"It's just an album"

Two new books are out, one on 1001 albums to hear in this life, another on 1001 songs to hear. Fear not, I don't intend to go through the lists with pithy comments (for starters, I don't know what they are, since I don't have the books). But I was interested in the comments made by the author of the 1001 songs book, who claimed that his book was the more relevant of the two, simply because iPods and the like have made albums "redundant". I unfortunately can't disagree, because it does seem like the general trend is to disregard albums and go for Best Ofs.

Is there anything wrong with that? What's the matter with choosing a Best Of anyway? Well, there's nothing wrong with them, but I think keeping them exclusively can lead you to miss out. Sometimes. If I just had Skeletons From The Closet, then I would've missed out on Terrapin. Then again, if I had So Many Roads, that wouldn't be a problem, so bad example. So how about this - if I just had Wingspan, I wouldn't have "Mamunia" or "Dear Boy". Of course, then I would have "Junior's Farm"...hey, these things are looking more tempting by the minute!

I don't think there's a whole lot wrong with a good compilation. But the trouble is when one begins to identify someone solely based on their "hits" or "best" material. They're great for a first introduction, but it's best to follow them up I think. Which inevitably leads one to the state where the compilation then becomes redundant...! I feel however that most would see the albums as but collections of songs, which would make buying compilations much more logical. Again, there's nothing wrong with this, but I don't think I'd appreciate Quadrophenia say if I applied my old strategem of listening to an album once and picking out which songs were good on a first listen*.

Yet while I feel that a good compilation is a fine choice, I think it's also important not to dismiss the concepts of albums as art. This seems to be a growing risk in this day and age, but there seems to be a growing opinion that the whole concept is outdated and flawed anyway. I think one argument is that singles can be as artistic as albums. Now, I don't deny that, and as such it's probably not possible to compare albums and songs. Yet I do sense that this argument is being taken to an extreme, wherein people say "We don't need albums at all!", thus focussing exclusively on songs. A place for everything...by all means enjoy singles, indeed revere them when appropriate, but don't think they invalidate albums! (The opposite applies equally well!)

My own sins include owning not a single CCR album, nor a single Birthday Party album, save for compilations of the two. Whether owning Hatful Of Hollow over the first two Smiths ablums is a crime, I'm not sure. The Party's Hits is alright I suppose, but I'm pretty sure there's more to CCR than their compilation. Anyhow, better run through the jungle.

* I actually don't remember when I cured myself of this affliction. I remember doing this for some of the Moodies' albums, and definitely remember doing it for The White Album. I'm suspecting the seeds of change were sown when I first came across Mr. Starostin's webpage, which would probably be sometime mid-2003. Who would've guessed from the way I talk about these things? I'm really blessed with becoming elitist at an alarmingly quick rate!