The introduction of CDs was something of a disaster for the art of the album. I don't mean sound quality, although there probably is something to that. Nor am I talking about the fact that CDs were and are essentially computer software, making it inevitable that the computer savvy would eventually just loot the music. That's just a bad business decision. No, I'm just talking about overlength.
For good reason, you'll sometimes hear the complaint that 200-minute blockbuster movies seem to have three or four climaxes and endings. Some of us remember that movies are supposed to tell a story, and that to that end they should settle on one ending. But the filmmakers here (think horse by committee) are concerned with shooting a lot of footage, using it, and pleasing every sector of the market. If the result is incoherent, oh well.
Similarly, the music album is an art form developed in the decades after World War II. The final song should be a closing statement, something for the listener to deal with afterwards. Ending Revolver with "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a weird choice from a band that made several of them, but it's one you have to respect. A lot of albums from the CD era―probably peaking in the years 1995-2005―get to a nice closing point...and then just keep going. Hidden tracks and extra tracks are usually songs the artist didn't think were good enough for official inclusion on the album at all. Sometimes they're wrong, but not usually.
Worst are the alternate takes and remixes. In any decent comedy club, if the comedian said, "Now let me tell those jokes again, but pronounce some words differently," he'd be strung up.
2 comments:
I thought we were going to talk about cover art - a fruitful subject in itself. Since I've been listening to recorded music most of my life the actual length of albums as a subject hasn't come up that often. I do remember one song I hated because it was too long and it was depressing to boot - maybe it was Running Bear - nope, not that one (there were lots of teen tragedy songs), instead it was El Paso by Marty Robbins. Awful song.
There are any number of movies like those you describe that we either haven't seen at all or were so unclever we didn't remember them ten minutes later - James Bond remakes, for instance. I recall reading that the movie Lincoln by Spielberg was apparently one of those that could have ended by having the president and his wife leaving for the theatre.. and didn't. 'Horse by committee' is a good phrase to use when there's no clear script and nobody to say 'stop'. Come to think of it nobody was going to call stop on a Daniel Day Lewis movie.
But we were talking about albums and how CDs spoiled the experience of listening to albums. I think one of the main differences was that they could cram more music on a CD and did so. When bands were limited to around 40 minutes they were forced to cut the fat and put only their best, most cohesive material forward. None of that 'now let me tell those jokes again' business.
We rarely listen to any new music these days and only listen to it at all when we're in the car tootling around town (on the hiway we can't hear anything but wind). As you know almost all our large collection comes from vinyl albums Jer burned to a hard drive and that's what we listen to - usually on shuffle so it's rare we listen to an album. The last one of those we heard through was Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker. The first was probably My Fair Lady.
The subject of cover art in the CD era--and even more so in the digital download era--is an interesting one. Other people have written about it, and I don't think I have that much to add myself. Some still do good cover art, though. Marcel Dzama's cover for Beck's Guero album is very cool. I actually have a certain affection for that "El Paso" song by Marty Robbins. Maybe it's because I remember Steve Martin acting it out with a bunch of chimps (and a good wrangler with emergency tranq darts, I'm assuming.) Maybe it's just because it wears its corniness so well.
The thing about recent James Bond movies is that Daniel Craig looks like he did a pretty good interpretation of the character, but the directors don't realize they're making James Bond movies. They think they're making Something Important, hence both the length and other aesthetic choices or non-choices. People like Spielberg and Scorsese have been making movies forever, and they've earned a certain amount of freedom. This is good. It would be better if they didn't let so many of their movies get loaded down.
The technology did allow them to put more music on an album. That wasn't always a bad thing. I have a Sly & the Family Stone album with a great song on it called "We Love All" which seems to have been buried for decades. But in a lot of cases, there are songs that just don't fit with the album they wind up getting stuck on. The producers and labels would have been better off saving it for a rarities collection.
The sound of wind can be comforting in itself. It sounds like your personal needs for music are being met, anyway. Leonard Cohen remained a great dramatic singer through the end. And Lerner and Loewe certainly came up with some good tunes.
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