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[Adam Dempsey]

An interesting read and recognition of the importance of the Album, its flow, and how it's greater than the sum of its parts...


Video killed the radio star, and now the iPod is lording it over the album, writes Simon Castles
Keeping it all together in the iAge

[Jerry Tubb]

Adam Dempsey wrote on Sun, 14 October 2007 01:30

An interesting read and recognition of the importance of the Album, its flow, and how it's greater than the sum of its parts...

To go retro, I thought about having a dual sided CD pressed, a type of dual-disc, with Sides A and B, much like the LP.

The first song of the B side would have to be so great that you'd wanna get your butt up off the couch and flip the disc over. The end of Side A signalled an "Intermission" of sorts, good time for a trip to the fridge for another Dr. Pepper and a Moon-Pie.

The LP format, (and even cassette) had a theatrical flow much like a good drama, book, movie.

I find that charm missing in the "download only what you want" & "give me what I want NOW" paradigm.

Perhaps one could format a record on the iPod in two parts to simulate the LP experience.

But whatever, it's a changing world.

I downloaded One song from iTunes the other night. It was "Guitar Blues" from Oliver Nelson's "Live From Los Angeles" 1967 LP, featuring the great Mel Brown on an extended guitar jam with a sassy big band riffing away in the background. I just wanted to hear the song at that very moment, and for 99 cents I thought, gee it's kinda like a modern virtual jukebox.

The song sounded OK on my meager computer speakers at home, but didn't fare so well at the studio, the 128k mp3 was almost unlistenable on good studio monitors. Ironically it was tolerable on the earbuds... or is that an oxymoron(?)

So if I wanted to get really serious about listening to the song, I'd dig out the LP which I still have somewhere, or go Purchase the CD at my favorite old school record store here in Austin, Waterloo Records at 6th and Lamar... even if they had to special order it for full list price : - )

JT

[Bob Boyd]

We consume audio much like we consume fast food these days.

And between the lack of dynamics, 128kbps encoding and the cheap earbuds, the listening audience is dumbing down right in front of us.

[Jerry Tubb]

Bob Boyd wrote on Sun, 14 October 2007 10:34

We consume audio much like we consume fast food these days. And between the lack of dynamics, 128kbps encoding and the cheap earbuds, the listening audience is dumbing down right in front of us.

Surely there will be a backlash at some point.

The pendulum will swing the other way(?)

To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

FWIW I just upgraded my 5.1 surround system and bought a new SACD/DVD-A player.

But I don't count... being on the Supply side, rather than the target demographic consumer side.

JT