'LP' - A Glimpse of music writing in 2023, including videos by Steven Wilson, and Les Penning/Rob Reed
To conclude the year, thoughts about the first few months of LP and what’s in store for 2024
But first, some music
I’ve taken a pause from writing about a specific album this week, but there can’t be an edition of LP without any music. So we start with a new video, and there’s another right at the end.
I’m not sure how I feel about this from Steven Wilson. Read Wilson’s description of how this came to be after watching.
“Challenged by a friend last week on why I’d never done a Christmas song, I protested it wasn't really me, and besides I didn’t think I had it in me to write suitably Christmassy lyrics. "No problem”, he said, "we’ll get ChatGPT to do it for you!", upon which he instructed the AI to generate Christmas lyrics in the style of Steven Wilson. Which it proceeded to do so. By the yard, in fact, I was shocked at how instantaneous and easy it was to guide it ("don’t actually mention Christmas" we said to it, "make it feel more lonely”…etc)” - Steven Wilson, YouTube
I do like the track. It does have a Christmassy feel, and the ChatGPT lyrics are adequate; almost disturbingly good when we acknowledge how they were written. Wilson and Randy McStine have created a lovely musical setting.
Importantly, Wilson is transparent about how this song came out. What concerns me is where we will be left when there’s no transparency and we have no idea if a song is a human creation or not. Does that even matter? People such as Steven Wilson are clearly have the talent to play with this technology and add a human touch. Not everyone will do so.
Many chart records already sound like purely computerised mush now anyway1, so why not go a step or three further? But it just seems … wrong. What do you think?
LP in 2024
LP started on Substack last July. I’ve been delighted with the response - thank you! If you want to read what people are saying, there are some quotes on my ‘About’ page.
As a reminder, a Glimpse (such as this post) is a five-minute read, usually about a specific classic (or, sometimes, new) album, published once per week.
Gems is a weekly album-length playlist, biased towards new tracks with a couple of classics for good measure, and I write listening notes giving insights into the music. Next year there will be more themed editions of Gems - double albums exclusive to paid subscribers (there will always be a weekly free version).
From January 2024, paid subscribers will also be receiving a monthly (ish) - ten per year - Immersion, a long read about the music of a particular band or artist.
The state of the stream
It’s easy to take the easy availability of music for granted. Somewhere on the internet, we can find the new album we’ve seen reviewed, or we can stream a playlist and hear rock, folk, blues, or whatever genre we’re in the mood for. There’s always music, so that’s okay.
Except it’s not okay.
For most musicians, streaming isn’t a sustainable model. It is for Taylor Swift with her 26 billion streams on Spotify in 2023, plus her other income streams. But there are over 100 million tracks on Spotify alone. One of the bands I featured in my Gems Highlights this year has, as I write, 1081 plays of one track, and some of the tracks on the album show a blank for the ‘plays’ column. I’m not going to name them as there are many others in a similar position.
It’s not a given people will create music or play gigs - for public enjoyment - in the absence of income.
I’m not anti-streaming in principle. My Gems playlist only works because Spotify exists, yet it is important to buy music directly from artists too. Buy downloads if, like me, you don’t have space for records and CDs; use streaming to find the music you like, then buy it when you can. Buy the single best album you hear each month. Even one album a month puts money back into the music creation economy. Pay for music writing too, if/when you can. Not only do paid subscriptions enable me to write, but I can also invest those subscriptions in buying music. When we buy music it opens up the space for more music and for writers to keep writing.
If you have a free subscription to LP - thank you.
When I receive the email headed “New free subscriber to LP!” it’s a boost. I’ll always aim to offer quality writing in these free weekly posts and playlists. You allow me to have your time, your head space, your attention. You have my respect.
If you have a paid subscription to LP - thank you.
LP is still a young publication (authored by an - er - experienced writer) and your support is gratifying. Next year, I want to pay more bands and artists for their work. Paid subscriptions will allow me to do so.
