b'FEEAYT UUPRFEROANLBTUM APPRECIATIONHMORE IS MOREALBUM APPRECIATION2018 witnessed the 70th anniversary of the LP, the long player, also known as the album. For people of a certain age and forbefore the days of streaming,7 singles on vinyl, with one song on each Longpeople of a certain age (meside were the norm. The standard album vinyl junkies, the album isincluded) would buy an album and listen tolength was around 30-45 minutes, simply everything.it, in its entirety, only pausing to flip the blackbecause thats how much music could be vinyl and drop the stylus on to the secondetched into the grooves on the vinyl.Elbowside. The introduction of tape cassettesSome artists see the album as and CDs meant that we didnt even needCassette tapes allowed more time fora collection of short stories, we takes a look at theto do that. Play, listen and connect to themusic (up to 45 minutes on each side) butsee the album as a novel. Songs artist through their music. No cherry pickingcassettes were only an alternative formatare often included or omitted on music format that is makingfavourite tracks or skipping the filler songs:to their vinyl counterpart. It wasnt untilaccount of the balance of the simple, passive aural pleasure. the introduction of the compact disc in theoverall record rather than on their a comeback. 1980s that the game changed. The CDindividual merits. We looked forward to our B-sides album from the day But when is an album considered an album? allowed 74+ minutes of recorded audio. we wrote our first B-side and we Words_Darren Haynes In the pre-digital era, an album was classifiedhad its title, Dead in the Boot, very as such by its physical limitations. VinylThe advent of CD technology also allowedsoon after we titled the first album LPs (long players) became popular in thefor album tracks to be selected out ofAsleep in the Back.1950s. Before this, 10 singles on shellac or sequenceor even skipped altogether. 26 SEPTEMBER 2019 HEYMUSIC.COM 27'