There has been some conjecture that the album is dead, nobody bothers listening to an entire album anymore, so why should artists bother to spend the money and time making one when a few good singles would suffice. What are your thoughts on this? I’ve been working on an album, but should I? Do you actually want to hear an entire album from me? Or would another EP be enough? Or just a bunch of singles released one a month over a six month period? Tell me what you think. Is the album dead?
Is the album dead?
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I buy lots of singles of things I heard somewhere and loved, sometimes a full album by someone when I know at least 3 songs on the album will be worth buying as singles anyway, and full albums if they tell a longer-form story over the course of the album. Sometimes I buy a couple of songs on iTunes and then realise I just want the whole album, and that’s great – iTunes deals with that really well.
So I would say, what do the songs tell you to do? If you’re writing a selection of songs that tell a longer story together, that’s worthy of an album. But if each song stands on its own with less storytelling connection to the rest of the songs, then that’s a collection of singles.
Personally I always listen to whole albums rather than just singles. However there is nothing wrong with an EP after all it is really just a shorter album.
I grew up with tapes and listening to albums all the way through.
I only buy singles and EPs if I am truly in love with a band and want everything.
I don’t know how to fit this in with the dialogue here but the most recent Pixies album was a collection of singles and EPs and it was terrible.
Emma is completely right about doing what the songs tell you to do. Bruce Springsteen is known to cut great songs from albums if they don’t fit an album’s theme – that’s something I respect more than artists who just want their best cuts.