"There was a guy. An underwater guy, who controlled the sea."
Is it sad that my list of top five favorite albums of all time is still the same since 2001? Is it because I'm old? Or is it because the "art of the album" is dead?
Okay. Let's get it out of the way. My top five favorite albums of all time are as follows:
The Clash – London Calling (1979)
The Replacements – Pleased To Meet Me (1987)
Pixies – Doolittle (1989)
Primal Scream – Screamadelica (1991)
Wilco – Hotel Yankee Foxtrot (2001)
Keep in mind, I think "top" lists are as arbitrary and useless and self-serving as the next person. No one really cares about, or is impressed by, another person's list. You're only proclaiming your list because you think you're a pop-culture, musical snob. You're only setting yourself up for social ridicule. See "The 25 greatest albums of the last 25 years (as of 2005)".
But this story isn't about the list. (It's an awesome list BTW. And I will cut you if you disagree.) It's about the disappearance of the artistic musical experience within the confines of a single album. I'll say it again. I think the "art of the album" is dead.
"If the ground's not cold, everything is gonna burn. We'll all take turns. I'll get mine too."
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of Pixies' Doolittle. Doolittle, which has been labeled as one of the most influential rock albums ever made, even 30 years later gets analyzed, dissected, critiqued, panned and praised – as new fans discover its dark and wonderful brilliance.
Look, I don't disagree with the proclamation that Doolittle not only represents the band's highest achievement and the inspirational spark for countless future bands, but also marks the exact moment of commercial sellout. The Pixies skipped a dozen required checkpoints that usually comes between a debut album and a sophomore effort. But the difference between Surfer Rosa (1988) and Doolittle (1989) has more to do with substance, than simply getting a new producer and more money to record a shiny sounding record. (Apparently, Surfer Rosa was recorded in an apartment. Legend has it Where is my mind? was recorded in a bathroom.)
The fact is – Doolittle stands out as a benchmark example of a complete album experience. From the 16 thumping opening notes off Kim Deal's bass guitar on Debaser, to her beautiful vocal melodies on Here Comes Your Man, to Frank Black's screams of "God is seven!!" on Monkey Gone to Heaven, to Joey Santiago's mind-melting guitar riffs on No. 13 Baby – Doolittle set the bar for rock bands for the next 20 years. Just ask Kurt Cobain. (Uh..well, when you see him.)
In a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about Nevermind, Cobain said "I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies." He went on to say, "We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard." Nirvana went on to use Surfer Rosa's producer Steve Albini on In Utero, hoping to capture that bathroom guitar sound.
"If man is five, then the devil is six. And if the devil is six, then God is seven!"
Part of what makes Doolittle so interesting, is the assumption that these four kids from western Massachusetts were angry, socially disturbed youths. And that they were so artistically sophisticated and musically advanced, that their unique sounds and dark lyrics held some special deep meaning – for all to decipher.
In an interview with Frank Black, several years after its release, when asked about the deep, dark meaning behind some of the songs on Doolittle, he was asked what he meant when he screams "God is seven!" He answered: "It doesn’t mean anything. It rhymes with 'monkey gone to heaven.'" That's just good song writing. Brilliant.
Creating a perfect album is partially the results of good song writing, but mostly due to total luck. It's that lighting-in-a-bottle moment that every artist hopes to experience. But when Napster first introduced the idea of file-sharing over the internet in 1999, followed by Apple's introduction of iTunes in 2003 – the concept of the "album" started to die. Today, iTunes has built an empire of selling songs, not albums.
Some artists like U2 and Wilco have tried to continue to create self-contained musical experiences (an album) by giving away their albums on iTunes. But it doesn't work. It's not because of the music. It's because of the way listeners now consume their music. One song at a time.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of great songs that have been created since 2001. But none of them exist on an album that I would want to own. Most of them are downloaded to iTunes or part of a streaming channel on Spotify or Pandora. No longer are we interested the storytelling embedded within a full collection of songs by a single artist.
So the idea that an album today can have the type of impact that Dark Side of The Moon, St. Pepper, Pet Sounds, London Calling, Thriller, Straight Outta Compton, Pleased to Meet Me, Doolittle, OK Computer, or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot did back before 2001 – just doesn't seem possible.
Check out this album: https://music.apple.com/us/album/doolittle/7060469
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