I can’t help but keep losing the forest for the trees. That seems to be a common symptom these days. Either that, or all we see is FOREST FOREST FOREST, trees be damned1.
At the start of all this I made the (perhaps foolhardy, perhaps prideful) decision that I am an artist who makes full length albums goddammit, so that’s what I was going to make. I am a Millennial2, Gen Z be damned.
But then, as I rolled out single after single, each one not quite feeling like it presents the full picture, I somehow lost sight of the fact that, “yeah, duh, it does not present the full picture because the full picture is an album of 10 songs.”
I like records that you can get lost in, that create a universe, that tell a story through the movement from one song to the next, where a single track in isolation doesn’t necessarily move you — but in the context of the record is essential.
Two perfect examples that stick out particularly right now, the title track of There’s A Riot Going On by the late Sly Stone is 0:04 of silence—and the only real single, “Family Affair,” kind of rolls in out of nowhere, only to flow into a meandering 8:36-jam, “Africa Talks To You.” The album, however, is a goddamn masterpiece, a feeling to get lost in.
And 2), perhaps the first REAL album, a song cycle that threw out everything we knew about popular music, that said “radio singles be damned, here is my weird, bizarre, cathartic artistic statement that you must listen to in its entirety to become enlightened”: Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys.
We lost both Sly and Brian Wilson last week, and I’m not quite sure what that says about where things are at right now, but it sure makes me believe we need to keep their legacies alive and burning bright.
My way of fighting back against the 30-second attention span was to create songs with different “movements” and to create an album that bounced around from vibe to vibe.
Maybe I’m old fashioned, maybe I’m not the guy you throw on your Going-Out-Hot-Fire3 playlist—but if you’re looking to sink into a mood or escape the world in a good set of headphones, maybe I can borrow your diminishing attention span for about the length of a Netflix episode. You might find something of yourself in there.
This world I’ve built is chaotic, all over the place, a collage that pastes together all the varying modes and styles that I’ve been inspired by—whether they make sense together or not.
My way of fighting back against the 30-second attention span was to create songs with different “movements” and to create an album that bounced around from vibe to vibe. It felt like a reflection of the time and a reflection of the place many of us find ourselves: confused, clinging to the shit we hold dear while grasping after new things that are constantly shifting and changing, often too quickly, often with frustration, often with insecurity, and anxiety, a good dose of our favorite vice, and this deep-seated sense of capital-B Belief that, despite all the outer layers, is still fighting to take root and grow tall.
I don’t know if we have the attention spans for albums anymore.
I don’t know if I’ve even earned the right to ask people to dedicate 40 minutes of their lives to my little universe of a creation.
But it’s what I needed to make, and authentic creation is the best thing I can offer right now.
Promoting this thing, that has been the Trees. Sharing an expression that was born from toil and love, that is the forest.
If it moves you, maybe then we’ve moved a little closer to making this picture whole.
-David
Love Is Everything & It Will Not Save You
Out Thu June 26thExhibit A) The Populists who elected a “Real Estate Developer” who lives in an all-gold SkyMall Catalogue to take on the Elites and return power to the people…
Hey, even our radio hits still came in Album Form…never forget Now 12
In other words, as evidenced here, I am not all that hip and with it.