3/15/13- Your Albums

[Niveous]

Beware the Ides of March!

So, over the many years I've been at Songfight, I have often talked about my dislike of the album. I used to believe that the better format was singles and albums were better suited as greatest hits vehicles. But my opinion has changed over the years. Now, I see their benefit and have added more full albums to my jukebox.

QotD: How many albums have you released? (provide links if you want)

[Billy's Little Trip]

QotD: I've only done one album with my band as Billy's Little Trip. http://billyslittletrip.bandcamp.com/

We are planning to do a Psychotics album soon. We are going to pick around 14 (45 minutes to an hour) of our fav Song Fight title songs we did here and re-record them without time restraints. All of our songs here are pretty much in demo form, but they are done for the most part. The leg work is done and we can focus on breathing life and energy into them for a nice quality finished set.

[fluffy]

qotd: three; there's the really old bleep-bloop electronica one and the two more recent ones. The really old bleep-bloop electronica one still sells more copies on iTunes/CDBaby/etc. even though it's been available for free download for years. WTF.

[JonPorobil]

On the Ides of March in 2010, my wife got in an awful motorcycle accident that could easily have taken her life if she hadn't worn proper protective garments.

Every year since, we've held an "I'm Not Dead!" party to commemorate the fact that she's not dead. I've been frantically cleaning up the house for this occasion. Lots of our friends have RSVP'd to it, including my new girlfriend, who will probably be meeting a lot of folks from our social group for the first time. Gonna be pretty crazy.

QotD: I'm an album guy. I like putting on a compilation of songs by one artist and letting them take me on a journey. I like that albums can encompass the big "single" style hits, but also the quieter or more experimental pieces that wouldn't get radio play.

I've got two albums of my own that I consider official, as well as another two that have resulted from February Album Writing Month, but don't have the completeness or cohesion that I'd like. I'm working on a new one right now which will incorporate some material from my last successful FAWM and some material that nobody has heard yet.
An Air of Legitimacy - http://joneric.table2.com/music.php?album=6
Happiness is Subjective - http://joneric.table2.com/music.php?album=3

[roymond]

So, over the many years I've been at Songfight, I have often talked about my dislike of the album. I used to believe that the better format was singles and albums were better suited as greatest hits vehicles. But my opinion has changed over the years. Now, I see their benefit and have added more full albums to my jukebox.

Albums as a constructed set of songs mastered as an entity, is very different than a greatest hits vehicle (which could be mastered in the same manner). Even beyond the obvious concept album or rock-opera recording, there are albums that simply flow with great poetic pace and purpose. A few that come to mind are: Madonna's "Ray of Light", Doctor Dog's "Fate", various Steely Dan, and "Abbey Road" among thousands of others. The mastering process for an album is vital to its identity.

[Niveous]

You're now preaching to the choir Roymond. I have a greater appreciation of albums lately. My former opinion came from growing up as a chart watcher. Deep cuts don't mean as much when charts only focus on singles. But albums as a whole can do so much. They can be a snapshot of a time, set a specific tone, tell entire stories...

[fluffy]

The reason I stick with iPods and iTunes for my music playback is they're the only setup I've found which can automatically choose an entire album at random and play it in order. I have so much music that I don't want to actually decide what to listen to, but I also don't just want to hear a shuffled assortment of disconnected singles.

An album is a molecule of music. A detached song is like a free radical - unpredictably reactive and potentially carcinogenic.