I've been thinking about the LP lately. Over at The Qualifier, the Q-Man was rambling on about the death of long format and just the other day, C$ and myself had a conversation on the very same topic. I'm not too concerned about the imminent demise of the long player - great music is like water, it will settle into what form it needs to take. What got my brain spinning was this: we've had over fifty years of LPs and I could only come up with one truly great album. An album that was stellar from start to finish. No filler. No tracks I felt so so about. Nothing that would even make me think about lifting the needle or hitting fast forward.
The thing is, the "Greatest LP Argument" is a completely subjective exercise. The stars have to align not only for the band who is making the record but for the listener as well. That moment has to be perfect for the person hearing the music to think, "this is the greatest record of all time." And then that feeling must be carried on to each subsequent listening one year, five years, fifty years into the future. It's no small feat to make a truly great LP, let alone have the listener hold that opinion into the foreseeable future. Circumstances change. People change. Time, as we all know, is the great equalizer of all things, reducing even the sturdiest monuments of human achievement to dust, returning it to the ether from which it came.
Looking back over the past decades I'm hard pressed to hoist the mantle of "Greatest LP" on any album - except one. Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. That might be a bit cliche but I can find no fault with that record. From the first time I heard it to this very moment (a scant 14 years by my estimation), I still hold it in the highest esteem. I could make the same argument for several other records (Radiohead's Kid A and OK Computer come to mind) but even under the most perfect circumstances I start to doubt longevity and begin to nitpick. So my question is this, dear readers: can you find fault in assertation? If Darkside Of The Moon is not the greatest album of all time, what is?
Here's the thing - you guys have a different relationship with recorded music than people my age and older. For a long time in there, listening to albums was a much more passive experience. Vinyl and cassettes made it difficult to skip around - you had to really hate a song to get up and move the needle or fast-forward to just the spot to hear the next song.
So we developed a Stockholm Syndrome-like relationship to certain songs. We might not have liked "Love You To" from Revolver or "Turd on the Run" from Exile on Main Street, but after listening to the album over and over it became part of the overall experience.
For me, a great album doesn't necessarily have to be 14 perfect songs, and you're right that there are very few examples where that's the case. But the peaks and valleys of a record are in some ways its own reward. Plus there's the matter of how respond to an album in the first place - where we were in our lives, who we were with, even our mood on that day.
That said, there will likely always be album artists for album people (the Hold Steady seems like a good example). And still plenty for you kids today with your mixes and mashups...
This isn't about age, (besides, I think you think the slight age difference plays a major role in this deliberation – it doesn't) – this is a philosophical discussion.
I grew up with cassette tapes. Fast-forwarding was a guessing game. At least vinyl records had thicker grooves marking the end of one song and the beginning of another. Today, we are all active music listeners. If I wanted to, I could go through my entire day listening to a soundtrack I create on the go. And I know for a fact that you could do it to.
I knew from the out set that this debate would be completely subjective and therefore, in a sense, everybody would be right and nobody could be wrong. There are great albums with not so great songs. Radiohead's Kid A is my favorite example. It's a stellar LP but there are a few songs on there that feel like Thom and Co. had a couple of pints at the pub and then went back to the studio to play with synthesizers and have a laugh. I remember the first time I heard it. I drove to Finder's on a bright, crisp fall morning, bought it, popped it in and drove home. I was amazed. But the greatness of the album didn't hit me until I went camping a few weeks later and listened to the album again in the woods.
And you are right, our response at any given time is just as important as the moment when the band was inspired to record the song. "The Greatest LP," theory is like hitting the lottery. There are so many things that have to go right. The stars have to align. What I'm wondering is if the really is as subjective as I suspect . . .