New Fairport CD 2014?

[Andy]

Actually, I do remember playing the Moulette's CD on the way back from Cropredy 2013. Proper job, that CD is.

[Jules Gray]

Listen to the music. Like it or dislike it. The cover art is irrelevant

I agree that the music's the most important thing, but not that the cover is irrelevant.  Ideally, I like great music art covered in great photographic or pictorial art.  Great covers become part of the culture.

Jules

[Andy]

Listen to the music. Like it or dislike it. The cover art is irrelevant

I agree that the music's the most important thing, but not that the cover is irrelevant.  Ideally, I like great music art covered in great photographic or pictorial art.  Great covers become part of the culture.

Jules

Great covers do indeed become part of the culture. Haven't seen one in years. Mind you, haven't looked for them.

[hendo (Dave)]

I think there's a wider thing here Andy and I will use the age word. I am of the generation who bought a LP(!) album, tape, CD and listened to it all the way through. I have just been re-dipping in to Joe Boyd's book and there is a section on a bloke whose job it was to sequence an album. 3rd song in will be slower, what do you start side 2 with etc. These days are gone but why would a band produce an album when people are now just going to pick one or 2 tracks and even just download those 2 tracks? We have a large cupboard of a lot of CD's, we have been talking of getting rid of them and putting everything on laptop. This frightens me!
When I put a CD on in the car I listen to the whole album. One of the joys of going off in the van is deciding what music will be the soundtrack to a few weeks journey. When we go to a gig we pick the albums for the journey, not usually of who we are going to see. If I'm playing a gig, and it's a fair drive, I love picking the music i'll play on the way'. Sad , old fashioned and dinousarish I know but I am of my generation and don't think I can easily adapt.
Got to go to Brum tomorrow. Rails and CSN will be in the car!
Incidentally the Rails cover ain't great ...but it does let you know what they look like!

[Alan2]

The cover to Rosie is no worse than the album inside.  

Oh, come on - it's better than that!  

(see also: Gottle O'Geer)

Jules

No, it's not that bad. Actuallly, I still regret selling a vinyl copy many years ago. And I quite like my CD of Gottle of Geer.  

[bassline (Mike)]

The frequency of great cover art has pretty much declined in proportion to the increase of the CD as the main format of choice, now it's pretty pointless, with downloading. Shame. Whatever you may think of, say, Hawkwind, we will never see the likes of the original Space Ritual art again, for example, and that's a sadness.
I do like to listen to an album all the way through as Nature intended, but again, the CD age has produced albums, in the mainstream at least, that only have a few tracks that have lasting value, and pretty much require the home made compilation album to be made...or the playlist in the download era...another sadness.  

[Shane (Skirky)]

I think there's a wider thing here Andy and I will use the age word. I am of the generation who bought a LP(!) album, tape, CD and listened to it all the way through. I have just been re-dipping in to Joe Boyd's book and there is a section on a bloke whose job it was to sequence an album. 3rd song in will be slower, what do you start side 2 with etc. These days are gone but why would a band produce an album when people are now just going to pick one or 2 tracks and even just download those 2 tracks?

I have asked (via the medium of social networking) how FC decided on what would go on the vinyl version of the album, which has nine tracks and doesn't follow the order of the CD at all.
I didn't enquire as to whether the 'signed copy' would involve a pre-signed slip inserted into the gatefold, however.  

[JeremyRS]

There is an age thing definitely, but with vinyl sales on the up - only 1.2m last year but that was a 50% increase - I think there's still a place for great cover art.  And it's not just LPs.  "Genre" music, where direct sales, often at gigs, are important, makes a lot more effort with its packaging than it did a few years ago.  A bog standard jewel case just doesn't cut it any more and there are some great cardboard/didg-pak albums out there - gatefields, nice inserts, great art and so on.  Yes they're smaller than LPs but that's part of the challenge.

[macademis]

So long as artists release work in a block of several pieces of work, whether it constitutes an EP or Album, then they require an identifier for that piece of work. Traditionally, since the LP was invented, this has been a title and a packaging involving details and artwork (or absence in the case of The White Album, for instance). Digital access may appear to mitigate the need for artwork, but the artists still needs some sort of 'flag' that the consumer can recognise so that their new work is distinguishable from prior/competitors' material and hence be encouraged to spend their money. The development of more visual led applications (as an image is more readily discernibly different than text and is language neutral, so not limiting international business) will ensure that album artwork will never be redundant. Tag software that accesses metadata includes an album image, which is displayable on modern network hardware and UPnP apps so that the appropriate album artwork is displayed whatever track is played. The debate regarding vinyl, I believe is a transient one that will become redundant when the ability to play, store and transfer complete audio files is more readily available. So the complex gatefold-based constructs are things of the past, which may be replaced by audio/visual files to deliver the same effect and data.
Therefore, in summary, m'lud, the counsel for the defence would submit that album artwork, though it may be limited to a square of pixels, will perpetuate, is therefore critical to an artist's commercial success and as such, should be of worthy quality and distinctively identifiable with the artist .

[hendo (Dave)]

There is an age thing definitely, but with vinyl sales on the up - only 1.2m last year but that was a 50% increase - I think there's still a place for great cover art.  And it's not just LPs.  "Genre" music, where direct sales, often at gigs, are important, makes a lot more effort with its packaging than it did a few years ago.  A bog standard jewel case just doesn't cut it any more and there are some great cardboard/didg-pak albums out there - gatefields, nice inserts, great art and so on.  Yes they're smaller than LPs but that's part of the challenge.

