It's National Album day again apparently.

[jenna appleseed]

HMV marks this years theme of 'albums that deserves to be listened all the way though without skipping tracks' by releasing a random bunch of ltd coloured vinyl including Lady Gaga & The Spice Girls. https://www.hmv.com/music/hmv-exclusive-vinyl-national-album-day-2019

Some random MPs mostly get tedious about music ( I had to google most of them to find out who the fuck are and what party they're in).
https://www.ukmusic.org/news/politicians-celebrate-national-album-day

Some of them sound like they've never actually heard any music in their lives just read a (print)  encyclopedia article about it once.

Anna Turley (Labour) enthusing for The Levellers is lovely though.
Tom Watson has taste, the bastard.

Somebody seems to think late 90s cd players didn't have shuffle, somebody else think young people would be left incredulous by the equipment they played records on, and the Culture Secretary is a Robbie Williams fan. The Green Party bloke obviously can't be bothered with any of this crap and just spams his own album and how it's all about the issue man.

I'm now having having horrible visions of a Tory arguing 'Of course our party cares about Mental Health Issues, I listen to Pet Sounds, don't I?'
plus fond memories of that time pre 2017 election Jeremy Corbyn ended up on the cover & inside Kerrang! having a chat about mental health & poverty etc with some social political active rock musicians and recommending/ being adorably confused about Pearls Before Swine.

(weird feeling listening to Balaklava, reaching around half way though and realising 'this is probably what made Jeremy Corbyn become 'Jeremy Corbyn')

(this might belong more in a political thread in general bulshit)
fuck it post

[BlodwynPig]

BEIGE IN CHARGE OF BRITISH CULTURE

M'LORD, I REST MY FUCKING CASE


Nicky Morgan MP (Culture Secretary)

Robbie Williams - "I've Been Expecting You" (1998)



My favourite album is Robbie Williams' "I've Been Expecting You". My favourite song off that album is No Regrets. Because it reminds me of my youth!

[NJ Uncut]

The Shadow Culture Minister's prose is quite developed albeit clumsy. He probably still reads Q, which is shadowy culture indeed

The moment the needle dropped onto the vinyl and Woody Woodmansey's drum opening introduced Five Years, the first track on David Bowie's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" my life and my haircut were changed forever.

David Warburton MP,  though has forever ensured my enmity

The first full album I ever bought, at the end of the '70s, remains perhaps the album which I still feel closest too.

"Led Zeppelin II" thrills every bit as much as it did then, even before I got it home – as I excitedly left WH Smiths and peeked at it on the bus home

But did you appreciate it en route "too" your domicile, in some other manner you could mention perhaps? Did you taste "Led Zeppelin II", David, or perhaps sniff it, as you were conveyed towards your dwelling?

That's what music is supposed to do. And this album did that. And it still does.

[idunnosomename]

God that nicky morgan makes me angry. Not only is it clear she doesnt like music, she doesnt care. Its like a five year old's level of answer

If Tom Watson was actual culture sec maybe it would give him something better to do

[purlieu]

There's a massive discussion about this on SuperDeluxeEdition, with a number of people lamenting the death of the album, and others being shocked about the ignorant young people who can't understand what the album is all about. This was my response:


How many people choosing playlists, skipping through tracks, etc., were the kind of people whose music collections were largely made up of compilations, singles, and the odd album which they often didn't listen to all the way through - or even largely listened to the radio? While there are a lot of classic albums that are very much intended to be listened to start-to-finish, the passionate music fans who worship the format and believe it is so important have always been very much in the minority.

I say this from the experience of knowing plenty of people my age (35) and older who skip through tracks and have always done that, and knowing a lot of people younger than me who are heavily into the album format because they're into underground music. I honestly believe a significant number of the people who are into 'tracks' now are the same people who were into 'tracks' in the past, they're just more easily accessible these days.

The album format will remain and won't go away for a long time. It might diminish in numbers, but all that means is the albums that are left are those that are specifically intended to be enjoyed in a start-to-finish fashion. While we might romanticise these, there's no denying that there are far, far more albums out there - not only pop ones, but a lot of rock and indie ones too - that are literally just tracks put together. They might start with the big singles and end on a slow track, but the songs make no more sense in context than they do on their own. Until the late '60s, this was the only way music was consumed. Dance music has always survived on 12" singles rather than albums. Many pop artists have had bigger selling singles than albums. So the album has never been the be-all-end-all of music.

I admire what Underworld are doing at the minute, which is releasing a track a week. These are combined into 'episodes' of five or six, and the whole first year is being released as a single disc sampler or an eight disc box set in a couple of weeks - which they're calling 'Series 1'. It's allowing a lot of insight into their working processes, and they said they're tired of the 'album and tour every three years' format - while at the same time providing something close to an album release at the end of it, to satisfy more traditional listeners. It seems like the best of both worlds, and is the most interesting experiment I've seen using the internet as a way of releasing music in new ways.

I'm an album listener, and always will be. I have a hard drive full of odd tracks I like from albums I really don't like, and they get played once every few months, but 99% of my listening is from CD, vinyl or tape. But I don't expect everyone to think the same. All the talk of the album being dead is exaggerated, as there is more interesting, progressive, conceptual and brave music released today than there ever has been. It's not all in the top 10 anymore, but anyone willing to find it will have no trouble at all. And for everything else, I'd honestly take the current model over having every charity shop in the country stuffed to the rafters with copies of Robbie Williams and Westlife CDs five years after they've been released.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

God that nicky morgan makes me angry. Not only is it clear she doesnt like music, she doesnt care. Its like a five year old's level of answer

Also it "reminds her of her youth...", she would have been 26 at the time! FUck off.

[idunnosomename]

I find Spotify's format to be very album-centric but then perhaps that's just the way I come at it.

The fetishisation of the album and decrying of playlist-millennials seems to ignore that albums are NOT single works like symphonies, but collections of individual songs. yes they have been assembled and ordered with some care, but practically every artist has no problem playing the songs separately live. it's good to hear songs in different contexts from time to time

[Egyptian Feast]

There's a massive discussion about this on SuperDeluxeEdition, with a number of people lamenting the death of the album, and others being shocked about the ignorant young people who can't understand what the album is all about. This was my response:

Very well put. The album isn't going to die any time soon, no matter how many tedious thinkpieces are written speculating about it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It definitely won't go anywhere until the vinyl revival dies down and all the dark side of the moon represses and cheap crossley decks end up in a skip.

[poodlefaker]

Totally grown out the idea of the classic album. I can't think of any that couldn't be improved by the removal of at least one track. Even Kind of Blue could lose "Freddie Freeloader". We only sat through the filler because we couldn't be bothered to get up and walk over ot the record player. When CDs took off and people started releasing 70 minute albums, jesus...

[gilbertharding]

What a load of Lamacqs.

Hush now and listen while I tell you all about SweetheartoftheRodeoPetSoundsSgtPepperAstralWeeksLondonCallingStrangewaysHereWeComeMusicfromBigPinkFearofaBlackPlanetfuckoffFuckOffFUCKOFF!!

[gilbertharding]

I like all of those albums by the way (except the Clash one, the Smiths one and the Van Morrisson one).

[Norton Canes]

Ha ha Arlene Foster, that is priceless.

[jenna appleseed]

There's a massive discussion about this on SuperDeluxeEdition, with a number of people lamenting the death of the album, and others being shocked about the ignorant young people who can't understand what the album is all about. This was my response:

Several loads of imaginary karma for you, this is great, thoughtful music writing and a lot  better than my tedious rant.