SnowGhost Music

Rome wasn’t built in a day. You can’t rush perfection, nor can you put a price on it. Good things come to those who wait. These are not just the clichéd excuses of contractors and the eternally slow and lazy. These are the universal explanations for why we have to wait so long for something we thought we should have already had. Sometimes the delay mixes with anticipation and magnifies the elation when the product or project turns out nicely, and other times the waiting can multiply the disappointment. I can’t begin to describe to you how disappointed I was when Jaws 3 (in 3-D!) finally came out, not to mention Jar Jar Binks years later, so instead I will talk about music.

Much has been made lately about the impending death of the CD and the music industry (see previous blogs), and part of that discussion certainly has to include the possible death of the album. I’m a firm believer in the power of the album, and I think we are a long way from anything so drastic happening, but we are certainly in store for some serious change and evolution. I have my fingers crossed that said change and evolution will include the death of the shitty album.

The shitty album is a disease that almost no band or artist is immune to, with the possible exceptions of Bob Marley and Fugazi, because albums need to be made and albums need to be a certain length. We all have off days, so we forgive good bands for their sub par albums and we focus on the good albums. The real problem is the shitty album from the shitty band that has no business being allowed to record so many songs. The term One-Hit Wonder comes to mind, and it is a deadly accurate cliché, because sometimes one actually has to wonder how a shitty band can somehow make one great song and then never come close to repeating the feat. In the past and to this day, this one hit had to be packaged with other songs to compromise an album, and thus the true shitty album.

But people buy, borrow, or steal songs one at a time now. There is no need to subject yourself to any song you don’t want to hear. This is terrible news for the shitty album and great news for the good album. People will still buy a whole album, especially in physical form, if all the songs are good. Artists and producers know this now, so when a band has a great new song, or maybe a few good ones, they can record them while they are still fresh and not worry about having to include them in a batch of unrelated songs. I believe this will lead to more cohesive albums, which is good for fans as well as artists.

Now perfection doesn’t have to cost so much because the length of perfection is no longer defined as approximately 45 minutes. The line between EP and Album will possibly even disappear because those type of time and space constraints will no longer exist. Fans don’t have to wait around forever for an album only to find out that most of the wait was because the band spent so much time trying to bridge the gap between their good songs and bad songs, and bands don’t have to wait around for a producer to tie everything up in a neat little package. They also now have the opportunity to offer their product in whatever format suits the songs the best. If this sounds like another episode of Everybody Wins, it’s because it is, and the shitty album will have to watch it all alone on its deathbed.