Listening With Intention

My latest album "Loveland" is a "concept album".

Some records are simply collections of songs, but others are produced with the intention to be listened to as a whole complete experience.

One of the first ones was "Sgt. Pepper", and around the same time, "Pet Sounds" and "Dark Side of the Moon. Not only did these albums have songs that developed a particular theme, but they also were crafted with attention to how they sounded. 

Technology has changed how we listen. Radio had a lot of influence on modern pop music; for instance the emergence of the "single" and shorter songs with musical "hooks" to engage listeners. The first records were single songs and then in 1948 the LP was introduced. Forty years later the CD made it obsolete, and in 2001 iTunes, downloads, and streaming became the new radio. 

Now these days, and it's not a good or bad thing, the idea of an album is often more about packaging than concept. Playlists, an extension of the "mix tape", became a way listeners could arrange their music any way they pleased. Although vinyl has made a comeback, CDs are pretty much obsolete, most music is now strictly online.

What's this?

It also seems like that music has now become more of a soundtrack, just playing in the background while we do other things, while a movie or TV show may get our undivided attention for its entire time. We watch these shows because they tell a story and we want to follow it to the end. 

Music affects us in many ways, and I think of it as first eliciting pleasure though sound and rhythm, which is a the physical effect, and then by eliciting emotion, which for me is the primary challenge of songwriting, and where a certain magic can be found if one finds the perfect combination of lyrics, composition, and production.

So I would hope listeners will put on a good set of headphones and listen with intention. For one thing, all these tracks have nuance and detail that comes out best when listened with headphones, but also they allow you to focus without distraction. 

All these songs were inspired by personal experiences but I believe they have a universal message as well. "Loveland" is about a journey, and the concept is to travel along with each song and create your own narrative based on the feelings they evoke. I hope if you do you will enjoy the experience of listening to "Loveland" as much as I had creating it.

There are now dozens of online streaming services and "Loveland" will be distributed to all of them, including Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora and Amazon Music, in January.