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Artists that embrace the art form of the album.

post #1 of 23
3/13/10 at 3:43am
Thread Starter 
I was just in the middle of studying genetic engineering, I got bored (as I do), and started to listen to De-loused in the Comatorium.

The Mars Volta are one of the few bands nowadays that truly embrace the album. Albums like De-Loused and Frances the Mute are made to be listened to, from start to finish. It feels wrong to arbitrarily choose and listen to a single song within the album without listening to what came before and what will follow.
I believe that a well formed album can be just as affecting as the most beautiful of paintings and most insightful of novels, which is why I do my best to pay attention to artists that still believe in the album as a means of expression.

In this thread, I don't really want to talk about past artists that have utilised the album as an art form. Instead I think we should talk about the current artists that are doing it.

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I listened to Fear of a Blank Planet by Porcupine Tree. This is a perfect example of an album that flows, sticks to a concept/theme, and of whose songs just aren't the same unless they're played in complete succession of one another.

Another honorable mention goes to Opeth. Albums like Still life, Watershed, and Ghost Reveries, I feel, are albums that must be listened from the beginning to the end to be totally appreciated.

Who are your favourite contemporary artists that are still sticking with the album?
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post #2 of 23
3/13/10 at 4:06am
I was just about to mention opeth and then i saw you already mentioned them.
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post #3 of 23
3/13/10 at 5:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dublo7 View Post
Who are your favourite contemporary artists that are still sticking with the album?
Porcupine Tree. Steven Wilson intended their latest release "The Incident" to flow from beginning to end as one work. There has been some debate on this - mainly because of the division into "tracks", so it is disputed by some.

Interview extract from: Porcupine Tree Frontman Steven Wilson Talks About 'The Incident' - Noisecreep ...
Wilson suggests the record be listened to as a whole, but knows that in the era of the iPod, that's just not going to happen. "In a way, what we're doing here is very willful and self-indulgent," he says. "This record, more than any record before, is a record that you have to listen to as an album-length experience. People don't really listen to records that way anymore. Its very hard to get people to do that."
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post #4 of 23
3/13/10 at 5:57am
I just finished listening to Lou Reed "The Raven" (2003). It's an album you need to listen from beginning to end to get. Lou Reed "Magic and Loss" (1992) is similar. Both albums have a theme going on. You can't get the theme just listening to a few of the songs.

Lou Reed isn't the best example, but it's what's on top of my head at the moment.
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post #5 of 23
3/13/10 at 9:04am
Sigur Ros, I get sucked into Takk... everytime I put it on... I even managed to miss my bus stop one day
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post #6 of 23
3/13/10 at 2:06pm
Check this out: right after I read the title I was thinking about 'Fear of a Blank Planet', but you already mentioned it. I think you're absolutely right about album-oriented music; this format can be SO powerful. In my opinion it's a shame that most people don't listen to music like it was usual years ago, when people cherished their vinyl records and actually maintained some kind of relationship with their music collection. Now it's mostly this infamous piece of software developed by Apple which delivers music through cables, and people download single songs to keep them on their harddisks, next to MANY other songs. There is nothing you can touch except of your hardware, there is no album art, and also you can just sit on your bottom while you download the song(s). Back then the 'relationship' started with getting out for buying the record, but well, ...

Even though I like this format, I realized just now that I don't know that many active artists who embrace it. The ones I could mention are really famous, so I probably don't have to mention them. I'll do it anyway: Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are amongst my favorites. There are some others whose albums are considered as cohesive or progressive, but the mentioned albums/artists REALLY feel like I'm listening to a story.
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post #7 of 23
3/15/10 at 3:20am
Sufjan Stevens? Especially the "Seven Swans" and "Run, Rabbit, Run" albums, the latter being an instrumental-only album.
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post #8 of 23
3/15/10 at 6:00am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by non-entity View Post
Check this out: right after I read the title I was thinking about 'Fear of a Blank Planet', but you already mentioned it. I think you're absolutely right about album-oriented music; this format can be SO powerful. In my opinion it's a shame that most people don't listen to music like it was usual years ago, when people cherished their vinyl records and actually maintained some kind of relationship with their music collection. Now it's mostly this infamous piece of software developed by Apple which delivers music through cables, and people download single songs to keep them on their harddisks, next to MANY other songs. There is nothing you can touch except of your hardware, there is no album art, and also you can just sit on your bottom while you download the song(s). Back then the 'relationship' started with getting out for buying the record, but well, ...

Even though I like this format, I realized just now that I don't know that many active artists who embrace it. The ones I could mention are really famous, so I probably don't have to mention them. I'll do it anyway: Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are amongst my favorites. There are some others whose albums are considered as cohesive or progressive, but the mentioned albums/artists REALLY feel like I'm listening to a story.
Yeah, Radiohead are another good one. Members of Radiohead have even mentioned in interviews that they strive to make albums, not just individual tracks to be listened to.

All Radiohead albums, maybe barring Pablo Honey and The Bends, are great examples of this.
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post #9 of 23
3/15/10 at 12:14pm
Tool, especially the album 10,000 Days. You really can not listen to that album other than straight through.
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post #10 of 23
3/16/10 at 9:50pm
Isis
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post #11 of 23
3/16/10 at 9:54pm
A entire genre.

Prog Rock.
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post #12 of 23
3/16/10 at 10:27pm
Radiohead and Porcupine Tree come to mind.
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post #13 of 23
3/17/10 at 1:41pm
Also check out The Decemberists- most notably The Hazards of Love. Think of it as following in the vein of the old Rock operas like The Wall.
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post #14 of 23
3/18/10 at 12:14am
Liars have released four great thematic albums.

I could name many more and frankly don't think the album is as endangered as I have read it reported before on Head-Fi.
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post #15 of 23
3/18/10 at 7:20pm
Secede - Tryshasla (CD, Album) at Discogs << That album popped into mind when reading the title. Infamous IDM album, great from start to finish.

Murcof Discography at Discogs << Most anything from this guy, my favorites are Cosmos, The Versailles Session, and Mexico.

Cinematic Orchestra, The - Man With A Movie Camera at Discogs << Can't attest to everything they have done, but this album is a nice treat from beginning to end.

But as said before there are some genres where most anything worth checking out is worth checking out as an album and not single tracks. Ambient, post rock, modern classical.
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