Inspired by the top 100 albums show the other day, I got to thinking about how the art form that is the album is faring in today's musical environment, now that downloading, the Winamp playlist, and what my friend referred to as "the march of the iPods" have become key aspects of modern culture. Even the venerable administrator of another forum I posted in once said in a music thread "I don't like bands, I like songs". A fair view to take by all means, but how does this reflect on the concept of the album?

So people, the questions are as follows...

If the album can indeed be classified as an art form, is it dead? Was Channel 4's terrific program a fitting memorial to its demise?

Do you prefer single songs or an album?

If you have an album, and stick it on, do you listen to it start to finish or will you happily skip tracks?

I have come to the conclusion that while it may not be quite "dead", it's certainly up against it. Absolution by Muse being a clear recent example of a well-composed, complete album, but perhaps one of few shining examples in a sea of contemporary rubbish.

I think, while not all albums are works of art, it certainly can be used to that purpose very well. While I'm not so sure myself that OK Computer is worthy of the number one spot it obtained, I certainly wouldn't withold it that title, seeing as it not only fulfils all qualities for, but also pushes the boundaries of, the album as an art form. I would have liked to see concept albums like the Who's Tommy, and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon further up for the same reasons.

So what do we think?

Hmm, interesting.

I think the mark of a good band/artist is the ability to make consistently strong albums.

This may sound obvious, but with the development of downloads and MP3s, individual songs are taking priority over LPs. People can now pick and choose the tracks the want, so what is the motivation for bands to release a collection of several songs in one go? The introduction of iPods and iShuffle mean that people may begin to prefer skipping through their favourite individual tracks.

However, the album's death is not due anytime too soon, so meanwhile, I think it marks out the quality acts from those who have just a handful of strong songs.
I do listen to entire albums, providing I like all of the songs - which thankfully happens often, because I am very choosey about buying LPs, and will never buy one for just one or two songs, or for fashion's sake.

I completely agree that it's an art form. Working in a record store myself is a testament to that fact. It's the whole package, the songs themselves, the liner notes, the cover art. It certainly appears to be dying, but I don't think it's dead yet. My landlord has two young sons that call me "grandma" because I have a discman. I refuse to buy an iPod for exactly this reason. Little sods.

well, im not too bothered by the physical appearance of albums, even if it does make it a lot more fun to look at or play with. the actual content of the music is what i look out for most. as an art form, the very tracklisting is important, with albums that have the tracks done in just the right order always being standout albums, like coming on strong by hot chip, or any tool album.

incidentally, lateralus by tool has one of the best album packages evarrrrrr

I think the album is more of an art form than it used to be. The LP used to be just a collection of songs put together to make more money. But over the decades I think many (not all) artists have tried to make a collection of songs that work well together, tell a story or are based on a concept. Just as you have "singles" bands, you also have "album" bands. Spiritualized for instance do not really concentrate on their singles - many have to be edited down fom the original LP version - they are intended as album tracks and work even better when part of an album.

You do still get albums that are just a collection of songs, many of which are "pop" albums. But then Pop has always been seen as both a "singles" and "disposable" form of music - you only have to go to a car boot sale and see almost on every other stall unwanted Take That, Steps, and now, Busted CDs.

I used to buy singles every week (all the indie new releases that took my fancy or looked interesting) but now I hardly ever do - just mainly albums (recent and old). Only tunes I download are bootleg mixes or live concerts - I personally like to have the artwork, sleevenotes and an actual disc in my possession. I only listen to the CDs at home and on an i-pod on the way to/at work - I rarely skip through CDs, and even on the ipod I try to listen to complete albums rather than skip through.

Boy, did I crawl up my own arse on that one.

I don't think that albums are dead, or even dying, more albums (on average) are sold each week than singles and, whilst there are example of people downloading just songs, there are also examples of people buying albums after getting a single song because they liked the one song they bought.

I think there are still bands who put out albums which fit together well rather then ones which are only collections of songs and there always will be because bands want to show that they are talented enough to create an album of consistent quality, not all succeed, but many try.

I have an ipod, and i will have it on random every so often if i don't know what to listen to, but i will always prefer to listen to an album all the way through if it is a brilliant album.

i think that sums it up really - 'serious' artists will still produce albums and people will still buy them but it also gives a bit more freedom to the consumer - if we only like one or two songs we can buy them individually rather than spend twelve or thirteen quid on a cd.

when i buy a new album i will listen to it for few weeks but then it becomes one of many on itunes and i skip and jump from artist to artist, genre to genre, etc.

and on my ipod i use random or flick from song to song - the only exception to this is 'a ghost is born' which works better as an album than anything else i have.

i think the rise of electronic media has freed us up which on the whole is a good thing.

In my opinion my tastes in this matter are relatively immature. I find that I can enjoy a single song on an album rather than listening to it the whole way through. I think, in part, it's due to my short attention span - I can't really get into a song without something/someone telling me that's worth my time. Occasionally I will listen to a song and just think 'wow, this is for me' but more often than not I'm Mr Singles. However I do enjoy making mix CDs of my favourite songs which I can listen to endlessly so I am not completely inept in that respect, I simply can identify the singles on an album and enjoy them more so than the rest.

I must have only ever bought about 3 singles in my life, and I never buy single tracks to download. Albums are so much better, as a complete package. Attention span isn't really something that applies in this case as a lot of metal songs tend to be extremely long by other genre's standards anyway (Morningrise by Opeth for instance is only 5 songs, none of which are less than 11 minutes long, one of them is over 20).



Lateralus is a fantastic album, packaging and all. Tool don't release albums very often (Lateralus was in 2001 and Ænima was 1996, Undertow in 1992 I think), but when they do they're absolute masterpieces. They work best as full albums, the weird "in between" tracks serve as a strange intro to the full songs (like Intermission being a cheesy keyboard version of the main riff from the song that follows it, Jimmy, and Aeon Blue Apocalypse serves as a good intro to The Patient). I'm wondering if there are any tool fans besides me who actually like listening to (-)Ions. For those who don't know it's basically a track about 5 minutes long of static and thunder and weird electrical buzzing.

The music album is, was, and always will be an art form. More so than a single.
It's a compile of an artist's work, by the artist. Not only record (& usually write) the songs, but they picked exactly which songs of theirs they want on the album & in which order they appear. - Quite obvious, I know, but the order or songs is very important in making a good album.

... Then there's the artwork & type of packaging. ... but I'll not go into that.

In answer to the other questions, I've bought about 5 singles in my life. (& around 200 albums)

If there's dud track on an album I otherwise love, I will skip it.

I think the album will always have a place in my heart over mp3s, because I would rather listen an astounding complete album rather than a bunch of mp3s. Led Zeppelin IV in my opinion is the best complete album ever made.

Though if I do like only 1 song from a person/band, I will just try and get that 1 song.

I do really want a record player and some vinyls aswell, they're so much cooler than CDs.