I buy the majority of my cd's at gigs these days, so I am buying in response to the music I have just heard, rather than the cover. However, buys at gigs, have had good covers,incl Old Dance School, Blackbeards T Party,Enda Kenny (great cover), Moulettes (beautiful packaging) Luke Jackson,Baskery, Colum Sands and particularly Ange Hardy ( whose album Bare Foot Folk has a beautiful cover which she also supplies as a  beer mat! clever.) Yes , some are just pics of the band but for a new band /artist this makes sense, as Macademis says, it identifies the artist.
Also see Ange's Lament of the Black Sheep cover , also available as a beer mat, with Ange's website etc. The future of Cottage Industry music?

[Andy]

An AGE thing? I'm 59 tomorrow. Is that too old or too young?

[Jules Gray]

An AGE thing? I'm 59 tomorrow. Is that too old or too young?

Both.

 

Jules

[hendo (Dave)]

An AGE thing? I'm 59 tomorrow. Is that too old or too young?

I knew that was going to happen. Age is really the wrong word. I'm coming up 63 and use a laptop, tablet, social media sites etc and i've even downloaded some music , used my,now obsolete, i pod, but still can't  go over to downloading and for some deep seated psychological reason, probably, I do not want music stored on my phone. It's a phone! So it's not age, or even generational, it's just attitude and ability, i.e. being competent and confident in what I am doing.
We got a new kitchen a few months ago, I still go to where the sink used to be! Change eh?
Oh and Happy Birthday Andy.

[RobertD]

Playing albums all the way through (be they actual vinyl records or CD's) may be an age thing. Like Hendo I choose CD's when we go on a car trip, and we play them straight through. However I also play what I put on my Ipod straight through. Sure sometimes I skip around, or play from a playlist of my own creation, but I still listen to them all the way. I disagree with you about the days of sequencing an album being gone however. Most bands do start off with the main attraction song, usually the best and fastest, but to give you two examples of doing it differently most of us are familiar with, Fairport started Festival Bell off with the slow building Mercy Bay, rather than something more upbeat. Oysterband started Meet You There off with Over The Water, again not a typical sort of song one starts an album off with, thereby proving that some matter of sequencing still exists, and I could provide many more examples.

As to the Fairport cover, they have had some clinkers for sure over the years (Sense Of Occasion, Gottle, Rosie....Rising For The Moon has never bothered me though), but I am not put off by this one. I liked the simplicity of the Festival Bell cover. Nothing elaborate, just a simple but effective cover. It is their choice, and after nearly 50 years I think they are entitled to it. And since I have not seen this mentioned in this thread, this bucks the trend FC have had for covering older material. I welcome having 13 new songs on an album.

[jude]

So... I am just completing the final artwork for this here Anthology of 50 years of stuff. Because it is an anthology it is in chronological order, but were it to be the next album of new songs I would have spent a long time making sure the music flowed from one song to anotherand that the finished album was a complete whole.

I have spent a lot of time and effort creating the right artwork that will both appeal and inform and have spent long hours organising the information of tracklistings and timings and as much background to the tracks as possible, within the limitations of space.
The desired result for all the music I release, is that it will not only sound as good as possible but will look beautiful as well and will be a pleasure to listen to and read.

So am I wasting my time? Should I just put the individual tracks up one at a time for downloading and let the listening public decide which order they want to play it in and not bother to create something that is a whole entity?  

[Jules Gray]

So am I wasting my time?

Not as far as I'm concerned!

(I'm not sure about the yoof market though.)

Jules

[Dan O.]

So... I am just completing the final artwork for this here Anthology of 50 years of stuff. Because it is an anthology it is in chronological order, but were it to be the next album of new songs I would have spent a long time making sure the music flowed from one song to anotherand that the finished album was a complete whole.

I have spent a lot of time and effort creating the right artwork that will both appeal and inform and have spent long hours organising the information of tracklistings and timings and as much background to the tracks as possible, within the limitations of space.
The desired result for all the music I release, is that it will not only sound as good as possible but will look beautiful as well and will be a pleasure to listen to and read.

So am I wasting my time? Should I just put the individual tracks up one at a time for downloading and let the listening public decide which order they want to play it in and not bother to create something that is a whole entity?  

Definitely not - Talking With Strangers and Flow & Change both have beautiful artwork (and contents   ) ; really looking forward to the anthology...

[hendo (Dave)]

So am I wasting my time?

Jude, I think this is what this whole conversation is about. I'm with you, I want the artwork, i want the thought in 'the flow' of an album, Particularly with an anthology I like some text putting the songs in their context. I think we are on the cusp of the world changing. it may become a download world or certain groups may want to retain a physical entity. As has already been said, a download needs some sort of 'artwork' description attached to it so you can identify with the band.
As an 18 yr old knowing Fairport Convention , the house, was owned by Simon's family seemed important to me at the time, as were the pics in the garden.
Keep doing what you're doing.

[jude]

Good! I'll carry on and finish it then  

It should be complete by the end of the week then it will be off to the manufacturers  

[Shane (Skirky)]

So am I wasting my time? Should I just put the individual tracks up one at a time for downloading and let the listening public decide which order they want to play it in and not bother to create something that is a whole entity?  

Ideally Dame Judy, you should probably give everyone a copy of the original multitrack tapes so that they can mix it themselves and throw in a bag of felt tips, an A4 jotter, a couple of Pritt sticks and the password to a pre-loaded Photobox(TM) album. There'd still probably be someone complaining you'd used the wrong take of Wiggle Waggle, mind...