds of fans of the format is whether or not the artists themselves still have faith in the LP.

Dave Allen, former member of the British post-punk act, Gang of Four has weighed in on the subject extensively, and has been quoted as saying he believes that the album length piece, "has no place in a digital future."

This may be overly dramatic. I work in a store that deals in media, and I still see people coming in, browsing, and leaving with a big stack of CDs (we also sell an awful lot of iPods...) The thing is, the ones purchasing the CDs almost always seem to be right around my age or older.

What this says to me is that the people that have been used to listening to full length albums all their lives are the ones that are still interested in format; this shouldn't come as any surprise. What really interests me is this.

Right now there is an entire generation of young kids that are beginning to discover their interest in music for the first time--this generation is the first to actually enter the digital music market without any previous experience with CDs and Albums being the chief source of delivery. I am willing to guess that there may be a lot of casual music fans from that generation that have an iPod full of singles, and have never actually heard an album in its entirety.

My conclusion is this. There has been a lot of rabble about whether or not the album is dead or dying. Well as of yet, I believe that it is neither. The current generation of musicians still has the ability and desire to use the format to great effect, and the current generation of fans is still thrilled to listen.

The real question is whether kiddies that are just now discovering music will ever truly embrace the album? My impulse is to say no, they wont, and I want to add that this is nothing against their taste in music. I say no because nothing about the current climate in the marketplace will tell them to give the album a chance, and they simply won't know any better. In the age of the iPod how could they?

Equally important is the question of whether or not the artists that emerge in the next few years will adhere to the standards that have been in place for the last six or so decades. Again, I think the answer is no. The one thing that an artist strives to do above all other things is to express themselves in new and unique ways, and the digital era offers a huge opportunity for artists to push the envelope when it comes to finding new ways to creatively package and distribute their work. The next few years will almost certainly see a crop of artists, both new and established, pushing themselves to come up with new ways to release their music. Maybe a band wants to release a kick-ass concept "album" episodically instead of as a lump package. A song a week for thirteen or fourteen weeks, and all of a sudden you've inserted an element of building tension, hype, and suspense into the music listening experience that hasn't really been present before. Maybe people would love it, maybe they'd hate it, but you'd at least have to appreciate it for being innovative.

Progression is what makes the music industry exciting. I like the album format as much as the next guy, and thankfully I think there are still bands that will continue to see the album as their best creative outlet. However, what's really exciting about the coming years is that now there are a heck of a lot of other options available, and budding artists will undoubtedly use them as best they can.

Only time will tell whether the next decade will see the album sink or float, but I can assure you regardless of the outcome, there will be some really interesting things happening as the digital music revolution comes to a head and a new generation takes the reigns.

Contact Me

2009-11-02T16:22:00.000-08:00

Please, please, please, don't hesitate to contact me with tips, suggestions, and any sort of feedback you want to leave! Cheers.

The Project

2009-10-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

The Basic Premise

In order to celebrate the album in a time when the medium itself seems to be at a crossroads, I've decided to go on a spree of sorts, and listen to Metacritic's 200 best reviewed albums of the decade.

The Reason

Now, initially, I wanted to listen to all of Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 albums of all time, and do a short write-up on each of them. I decided against doing that for two reasons:

It's been done already.
Looking at the list, Rolling Stone is far from unbiased. The magazine has a clear penchant for classic rock, and as much as I want to write a piece about how I like Rubber Soul better than Sgt. Pepper, all that material has been listened to, reviewed, analyzed, and commentaried to death.

The whole impetus for this blog came from my reflections on how digital music has changed the way we search for, discover, and listen to new music, particularly how the album format has been challenged by the digital mp3.

In light of that, I decided that focusing on music from this decade only would do a couple things.

Keep the project as fresh as possible by focusing for the most part on artists that are still producing new work, as opposed to bands that called it quits decades ago.
Give me the chance to focus on the best albums that have been released during a decade where appreciation for the album is probably as low as its ever been. Let's face it, today's youth loves the single.
I haven't always been as interested in music as I am today. My musical tastes have come a long way since the advent of web and software based tools like Last.Fm, Pandora, and Amazon. This project will give me a chance to retread the last decade and listen to the best of what I was missing back when local radio and billboard seemed like my best option for discovering new music.

Why Metacritic?

Something I want to touch on is reason I chose to use Metacritic's list, as opposed to one of the other "best of the decade" lists out there (Uncut, Pitchfork, and NME all come to mind). I considered all of those, but ultimately chose Metacritic mainly because it is the most genre-blind of them all.

The whole point of Metacritic is to assess the input from the entire critical community, and return a weighted score for each album. Individual publications like Pitchfork and NME have definite genre-biases, and must cater to their readership, whereas theoretically Metacritic does not.

I ultimately decided that because of this, Metacritic's top 200 would be the most unbiased list out there, and would offer the greatest range of artists and genres.

Regarding Lists

Some people love 'em, some people really, really hate 'em. Personally, I love em, though I do understand the other side of the argument. This sort of thing is highly subjective, and obviously no list is ever perfect.

But that's OK as long as you don't take what you're reading too seriously.

The wrong attitude: "These are the best albums of the decade in order from 1 - 200."
The right attitude: "Here are two hundred albums that a lot of people really liked over the last ten or so years. Bet you'll find something you dig."

In light of that, instead of proceeding down the list from beginning to end, I'll us a fancy random number generator and pick a random album after each of my write-ups.

Thanks!

If you made it this far, thanks for stickin with me! I know there are those of you out there that have probably already heard just about every album on this list. That's cool, but for every one of you there are probably three or four like me who haven't come close. The underlying spirit here is supposed to be open-mindedness, discovery, and celebration of what this generation's musicians have done over the last ten years.

If that sounds good to you, definitely stay tuned for more, and please don't hesitate to leave your thoughts in a comment or shoot me an email. If not, no worries, I'll be here anyway.