Heard any crap albums recently? Yeah, so have I and so have a lot of people, including Ash's Tim Wheeler.
You may remember that a few weeks ago in this space we were banging on (and on) about how the latest music sales figures show that - for the MP3 kidz at least - more people are opting for the single track download and skipping the full album. Wheeler has now arrived at the conclusion that albums are a relic of the past. Ifuture, all Ash releases will be on the single format only. If an album does have to be released for some pesky contractual reason, it will only be a collection of all the band's singles.
Radiohead must be pissed off with Ash for being the first to go public on this. The band, who pride themselves on innovation, are now out of contract with EMI, and the music world is waiting expectantly to see how they release their new material.
It was breathily expected that Radiohead would re-enter the public forum with a headline- grabbing double whammy: first, that they wouldn't tour their new material because of the whole ice cap thing and, second, that they would shun the album format.
We do know, from the oracle that is Thom Yorke, that while the band have ruled out the internet-only distribution model, they are considering releasing their new material as a series of EPs (for younger readers, these are halfway between a single and an album and usually contain five or six songs) and not as an album proper.
But Ash jumped the gun on this one. You may think it's a perfectly rational thing to do for a band who have had 17 top hit singles but only five top 10 albums, but there's more to it.
"Weird things are gong on with the album now," says Wheeler. "People are giving them away at live shows or as free gifts with newspapers. The way people listen to music has changed; with the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks. It hasn't helped that most people have forgotten how to make a decent album. I'm constantly disappointed with the records I buy."
As is standard practice within the deeply conservative music industry, expect all the labels to sit back and see how Ash perform with their model before singles-only becomes a common industry practice.
In the short term, Ash won't have to wait the usual six to eight months between recording an album and the label assembling its marketing team to flog it. It will also change the time- honoured album-tour-album- tour schedule - and indeed the album- interview-tour schedule.
"We're the first band to do this but I very much doubt we'll be the last," says Wheeler. "Basically, we are a singles band so I'm excited to push this claim further by dedicating ourselves wholly to the art of the single for the digital age."
Ash have already received loud and vocal support from ex-Creation Records boss Alan McGee who, having brought us My Bloody Valentine and Oasis among others, knows a thing or two about the industry.
"Ash are absolutely right," he says. "What has happened since the arrival of the MP3 is that it's all about the song again. Unless you're over 35, you don't put a CD on. You get your iPod and pick out individual tracks."
Before we declare the end of the album, remember that because of illegal downloading among young people (the only ones who know how to do it), most album sales are, as McGee says, to the over-35 market. You'd be surprised by the number of music lovers and purchasers who either don't own a computer or simply aren't interested in the whole MP3/download brave new world.
So, the album isn't actually dead as of yet. It's just going to be downsized.
