album of the week -- THE ALBUM!

I have a twist on "album of the week" this week. Instead of picking a specific album, I want to draw attention the concept of the album in general because I am afraid it is becoming a lost art form. In the past few years with the influx of iTunes, iPods, mp3 players and other computer-based music listening and purchasing, it seems like the album is getting lost in the digital fray. I like the new technology as much as the next music freak and have succumbed to the portable mp3 player, satellite radio and the like, but a little voice in the back of my music geek mind says, "Don't forget about the album."

When I was a little kid in the 1970s all albums were on vinyl like this Beatles album that I listened to for the first time on this medium. While it's bulky and delicate, vinyl albums provided such personality with their covers -- a completely lost art form. Bands like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones made great use of album covers with those great interactive spinning and sliding covers that were die-cut like "Led Zeppelin III", "Physical Graffiti" and "Some Girls". (see post below this one for visual references).

As high-tech as music gets, the loss of the visual experience of record album covers is a bridge broken in the life of a music fan. When I was in high school vinyl was super cheap at used record stores and easily won on Auburn's college station WEGL. I spent a lot of time with my albums, looking at covers, reading the liner notes and making the most of being grounded and pissed off for a variety of teenaged reasons.

When the cassette tape came along in the early '80s the medium definitely ended the big album art concept, but the idea of an album with two sides was still preserved. Tape's big advantage was its portability and durability. You could thrown them around, have them floating around in your backpack and even spill Coke on the things and they would still work. I still have a bag of them in the backseat of my car since my car is that old and still has a working tape deck (Jamie, I know you are with me on this part.)

I took all my tapes to college and then CDs became the standard. That improved the visibility for album art slightly and provided a more long-lasting medium than the tape, but the idea of the A side and B side was lost and that, to me, marks the beginning of the album as an disappearing art form.

CDs as a medium have had a long run and I, like everyone I know, have hundreds of them, but I don't listen to them as much as I used to and sometimes feel guilty when I look at my case and see selections I don't even remember buying or playing as well as stacks of them covered in dust. I spend so much time on my computer working or blogging, as I suppose many of us do, and it seems easier to listen to XM radio online or a compilation of the some of the hundreds of mp3s I have downloaded.

I know like every other medium, convenience is king and 99 cent singles are cheap and instant downloads, but I do not want to see the album die. This has been bothering me for a couple of months and I have been purposely been loading my old CD binder up and taking it to work to listen to albums. I have also been catching up with lost albums on vinyl and CD like Pink Floyd's "Momentary Lapse of Reason" that I got off eBay for a steal of $5 on CD. Today while working I listened to Beastie Boys' "Check Your Head" for the first time in over 10 years and realized how much it rocks -- it was almost like listening to it for the first time.

My request to the other music fans out there is to not forget about your albums. Some of you are not as guilty as becoming digital audio heads like I usually am, but as I observe technology and trends, which is unavoidable since I work at a daily newspaper, and what I see moving in are mp3 players that hold a zillion songs and satellite radio. While I am guilty of using the latter on a daily basis, I still say that nothing tells the story of an artist or artists like an entire album, start to finish.

I am interested in hearing your comments.