It isn't always the easiest to find time to simply listen to something. Whether it be a podcast, audiobook, music, ambience, recording of Jeremy Irons narrating fanfic, whatever. Our time has shifted inwards towards a system of an instantaneous nature. There has been much public outcry from music snobs everywhere that the loss of the album as a legitimate art form signifies the end times. They're obviously too busy anticipating the arrival of the iTunes Lucifer to realize that virtually all music still comes out as an album. Yes, you can buy a single alone without the "baggage" of the remaining ten or so tracks. So? Honestly, it saves money. This has extended to the advent of playlists. Sometimes people make album-based playlists (myself being one of them), but they usually curate solo tracks. These changes are good despite any sad-sack complaining. However, while the album retains its health for the time being, consumers don't appreciate an album in the same way. They listen to it while they're at work, in the car, at the gym. They endure a full listen, then cull their "#faves" and dispose of the rest. Sometimes I wonder if there's some giant B-side graveyard where all the underplayed album cuts go to die in their loneliness. If such a place exists, it's due to the way we listen.
Think for a second. Why do you know all the lyrics to the latest T-Swizzle single, yet know none off of your favorite Radiohead album? You may enjoy said indie-ness more, but you probably hear it less. The radio (especially Top 40) is based on repetition. Unless you go out of your way to balance your listening out between the mediums, chances are radio will gain the advantage. The DJ knows that he has played "See You Again" thirteen times in the last hour (46:41 - it's possible) and he doesn't care. He grins to himself as he imagines you belting out the chorus to the unfortunate steering wheel. Not only has that chorus crawled inside your brain and set up a little room in your music-memory hotel, the beat and verses and every second of the instrumental have followed along and rented the rooms next door. You grow to appreciate (not necessarily enjoy though, Charlie Puth is rubbish) every element of the song. Can you say that for the songs of all the artists you claim to enjoy? For a few songs, maybe. Definitely not for a full album. If you have an intimate knowledge of more than just your favorite LPs, you're probably a music critic. Pretentious though they may seem, they have the right idea. They fill a bathtub with the album and soak in it for a day or two. The better they know the music, the better the review. Why don't we do the same? Because we don't have time.
Ha. Just kidding. That's a lie that we tell ourselves to justify our lazy listening. Even when we do set off on a quest to Album Land, chances are we aren't planning on just sitting and listening. This is where the modicum of truth comes into the "no time" excuse. If we want to listen to more than an a few songs a day, we are probably going to have to multi-task. Unless you're unemployed. Get listening, bums!
Listening while multitasking puts the music through a filter of whatever the heck you're doing at the time. You might even remember what you were doing while you listening. I associate 2010s Kanye, Autechre, and early Beck with the game Borderlands. With the exception of the Yeezy, I can't remember a whole lot about the music I listened to while doing anything else. If you're some sort of magical multitasking machine (i.e. female), then bully for you. Go write Hamlet and listen to good kid. m.A.A.d city simultaneously in your Special Snowflake CornerTM.
Now, that doesn't mean music can't be appreciated outside of an isolated and singular listening environment. A dope jam is a dope jam whether you're writing an essay on muffins or busy being the Queen of England. You hear it at face-value. That's why catchiness has become so essential to modern pop songwriting. A hook is all you really have if you boil it down. The difference between filtered and unfiltered listening is clarity. It's like a really lame version of putting on glasses for the first time and realizing "hOly crAP LEAVES ARE REAL!!??" It's subtle but noticeable.
Over Christmas break, I had the time to just sit and check out from reality and into the depths of songcraft. One album I listened to was Sufjan Steven's Carrie & Lowell. I'd already heard it 1.5 times before and once it concert, but I hadn't been as invested as I could have been. I have frequently imagined how different the concert had been if I had listened to the LP three times, five, seven, ten times. It was already one of the best I've gone to, so I can barely imagine how much more heartwrenching and devastating it could have been if I'd listened a little better. My latest listen almost brought me to tears in front of my entire extended family. I'd already gotten the #feels on first and first-point-five playthroughs. This was different. The vocals drew the lyrics from a quiver and sent them on a perfect line through my entire being, leaving them wobbling in the ground on the other side of me. Then, the lyrics did the same with the instrumentation. Going through this for forty three minutes and thirty five seconds quite honestly changed my perspective on not just listening, but hearing itself.
If this ramblerama has a point, it's that those of us that love music need to try to just hear a album. While time may not permit for a high frequency of this habit, I sincerely encourage everyone to set aside an hour to listen to something. Whether it's something new or a repeated listening, it is an experience that is worthwhile. It doesn't have to be meaningful or special; you don't have to write a blog post about it (oops). Chances are it won't be - I lucked out. If anything, you'll hear it with a tiny bit more detail. A previously muffled line will suddenly make sense. I think that even that makes it worthwhile.
Albums that might be good to try this on:
-The aforementioned Sufjan
-Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (M83)
-Merriweather Post Pavilion (Animal Collective)
-Any Deafheaven record (really any black metal)
-Coltrane, Davis, or Coltrane and Davis (all hail Kind of Blue)
-Hamilton soundtrack (it's better than it already is)
-Dntel
-Pretty much any lyrically dense hip-hop
-Godspeed You! Black Emperor or 1986-91 Talk Talk
-William Basinski
NB - I was listening to Viva La Vida (for some reason) while writing this, and Jay-Z rapping over 2008 Brian Eno through the lense of Coldplay is simply not acceptable.