So let’s get this moving.
It’s especially easy to upgrade to paid just now, because, until 31st December, I’m reducing the annual subscription to LP by 20%. On 1st January 2024, subscription rates will return to normal.
You’ll receive this in the UK after the last posting date, so remember you can give LP as a gift, and no posting is required. As you know, I write about a wide range of music, so a paid subscription might help someone in your life to widen their musical horizons.
Since I began LP last July, I have written 19 five-minute reads, now called Glimpses.
There’s no grand plan, although I favour albums conceived as a coherent whole. When I started, I thought I’d only write about records telling a story across about 40/80 minutes, the classic record length (I still structure Gems as a two or four-sided piece). Sometimes I do write about those records - The Dark Side of the Moon, Captain Fantastic, and Ommadawn are examples - but what’s even more important is the music, so if an album tells a different story, or no story, in each song that’s fine. Often I choose a classic album, perhaps one celebrating an anniversary.
I wonder about coherence. It sometimes crosses my mind to bind all this together by focusing on just one genre, say concept albums, or new music by artists over the age of 70. For example, I have written about new albums by septuagenarians Ian Hunter, The Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, and Nils Lofgren this year. But, in the end, I like being open to any musical possibility.
Most Glimpses include a personal story or two. In addition, I’m drawn to writing about the effect music has on us psychologically and socially; on the impact music has on us as listeners. I’m not a musician. While I admire those writers who can identify the key a song is in, the specific technique the guitarist is using, or why a particular production decision was made, that’s not my skill set. My skill is to be able to listen - not just hear but listen - to be sensitive to the music and the emotional impact it creates, and to put those emotions into words.
Is a song in the key of C or F#? I don’t know. I write about how music makes me feel, in the hope you might feel it too.
Of course, I describe the music; to give context to my remarks, or to express the feeling or spirit of the piece. We need these points of reference, even when the music is readily available to stream.
Most of all, I’m gratified to discover there is an appetite for listening to albums. Playlists and shuffles have their uses, but albums are sequenced as they are for a reason. It’s fulfilling to find an hour (or less) to listen to music as the artist intended. Let’s find even more time for music in 2024.
How was your 2023 music year? What are you most looking forward to in 2024?
Holiday Schedule
It’s almost time for a Christmas break! I’m reposting the Gems Christmas Mix on Friday. Normal service will resume with a new Gems playlist on 5th January 2024.
Finally
This is Les Penning and Rob Reed with - and I can barely believe I’m writing this - The Lonely Goatherd from The Sound of Music.
Rob Reed has a long-term project in which he develops the music of Mike Oldfield (not merely covering it, reinventing it), and you’ll recognise the name Les Penning from actual Oldfield records such as The Cuckoo Song, and his pipe playing on Ommadawn. Join me in buying this on Bandcamp.
Wasn't wowed by the Steven Wilson, just on its face, however it was recorded! As for AI (and/or ChatGPT for lyrics), I hope artists and/or labels who feel they must produce records this way, at least label their product appropriately, and you're right to be skeptical if they will!
Maybe it should be treated like the Warning labels slapped on product (U.S., anyway) by PMRC and Congress back in the day, when rap felt the need to rear its filthy head! Nothing in an editing or censorship way, just label stuff so we know what we're getting...actual humans or computers! Elroy Jetson or Rosie?😁
I think I’ll always be an album guy at heart, it’s just how I’ve always consumed music, as a coherent and intentionally sequenced piece of art.
I’m similar to you in wanting to write about how music makes new feel. I may not know all the musical terminology but I think I do an adequate job of conveying why I like an album, or a song, or a part of a a song (as I did when discussing Metric’s Doomscroller in my most recent entry).
Thanks for all you do, I’ve discovered a lot of new and old (but new to me) music.
I’ve become a little lax in my Bandcamp purchasing this year, something I want to rectify in 2024. Thanks for the important reminder.
Wishing you all the best for 2024!