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penpusherWe're back to playing favorites. Okay. I shouldn't be so negative when it comes to the whole "favorites" concept. I know for some people, selecting a favorite song or a favorite musician or band is easier because they really do have particular ones that they love more than any other. It's just that, for me, it's extremely difficult to pick one favorite when it comes to these topics because I like so many things and those choices can sometimes be related to what I want to hear at that moment, which could be tied to my current mood or stuff I'm observing either in the news or my personal life or other non-related elements. I probably don't need to explain this because I'm sure you go through similar machinations at least some of the time.
But the idea of "Favorite Album" is another one of THOSE. I would guess that a favorite album has no tracks that you don't like. Or, maybe one that you'll stomach because the rest is great. It's tough to find an album that is perfect.
When we get back to it. this topic begs the question: what makes an album great? Is it like a "Concept Album", where all of the tracks share a common connection, or the album itself is telling a story? Is it just every track is the most popular, like a Greatest Hits Album? And for the record (pun intended) I wouldn't count a "Greatest Hits" Album as fair game for this category. Ditto to the "compilation album", so apologies to the soundtracks from "Forrest Gump" or "American Graffiti", or any of the Now That's What I Call Music! discs, and all others of that ilk. You are all excluded.
Really, Greatest Hits albums usually have something screwy. They'll leave off one track that you really wanted or that track will be some live performance that sounds bad or some "reimagined" studio recording version that you didn't ask for or they'll edit the tracks from the original down to a shortened version to fit more on there. It's the sort of stuff that made people hate the music industry and helped to explain why people weren't sad for them when the record labels and even the President of NARAS started complaining their long belly-ache re: "file sharing.".
Now, Albums really don't matter nearly as much anymore, unless you are a completist and just want all recordings by a particular singer or group. You can purchase any single track from most albums on Amazon or iTunes, so you aren't even committed to getting a full disc if you liked that one track, like all of us had to do all those years ago. How many albums did you buy for the hit single only to find out the rest of it was pure crap?!
And yes, there's also the purchasing the same song in different formats: vinyl 45, vinyl LP album, 8 track tape album, cassette tape album, compact disc album, mp3 track or album. How much did the music industry make by getting us to buy the same material over and over and over?
Will people care about albums in the future? I guess that's like asking will people care about music in the future... or maybe not. I think music is safe pretty much for all time. It's the format elements that might expand or contract, depending.
Before I get philosophical, let's get to the track.
Again just like on Day 1 I know for a fact that I probably would not choose this as the album in question on another day, like yesterday or tomorrow, so let's just get that out there first.
But I did actually spotlight the disc in my blog when it was first released, so I do have a history of promoting it. It's difficult to believe that this album is turning Sweet 16 this springtime, which is just a year or so younger than the performer who recorded it was at that time.
I'm talking about "Let Go" the debut album from Avril Lavigne
As I noted back in 2002, L.A. Reid was a producer on that disc and that certainly helped the young singer get beyond the run of the mill concepts offered by others her age and lifted it to a statement that was worth making, and more importantly to everyone involved, worth playing!
True, her song from that album, "Sk8er Boi" could have qualified for my Overplayed challenge, and even the first single from it: "Complicated" got more than its share of attention. listening to them again, now that both the world and the singer have moved on, seems rather charming, including Those Videos.
For my choice from this album, I wanted to pick a track that reflected the elements of her musicianship, captured the essence of the person she was at that moment and is a song I legitimately love. That's all encapsulated in my pick for Day 19: Avril Lavigne - "Things I'll Never Say."
But the idea of "Favorite Album" is another one of THOSE. I would guess that a favorite album has no tracks that you don't like. Or, maybe one that you'll stomach because the rest is great. It's tough to find an album that is perfect.
When we get back to it. this topic begs the question: what makes an album great? Is it like a "Concept Album", where all of the tracks share a common connection, or the album itself is telling a story? Is it just every track is the most popular, like a Greatest Hits Album? And for the record (pun intended) I wouldn't count a "Greatest Hits" Album as fair game for this category. Ditto to the "compilation album", so apologies to the soundtracks from "Forrest Gump" or "American Graffiti", or any of the Now That's What I Call Music! discs, and all others of that ilk. You are all excluded.
Really, Greatest Hits albums usually have something screwy. They'll leave off one track that you really wanted or that track will be some live performance that sounds bad or some "reimagined" studio recording version that you didn't ask for or they'll edit the tracks from the original down to a shortened version to fit more on there. It's the sort of stuff that made people hate the music industry and helped to explain why people weren't sad for them when the record labels and even the President of NARAS started complaining their long belly-ache re: "file sharing.".
Now, Albums really don't matter nearly as much anymore, unless you are a completist and just want all recordings by a particular singer or group. You can purchase any single track from most albums on Amazon or iTunes, so you aren't even committed to getting a full disc if you liked that one track, like all of us had to do all those years ago. How many albums did you buy for the hit single only to find out the rest of it was pure crap?!
And yes, there's also the purchasing the same song in different formats: vinyl 45, vinyl LP album, 8 track tape album, cassette tape album, compact disc album, mp3 track or album. How much did the music industry make by getting us to buy the same material over and over and over?
Will people care about albums in the future? I guess that's like asking will people care about music in the future... or maybe not. I think music is safe pretty much for all time. It's the format elements that might expand or contract, depending.
Before I get philosophical, let's get to the track.
Again just like on Day 1 I know for a fact that I probably would not choose this as the album in question on another day, like yesterday or tomorrow, so let's just get that out there first.
But I did actually spotlight the disc in my blog when it was first released, so I do have a history of promoting it. It's difficult to believe that this album is turning Sweet 16 this springtime, which is just a year or so younger than the performer who recorded it was at that time.
I'm talking about "Let Go" the debut album from Avril Lavigne
As I noted back in 2002, L.A. Reid was a producer on that disc and that certainly helped the young singer get beyond the run of the mill concepts offered by others her age and lifted it to a statement that was worth making, and more importantly to everyone involved, worth playing!
True, her song from that album, "Sk8er Boi" could have qualified for my Overplayed challenge, and even the first single from it: "Complicated" got more than its share of attention. listening to them again, now that both the world and the singer have moved on, seems rather charming, including Those Videos.
For my choice from this album, I wanted to pick a track that reflected the elements of her musicianship, captured the essence of the person she was at that moment and is a song I legitimately love. That's all encapsulated in my pick for Day 19: Avril Lavigne - "Things I'll Never Say."