12 Inches Of Pleasure

11:04 AM GMT 11/01/2008

Why the album still rules, by MOJO’s David Sheppard.

TYPE ‘DEATH OF THE ALBUM’ into Google and you’ll be avalanched in caffeinated articles rejoicing in the unchecked march of download culture at the expense of ye olde elpee. It’s enough to make any self-respecting gramophile feel like a member of the Flat Earth Society. Downloading, so its shriller advocates decree, is the victory of self-curated ‘consumer choice’ over the album’s passé dictates. The future, so they’d have us believe, is on shuffle play. For a significant rump of listeners (and, tellingly, the majority of artists) however, this ‘victory’ feels distinctly Pyrrhic and the longplaying album – especially the vinyl model - remains the dyed-in-the-wool music aficionado’s format of choice, as fundamental as celluloid and a darkened theatre are to the true cineaste.

A good album is more than a collection of songs; it’s an auteur statement played out in measured episodes – a rounded narrative as opposed to the MP3 library’s incongruent one-liners. Album buyers are connoisseurs of the exceptional, not librarians of the infinite. The iPod squad also neglect the album’s half-century- long history as the gold standard of progressive popular music, from Revolver to Funeral and beyond. Slotting a random flurry of MP3s among the painstakingly honed greats of the rock pantheon would be like laying down a Bacardi Breezer in the cellars of Château Lafite-Rothschild.

A felicitous quirk of vinyl technology it may be, but the album’s forty-odd minute standard running time happens to be the optimal length for a single sitting appreciation of music, while the natural division into two sides (or more for the prolific and proggy) enforces a narrative structure, making the sequencing of albums an art in itself - one that the processional, ‘hits at the front’, CD format has all but consigned to history. A vinyl album is a perfect play in two acts (six if you’re the Clash or Stars Of The Lid). Would David Bowie’s Low have been as ground-breaking without its separation into song and instrumental sides? Would Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks have been as absorbing without its ‘In The Beginning’ and ‘Afterwards’ segregation? No.

All is not lost. Recent albums like Damon Albarn and co’s The Good The Bad & The Queen, or Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible are fighting a rearguard action by sequencing songs in non-linear arrangements – valiantly reserving some gems for the latter half. Neon Bible even comes in a lavish, 180-gram vinyl version, with three sides of music and an etching on the fourth - there’s the whole multi-sensory appeal of the vinyl album right there (try etching your iTunes library, Junior!). And let’s not even bother with the weary fluff-on-the-needle ‘debate’. Any audiophile worth their salt prefers stylus-on-vinyl action to the emasculated crackle of the bit-crushed MP3 file or the antiseptic digital fizz of the CD.

In the year when sales of vinyl albums have actually increased substantially for the first time since the late 1980s, the most deafening sound seeping out of iPods is that of the baby being chucked out with the bathwater.

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 11:04 AM GMT 11/01/2008

Comments

Comment on this post

Comments:

Name:

Click here for House Rules

Whilst I am a lover of the album as an artistic statement, or a snapshot of a band, a time or a place, I still greatly enjoy the excitement of not knowing what my newly-shuffled playlist will throw up next. And it also keeps me on my toes in terms of making sure I take in a wide variety of stuff, constantly throwing in my path tunes I'd have otherwise passed over, reminding me of my love for them. So by all means, keep on listening to that warm crackle on that sexy black plastic, but keep an eye on where the futures headed, lest you should be left behind.

Posted by Nich S. Brook-Hart at 7:28 PM GMT 11/01/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post
An iPod is just the realization of a cassette mixmasters dream...perfect for the auto, perhaps a mood mix for a friend, but not for listening. Listening is truly the lost art of the digital age. Everyone talks...nobody listens. Phil Sutcliffe makes this point in the chattering concert crowds...who did we spend our money to hear?

We live in a "sound byte" world, so how perfect is a mechanism that works so magnificently in a fractured medium?
My students will come in with their iPod and say,"Listen to this!" Less than a minute later they are asking,"What do you think?" When ever I have said listen to this, it is going to take at least twenty minutes of lag time before I pop the question.

This does not mean earcandy has to be long winded. I bought my share of singles in days gone by, and played them on a all-in-one player. Jamaican reggae was built on the single, as were most local scenes.
Ahh, but albums went on the stereo in the living room...to be listened to for all of the detail in sonic expression that the artist had in mind.

mp3's are easy and work well for singles play. But have you tried listening for an extended period on an iPod: ear fatigue. With all of the compression used to elevate the sound levels on mp3's listening to one artist for more than a tune will wear out your brain.

