Things to remember when buying albums
Submitted by stooky on Fri, 03/12/2004 - 04:04
Tags:
- The obvious...
- The cover is not the music on the album.
- Really good looking women/men don't always make great music.
- Great artists make bad albums.
- Binge buying is a bad idea unless you've done your homework.
- Buying used cd's is cool. (It's like a really cheap antique.)
- The not so obvious...
- Albums with interesting titles tend to be better.
- It's hard to sustain quality over 70 minutes.
- Listening to jazz is proven (somewhere) to help your brain cells.
- Every musical style has worthwhile music.
- There are websites (metacritic, rocklist) to help you avoid the stinky ones.
- Billboard only charts the units that were shipped not the units bought. (chain store orders 25 albums. 14 albums sell. Billboard lists 25 albums sold.)
- Bad music will make a grown man, and his woman, cry.
Author Comments:
I retrieved this one from my archive because I like it. :?)
Some other observations from a music geek:
Never buy an album with a cat dressed in clothes on the cover (also applies to literature).
Buying greatest hits albums to hear new music rarely works for me because after hearing the real albums, rarely have my favorite songs on greatest hits.
If someone is trying to look like the Cure on their album cover, they probably won't be any good.
It is far more satisfying buying indie music from good web sites than the latest hype.
Funkadelic never made a bad album.
Wow, if you really mean that last statement, then you are perhaps the first person I've ever met who likes The Electric Spanking of War Babies!
I knew some people loved it (heck, it gets four and a half stars on the All Music guide!), but I've just never actually met a fan before. Me, I just scratch my head and wonder how you can put Sly Stone together with Funkadelic and create an album I just don't groove to...
Some pretty good rules, though, even if I still think there are some singles artists and 50s artists that just beg for greatest hits albums.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I like War Babies, yes, don't love it. I'd recommend almost all their other albums first so I sort of agree but Funk Gets Stronger I like very much. My friends, however, groan audibly when a Funkadelic comes up on the CD changer and I usually have to turn it off. Don't even talk about my solo Bootsy CDs. Though I have got one friend to admit that I've Got the Munchies For Your Love is pretty good.
Greatest hits for 50s and 60s artist do make sense because so many singles came out that weren't on an album so I agree with you on that count for sure. It's just I find myself buying CDs (take one of your favorites Elvis Costello for instance) and loving songs that never make it on the greatest hits CDs. My big beef was my Madness greatest hits CD. My favorite songs aren't even on it. Same thing with Cat Stevens.
Very good rules.
I have been suckered many times by bands that look like the cure on their covers. I've only struck gold once with Jesus and The Mary Chain.
Some great rules here, especially the note that great artists make bad albums, used CDs are cool (used vinyl can be even cooler), and that 70 minutes is a long time to try to spread an album over. The CD era has given us many half-great, half-ho-hum 70 minute epics (don't tell celtchic, but I have many friends who claim this is the key to the 'failure' (their word, not mine) of Bowie's Black Tie White Noise. I don't know, but I do know that I sold the album, and I love Jump They Say, which is luckily on his superior Singles collection).
Great list!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Nice list, Almost totally agreed with these (: