{"id":14,"date":"2015-08-08T06:24:52","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T06:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/?p=14"},"modified":"2016-03-26T23:07:33","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T23:07:33","slug":"embracing-entire-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/blog\/embracing-entire-albums\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing Entire Albums"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u00a0In the old days, they were called \u201csingles\u201d. Which was ironic, considering that they always came in pairs.<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\""Achoo--Cha<\/a>
\u201cAchoo\u2013Cha Cha\u201d by the McGuire Sisters\u2026a forgotten classic!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Of course, you were stuck with a \u201cB\u201d side\u2014a less popular song, generally by the same artist.<\/p>\n

(Not that the \u201cB\u201d side was necessarily unappreciated. I am much fonder of \u201cAchoo\u2014Cha Cha\u201d than the \u201cA\u201d side of the McGuire Sisters<\/a>\u2019 more famous single, \u201cMay You Always\u201d.)<\/p>\n

Singling out a hit song is hardly a new idea \u2013 it goes back well over fifty years.<\/p>\n

Through the magic of streaming, you can now purchase just the hit song, with nary a \u201cB\u201d side in sight to detract from your enjoyment of it.<\/p>\n

I cannot help feeling that this is a shame. Although artists still release albums, fewer people are buying them.<\/p>\n

After all, why waste money on songs you may not like?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Some albums are just loose collections of songs.<\/p>\n

Or compilations of works by different artists.<\/p>\n

Or maybe even \u201cbest of\u201d samplers of greatest hits.<\/p>\n

I have many such samplers in my collection, and they have often inspired me to purchase entire albums by featured artists.<\/p>\n

Gems inside of Jewel Cases<\/h2>\n

Some albums are more than mere compilations.<\/p>\n

Some are albums are truly artistic visions, deliberately orchestrated using carefully-selected sounds and styles to express complex themes.<\/p>\n

Each song is like a facet of the jewel that is the whole album.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Album as its own World<\/h2>\n

The original 1985 release of This Is the Sea<\/em><\/a> by The Waterboys is an internal musical journey, its theme almost entirely cohesive.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It is a much darker album than some of the other Waterboys offerings (such as Room to Roam<\/em>). It triumphs in its exhortation to be true to one\u2019s own identity\u2014to release burdens of falsehoods and the expectations of others:<\/p>\n

These things you keep, you better throw ’em away
\nYou wanna turn your back on your soulless days
\nOnce you were tethered, now you are free\u2026<\/p>\n

That was the river, this is the sea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This Is the Sea <\/em>is but one example of many powerful albums which can be best appreciated in their entirety, and in their original song order.<\/p>\n

There are, admittedly,\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The object of “Trumpets”, a love song, is a strong, authentic personality\u2014whose 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2014like an accelerating tide, with breaking waves of truth and release.<\/p>\n

Simple Ties to Bind Music Together<\/h2>\n
\"A<\/a>
A Wild Rose: Celtic Songs of Love<\/em> by Pamela Bruner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not all studio albums have a complex philosophical theme.<\/p>\n

Some are just simple themes, tying together particular types of songs \u2013 like Donna Missigman’s Lullaby<\/em><\/a>, Elvis Presley’s His Hand in Mine<\/em><\/a>, or Pamela Bruner’s A Wild Rose: Celtic Songs of Love<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some are holiday-themed albums.<\/p>\n

Some are basically a portfolio, a collection of the artist\u2019s most recent work \u2013 but are still a showcase for the artist\u2019s growth, and their craft.<\/p>\n

Streaming a single song only gives you one sliver of the picture created by a whole album.<\/p>\n

Wonderful One-Hit Wonders<\/h2>\n

\"The<\/a>
“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” [and other should-have-been-hits!] by The Tokens<\/figcaption><\/figure>Some artists may never transcend the status of \u201cOne-Hit Wonder\u201d. In some cases, this may even be fair.<\/p>\n

Yet I\u2019ve come to know and love the under-appreciated works of such artists as The Tokens by listening to entire albums.<\/p>\n

The Tokens<\/a>, best known for \u201cThe Lion Sleeps Tonight\u201d (a song with a long, fascinating, and somewhat tragic history<\/a> of its own), released at least eighteen singles from 1961 to 1973.<\/p>\n

But \u201cThe Lion Sleeps Tonight\u201d remains their only single to achieve the top spot on the charts.<\/p>\n

If it weren\u2019t for the eponymous compilation album, I would not have enjoyed \u201cA Bird Flies Out Of Sight (Felicidad)\u201d, \u201cWater Prayer\u201d, \u201cA Tale of Two Lovers\u201d, or \u201cLittle Snow White Coupe\u201d \u2013 with their humor, energy, close harmony, and soaring soprano descants.<\/p>\n

If I had just streamed the hit single (\u201cThe Lion Sleeps Tonight\u201d), I\u2019d know and love that particular song<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 but not have much appreciation for the group as a whole.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Sound Bites of Singles<\/h2>\n

An album is an opportunity to get to know other dimensions of an artist, beyond what might get regular radio airplay.<\/p>\n

Radio and streaming services are wonderful tools for discovering new music and artists.<\/p>\n

But albums let us explore the depth and breadth of what each artist has to offer.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0In the old days, they were called \u201csingles\u201d. 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 \u201cB\u201d side\u2014a less popular … Continue reading Embracing Entire Albums<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[8,4,13,14,10,15,12,11,16,5,7,6,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":64,"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225,"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stellawriting.com\/victrola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}