Every week I’m excited to check out the latest album releases. They are the gift that keeps on giving. But that gift feels different these days, more like receiving flowers or chocolate and less like anything you might receive as a keepsake.
It’s becoming very rare these days for me to fall in love with an album the way I used to. I miss it, but there it is. […] But to some extent, it just feels as if I don’t have the time to invest (i.e. in repeated listens) in the way albums–good ones–truly deserve.
I feel the same way. Perhaps there is too much music. While those 50 million tracks on streaming services are tempting, perhaps they are too much of a good thing. Streaming services keep recommending new music to you – new, or at least music you haven’t heard – because the logic is that you’ll get bored if you don’t see new content. But perhaps that’s the wrong way to do things. Maybe streaming services need to help listeners find albums that they can appreciate over time, rather than just assume that every listener wants to flit around from one thing to another.
This said, I’ve been playing Brad Mehldau’s latest album Seymour Reads the Constitution! on repeat for the past week, and it’s the first time in a long time that I have been so immersed in a new recording. (Amazon.com, Amazon UK) It’s full of catchy tunes, and I find myself humming parts of them during the day. If piano jazz is your thing, check it out.
Source: Preparing for the Post-Album Music Industry — Keithj40 — Medium