I see the question online at least twice a month.

It didn’t make sense then, and it doesn’t make sense now. Not to me.

Somebody (probably under 30) will go online and ask some form of this question: “Is there an album you’ll listen to all the way through?” Or, “Name an album you’ll listen to without skipping any songs on it.”

Huh?

What the hell are you talking about?

Apparently, the music world underwent a huge shift when I wasn’t paying attention. And it annoys me. Mostly on behalf of the artists, but a good chunk of it is me.

Who doesn’t buy an album to listen to the whole thing? Why would anyone do that?

But this is the way of the modern music world. Things have shifted in a big way. Or so it would seem.

Over the last several years, I’ve seen kids (including my own) live their musical lives around playlists. My generation was no different, only we called them “mixtapes.” But there is a subtle difference.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but my generation (X) was far more likely to play an entire album before deciding which tracks to put on tape. (That is, assuming you bought the album in the first place. If you just recorded songs off the radio, that’s a whole different thing.) Or, we listened to a couple of singles on the radio, then decided they were good enough to buy the entire album.

It doesn’t seem to work that way anymore. Too many people act as if an entire album is too long and isn’t worthy of that much time.

It never occurred to me not to listen to an entire album, regardless of length. Frank Zappa’s Läther, for example, runs three CDs totaling just under three hours. When I want to hear it, I clear my schedule. It’s a wonderful way to spend time.

It’s sacrilegious to me to not listen to the entirety of Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. It’s too damned good to skip songs. Why would people want to do that?

Modern listeners seem to have the attention span of a ferret on a double espresso. (It’s an old joke, but still a favorite.) They can’t seem to sit still long enough to truly appreciate a musician’s work. And musicians have caught on.

I was chatting up my Break’s Over recording project with a friend. My plan was to get three or four songs where I wanted them, then release them to streaming platforms for free as an EP. However, I’ve learned this is not the best strategy.

Instead, the best thing to do is release one song at a time, then offer up an EP with a special bonus not yet released.

Interesting.

I’m starting to notice albums getting shorter as well. Adrian Belew started doing this a couple of decades ago with his Side One album. He kept that album, Side Two, and Side Three at around thirty minutes each, which he figured was the maximum amount of time he could keep listeners engaged. Side Four is a live album, so that was allowed to stretch out.

I can’t speak to how well it worked, as I was in for the long haul anyway.

More than a few albums I’ve listened to have clocked in at under forty minutes, like so many seemed to in the seventies. If that’s what it takes, I suppose artists had best make the adjustment.

I noticed Steven Wilson and Peter Gabriel both releasing their new works to streamers one track at a time. I’m sure more than a few fans are eating it up! Me? I tend to listen to the first song released, then back off to wait for the full album.

So, why can’t I get onboard with everyone else? I gave that a bit of thought.

To me, singles are fine. But they feel a bit disposable. One single amongst a playlist of other singles is easily lost in the shuffle. You hear it, you forget about it, and you move on. To the mind of consumers, the album is an afterthought.

To me, an album is more than a mere collection of songs. It’s an experience.

An artist offers up an album because they want you to experience their musical vision from start to finish. Maybe it’s a concept album. Maybe it’s a collection of musical essays. Maybe it’s a thought process broken up into more consumable pieces. Regardless, a full album is a whole unto itself. It was not meant to be consumed one song at a time over several months.

Fortunately, things appear to be changing.

I’m reading that more and more young people are going back to albums from the seventies (like from Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, and Pink Floyd) and experiencing albums as they were originally intended. It can be funny at times because some of these kids sound like they just discovered fire. Welcome to the club, kid. Most of us never left.

So, here’s hoping what seems to be a trend once again becomes the norm. A musician works long and hard to present their vision. The least we can do is listen.

#cirdecsongs

If you would like to have your music reviewed, contact me at cirdecsongs@gmail.com