On music albums

Now that I have made over a hundred tracks, both for clients or personal I’m starting to understand more what albums mean.

They don’t mean anything.

Kidding! Not really, let me explain: we have for some reason a fond memory of listening to music albums this way

Or this way:

But it never happened to us.

The truth is an album is a collection of songs, which means that they can be re-arranged in no particular order. Order meant something when we could not skip, repeat or shuffle as we are now. I remember the Judgment Night OST track list to be perfect on tape, they changed it on the CD which I never listened to for that reason. 

If I dissect albums I listened to heavily, I can tell today which track lasted which one was just some fill up, which one was definitely a drag for the band etc. Artists don’t really like making albums, it makes more sense to focus on one track. Multitasking is bullshit, remember? And making one, excellent track is heavy work: pissing 8 minutes of ambient is one thing, calibrating the perfect 4:00 minutes song is maddening but oh so satisfying when you figure it out.

A band like Zapp for example has pretty shitty (that is, weird and experimental songs) albums but stellar, timeless singles.

Anyway it doesn’t matter today, albums don’t sell. There’s too much good music out there, people focus on tracks for that reason. I think it’s cool as it leaves artists more freedom to explore styles without freaking out and listeners can choose and do their own albums through streaming services or files (files! privacy! freedom!).

And yet, we still value music albums as the ultimate accomplishment for artists. We weird.