So maybe we are back to the start of rock with the return of the single play unit...the question is: where will it lead us in the future?

Posted by david gorrill at 6:33 PM GMT 27/01/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post
there's room for all ways to play your music , hopefully , i've got a lot of cassettes still stashed away ,when i get time to listen.also a lot of minidiscs etc. collecting lp's , singles ,is great if you have the room.

Posted by at 8:13 AM GMT 02/02/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post
Yes, the album is more than a string of individual songs/tracks. The best albums are sequenced with this in mind, and the creative choice of the artist extends to this stage of the work. While each song is a piece of work in and of itself, so too is the album. The way we hear, perceive and experience a song (assuming we're actually listening, - and yes, David Gorrill's reference to Phil Sutcliffe's piece on concert talkers is right on the money here) can be hugely affected by what we've heard immediately before it. The best albums are also a kind of musical journey (and, no, I'm not referring to any kind of proggy 'conceptualism' here).

Many artists put way too much material on CD's just because they can. Apart from the argument that the relative brevity of the vinyl album could enforce a stricter quality control in song selection, there's also the issue of fatigue. I would argue that it's difficult to listen actively to music for more than about 40 minutes.

Hey, - I use my iPod much more often than use my turntable to listen to my old vinyl albums. But mostly I use it to listen to complete albums I've put on there.

Regards,
Karl

Posted by Karl Farren at 11:45 PM GMT 07/02/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post
used to have loads of vinyl. e bayed it all. put the money towards the wedding.

my mp3 player's sound. move on folks. or should we all have stuck with wax cylinders?
or writing on papyrus?

Posted by Avidfan at 8:08 PM GMT 06/03/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post
Listening for extended periods of time and to really appreciate what a musician intended us to hear I use my Linn Sondek LP12 and vinyl. The analogue sound is easier on the ear and there is little listening fatigue. With CD I tend to lose concentration and press the forward buton on the remote before the track finishes. MP3 is even more fatiguing and those albums I have downloaded I don't think I could tell you the track listing of. With vinyl there is more ownership, greater involvement and more audio satisfaction. It is more of a listening experience. I have 600 vinyl and twice that on CD but for listening pleasure, in my opinion, you can't better vinyl.

Posted by Islwynpaul at 6:41 PM GMT 22/03/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post
Down loads are like the Pick & Mix of the sweet shop. It incourages you to pig out on all the sugar. Have to many sweets and you'll end up being sick.

LP/Albums are the meat an two veg. Nice meal with that satisfied feeling. Often with a classic track (say the pudding) and finally washed down with a fine drink (last track)

Long line the LP.... it is a work of art from artists.... complete.... total.... fully formed....

Posted by surealneil at 8:51 PM GMT 28/03/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post
I see the future - or at least my own listening future - as a hybrid of both models.

Agreed, the 35 to 50 minute presentation has a certain optimum quality. It's the perfect canvas on which a vital, fecund artist or group can showcase their range. It can be a varied gallery, or a medium for storytelling or point-making. Long live the concept album! Let's preserve that as an artform with all the scope and opportunity it rightly embodies.

On the other hand there's a strong counter-argument that pop music has always been about hits, songs, 45's. One hit wonders. There's an enormous wealth of great music that, frankly, was always rather overlooked during the 'album era' and it's my view that for all its downsides, the 'shuffle epoch' has done wonders to re-instate all those one-off pop gems to their rightful place in the auditory panoply.

The fact of the matter is that nowadays we have a choice. We can 'consume' (yeuughh!) our music in any way we want, be it full-length or playlist. To me it seems a case of empowering the listener, there's nothing that inherently undermines the notion of LP as collection of songs if that's the way artists present their work. It's up to us as consumers (yeuughh) to respect that - or not.

I fully endorse the comments of Nich S. Brook-Hart. If it's 'Treefingers' versus 'Popscene' I know which side my digital bread is buttered.

Posted by Oysterfrond at 12:10 AM GMT 11/04/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post
I am a passionate vinyl lover myself. I've just been treated myself to The Doors Vinyl boxset. I think you get it from Rhino? (www.rhino.co.uk). The sound quality is so much better than an Ipod and it make's listening to great artits such as The Doors and Led Zep a pleasure.

I am offcially a new convert to the black stuff!

Posted by Rosie at 9:42 AM GMT 29/05/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post