Open Letter From Holy Holy

Albums are still great. Take your time, listen to them.

Have you heard of this thing called an album? They used to release them all the time. The term comes from the Latin ‘albus’, which translates as ‘white’. As in a ‘blank tablet’ or ‘blank slate’. Therefore, The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ correctly means ‘Album album’ or ‘White white’.

And how things have changed since that era. Back then, albums might have been conceptual in nature. They might have had a story arc or a narrative thread. They might have even encapsulated a certain schedule of recording time that a band or artist had spent, and be the output from said session.

Nowadays, things are different. Some people don’t listen to albums. It is incredibly easy to stream or download individual songs, and to then make playlists - a modern version of the ancient ‘mixtape’.

It’s incredibly easy to skip songs, move them around, delete them, add them and so on. Man is omnipotent; you now have almost unlimited potential to create your own ‘album’. It is irrelevant where the songs were intended to be. You can now decide.

On the other side of this coin, some artists only release individual songs. This can serve many purposes. It reduces production costs and hence risk. It can reduce time spent writing. It can add mystique and a sense of anticipation. Then, when they’re ready, this artist can re-release the songs, but this time all together and call it an ‘album’. Although in this case it is better called a ‘compilation’. A band I was in once did a similar thing.

These things are neither good nor bad; they are just things. In some ways, the world is richer for this focus on singles and the power that people have to stream said singles. Notwithstanding the enormous power listeners have to find and consume music, artists can drip-feed singles and not be beholden to a format they might not be inclined.

Furthermore, it no longer makes so much sense for an artist to release an album containing nine horrible songs and three really good ones (for example); one of the more unfortunate by-products of the industry’s fascination with the album form.

In another sense, we’ve come full circle. In the early era of rock & roll, bands were unashamedly commercial. Analogous to the way in which painting on canvas was a trade before it became a fine art, bands would release covers songs – or perhaps very short singles – with the intent that they be sold. All this before the album became a sort of ‘high-art’. And so, perhaps it isn’t so strange, nor sordid, that we are back here again.

Perhaps, just perhaps, there is now a renewed strength in the album. The album that is a true representation of the work of an artist, or a snapshot of where a band sits at a given point in time, or that is a true representation of meaning might no longer be shrouded by all the muck and mess that before came in the form of a myriad of other obligatory album releases.

Perhaps the album, in its relative rarity, is all the better for the direction of this industry. When they come out, and when they are strong, they are treasures. That is to say, perhaps the cream need not rise quite so far to the top.

So when you are going mad as an artist, trying to release a record, feeling bogged down in singles or EPs (not to mention, of course, demos), know that your album will arrive, and you needn’t try to control it. Much of it is out of your hands. The right songs come at the right times, and also, you will know when it is time to stop (if only for a moment), and release those songs as an album. And when you do release that album, know that it is a feat.

Equally, for the listeners out there, know that most musicians dream of albums. It takes years. It requires cherished and painstaking plans that are inevitably thrown out as the unyielding world bends us to its whims. Singles are important. EPs too. Artists need time to find their team, to find their people, and to find their sound. And when they finally can get that record out, know that it took blood and sweat (well, really sleepless nights, panic attacks and empty bank accounts) to get there.

I say listen to singles, make your own mixtapes, stream freely, share sounds and ideas. Never before was such a plethora of music available at the tip of our fingertips. Enjoy it.

But also, make time for the album. Put the phone away or, if said album is on phone, put phone on flight mode and play it from start to finish. Curious and ineffable mysteries might emerge. Take the time to experience the 'blank tablet' made real; it is truly something from nothing. A magical thing.