blissblogger
Well-known member
Spinning off the chat about Trout Mask Replica, it struck me that there are albums that you only need to listen to once (only want to listen once?) (are only capable of listening to once? ). Undeniably towering and overwhelming aesthetic experiences, something everyone should submit themselves to, should undergo... but they are not things you can integrate into life on a regular level. They are Events.
So a bit like a certain kind of movie, by Pasolini or someone like that. Once is enough. More than enough! This kind of film hasn't got that rewatchability that, say, The Godfather movies have. (Of course this is infinitely arguable and no doubt there are those who can and do watch Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom as relaxing fare).
Conversely, there are albums that are sessionable. Is that a term in use in the UK? Beer that you can drink large quantities of without passing out, vomiting, etc. This is a category of albums that are great but repeat-playable, they slip easily back and forth between focused foreground listening and a background sound.
The sessionable Beefheart album is Clear Spot. There's even a sessionable microcosm of Trout Mask Replica on it in the form of "Golden Birdies".
So what else fits into this Album as Singular Event category?
For me contenders would be:
Scott Walker's The Drift. (But also Tilt, Bish Bosch - anything after Climate After Hunter, which is lyrically and vocally super intense but also palatable and playable - Barney Hoskyns once described the sound as "male Armatrading", which amused me)
Early Swans (e.g. Cop, which I bought but am not honestly sure I played more than twice. It's too much. You get the point! No need to go through that again).
Diamanda Galas - awe-inspiring, terrifying, but impossible to do other things while the record is on.
Perhaps the Album as Event loosely corresponds to the Sublime in the Burkean sense. Beauty that is shattering and inspires fear and trembling. Not a place you can live for very long. A life never visited by the Sublime would be a diminished one but yes, practically speaking, not a place you can dwell.
So a bit like a certain kind of movie, by Pasolini or someone like that. Once is enough. More than enough! This kind of film hasn't got that rewatchability that, say, The Godfather movies have. (Of course this is infinitely arguable and no doubt there are those who can and do watch Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom as relaxing fare).
Conversely, there are albums that are sessionable. Is that a term in use in the UK? Beer that you can drink large quantities of without passing out, vomiting, etc. This is a category of albums that are great but repeat-playable, they slip easily back and forth between focused foreground listening and a background sound.
The sessionable Beefheart album is Clear Spot. There's even a sessionable microcosm of Trout Mask Replica on it in the form of "Golden Birdies".
So what else fits into this Album as Singular Event category?
For me contenders would be:
Scott Walker's The Drift. (But also Tilt, Bish Bosch - anything after Climate After Hunter, which is lyrically and vocally super intense but also palatable and playable - Barney Hoskyns once described the sound as "male Armatrading", which amused me)
Early Swans (e.g. Cop, which I bought but am not honestly sure I played more than twice. It's too much. You get the point! No need to go through that again).
Diamanda Galas - awe-inspiring, terrifying, but impossible to do other things while the record is on.
Perhaps the Album as Event loosely corresponds to the Sublime in the Burkean sense. Beauty that is shattering and inspires fear and trembling. Not a place you can live for very long. A life never visited by the Sublime would be a diminished one but yes, practically speaking, not a place you can dwell.