Music has evolved tremendously in the past 100 years. It has been around for a while but like manufacturing it has experienced incredible change from sheet music to wax cylinders to 78 rpm vinyl discs then the invention of the single and the LP. There was a campaign in the 70s to call LPs albums for some reason but with the creation of the Compact Disc that push seemed to melt away. When MP3s, the Internet and iPods came along we started losing the idea of the album let alone the LP. What is the difference? Well, an album is a concept, a coherent gathering of musical themes whereas the LP is the real world manifestation of that concept, which is why a cassette or CD is not an LP but an album. The definitions are mine but they work in the way people use the terms nowadays.
So why was the LP so beloved, unlike the cassette or CD. Well, the joy of getting your hands on something substantial (you can insert all your Carry On jokes here about 12″, holding it in two hands, etc.) was palpable. Although I used to buy brand new albums for £3.79 as compared to CDs for £11.99 it was the former that felt like a substantial purchase not the more expensive item. That joy only increased if the LP came in a gatefold sleeve (it opened up to twice the size normally on the vertical spine but sometimes – Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall” – on the horizontal instead. There was also the possibility of a free poster for some releases, which given the size of the LP could actually be much bigger when unfolded. I have seen the odd poster given away with a CD but who wants a postcard? The inner sleeve offered all sorts of possibilities too. Island Records, whilst still independent, used it to advertise a number of other albums they had released, which helped me as a newcomer expand my musical world view. However, the most treasured was the use of the inner sleeve for lyrics. I can still remember buying an LP with friends and reading the lyrics out on the bus or train home. The first experience of the LP was not the music but the ideas contained in the lyrics.
Apple has now worked with the music industry to try and relaunch the album or is it the LP? The aim is purely financial, with people cherry picking tracks they like for £0.79 the industry is not getting the dollops of cash it used to get for all those tracks you could take or leave on an album. this way we pay £7.99 or more normally £9.99 for those tracks but the candy to get us to part with the cash is that we are returning to the idea of the album with an overall concept that is manifested through not only the music but also the packaging and the extras. In this way it is less of a return to the LP and more of an evolution of the DVD idea of bonus material but in a musical context. In fact if you cross the DVD with the Universal Records Deluxe Re-issue project then you get the idea. So there are extra tracks, what used to be b-sides or maybe demos, or live tracks to add to the “standard” release. There may well be music videos or a “making of documentary” included in the “LP” but perhaps my favourite aspect there may also be the lyrics. This in theory is less exciting than it used to be as we can now get the lyrics to practically anything by searching Goggle online but actually Apple have presented them much as the old inner sleeves used to, as part of the concept not just some generic HTML thrown together by someone who wants to sell advertising space. they have also fiddled with iTunes (and Apple TV software) so that you can play the album as a whole from start to finish from within a special LP interface. One aspect that works really well and has been lost with the miniturisation of the media is the artwork, which you can now blow up to the size of your monitor (or attached TV screen).
On the whole this is a good re-invention/re-imagining of the album concept. Whilst iTunes has always been able to play an album all the way through there is something rather appealing about using the LP interface to do it and with the addition of displaying the lyrics for that track too it really makes sense. The use of new media is also welcome, if they had simply just bundled together the album with a play-through option and the lyrics it would have been a real damp squib but to throw in videos, documentaries and other extras is a good use of the technology and should be encouraged. Ultimately I will only buy certain albums in this format, the first was Muse but I will pay a couple of quid extra to get the feeling of buying an album again. One thing it is not however is an LP.
