In the old days, they were called “singles”. Which was ironic, considering that they always came in pairs.
Decades ago, before the dawn of digitization and streaming media, you could purchase a hit song without buying an entire album, if you were so inclined.
Of course, you were stuck with a “B” side—a less popular song, generally by the same artist.
(Not that the “B” side was necessarily unappreciated. I am much fonder of “Achoo—Cha Cha” than the “A” side of the McGuire Sisters’ more famous single, “May You Always”.)
Singling out a hit song is hardly a new idea – it goes back well over fifty years.
Through the magic of streaming, you can now purchase just the hit song, with nary a “B” side in sight to detract from your enjoyment of it.
I cannot help feeling that this is a shame. Although artists still release albums, fewer people are buying them.
After all, why waste money on songs you may not like?
Still, this seems akin to buying one or two select chapters from an entire novel. Or only watching the trailers from a movie, and never watching the film in its entirety.
Some albums are just loose collections of songs.
Or compilations of works by different artists.
Or maybe even “best of” samplers of greatest hits.
I have many such samplers in my collection, and they have often inspired me to purchase entire albums by featured artists.
Gems inside of Jewel Cases
Some albums are more than mere compilations.
Some are albums are truly artistic visions, deliberately orchestrated using carefully-selected sounds and styles to express complex themes.
Each song is like a facet of the jewel that is the whole album.
Embrace the entire album, and find yourself immersed in a world created by the artist, much like you might lose yourself in a world created out of words by a novelist.
The Album as its own World
The original 1985 release of This Is the Sea by The Waterboys is an internal musical journey, its theme almost entirely cohesive.
It is empowering, and ultimately exultant. It combines introspection with anger. It urges us to dig down deep inside, to discover and embrace our most authentic selves.
It is a much darker album than some of the other Waterboys offerings (such as Room to Roam). It triumphs in its exhortation to be true to one’s own identity—to release burdens of falsehoods and the expectations of others:
These things you keep, you better throw ’em away
You wanna turn your back on your soulless days
Once you were tethered, now you are free…That was the river, this is the sea.
There is a definite sense of moving from a starting point (the river, or limited worldview) to the sea (flowing outward in ever-increasing torrents of freedom). For this reason, I find it best to listen to the album in order, rather than shuffling the songs.
This Is the Sea is but one example of many powerful albums which can be best appreciated in their entirety, and in their original song order.
There are, admittedly, a few of songs on the album that don’t fit the theme of self-exploration, such as “Old England”. It only tangentially connects, comparing idealistic images with the narrator’s grim view of reality.
The track following, “Be My Enemy”, is not about personal contemplation at all. It’s more like an action-packed romp through a surreal graphic novel. However, there is a wild energy, and sense of emotionally-satisfying personal power. Viscerally, these feelings tie in with the album’s theme: embracing the freedom of one’s true self.
The object of “Trumpets”, a love song, is a strong, authentic personality—whose love blares with the brassy strength of trumpets, the heat of high summer, and the depth of an ocean. To the narrator, “the best of dreams” is to be with someone who is intimately, undeniably authentic.
The final song of the album, “This is the Sea”, brings the listener fully back to the album’s subject. Its strong, rhythmic guitar strums are like the waves of the ocean—like an accelerating tide, with breaking waves of truth and release.
Simple Ties to Bind Music Together
Not all studio albums have a complex philosophical theme.
Some are just simple themes, tying together particular types of songs – like Donna Missigman’s Lullaby, Elvis Presley’s His Hand in Mine, or Pamela Bruner’s A Wild Rose: Celtic Songs of Love.
Some are holiday-themed albums.
Some are basically a portfolio, a collection of the artist’s most recent work – but are still a showcase for the artist’s growth, and their craft.
Streaming a single song only gives you one sliver of the picture created by a whole album.
Wonderful One-Hit Wonders
Yet I’ve come to know and love the under-appreciated works of such artists as The Tokens by listening to entire albums.
The Tokens, best known for “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (a song with a long, fascinating, and somewhat tragic history of its own), released at least eighteen singles from 1961 to 1973.
But “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” remains their only single to achieve the top spot on the charts.
If it weren’t for the eponymous compilation album, I would not have enjoyed “A Bird Flies Out Of Sight (Felicidad)”, “Water Prayer”, “A Tale of Two Lovers”, or “Little Snow White Coupe” – with their humor, energy, close harmony, and soaring soprano descants.
If I had just streamed the hit single (“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”), I’d know and love that particular song – but not have much appreciation for the group as a whole.
Beyond the Sound Bites of Singles
An album is an opportunity to get to know other dimensions of an artist, beyond what might get regular radio airplay.
Radio and streaming services are wonderful tools for discovering new music and artists.
But albums let us explore the depth and breadth of what each artist has to offer.