Popular Music

This article reveals the latest trend in concerts - playing full albums. For some artist this isn't new, particularly Marillion, who has been doing this for years at their "Marillion Weekend" conventions, including Brave, Afraid of Sunlight, Marbles and 2009 will showcase Season's End for its 20th anniversary. In fairness, Pink Floyd did this back in 94 with Dark Side of the Moon. I think this is a great idea, and one that all artists should engage in. I commend Marillion for their effort to not lose songs along the way. Their weekends involve three shows and besides playing a complete album and usually a large selection of new stuff from their newest release, they also play quite a few rarities.

It seems to me that this isn't a "gimmick," its a way to fully realize the artistic vision of the original albums and songs. Too many times, a tour for a new release will include a handful of new tracks and then the really old material that people know all too well. The remaining tracks never get performed,- and get their own life- they just become forgotten album cuts. Some may get played for the new tour but are then quickly discarded, never to return. Popular artists that have a massive catalog often fall into this category, such as Sting and Rush. Sting himself has said that the songs recorded on the album are just "blueprints" and that he revises them for the better while playing them on the tour. I would like to see what he could do with some of the songs he has never really performed. For other artists some of the songs may just be filler to try to produce a full album. In this case, if the songs don't stand up to being played live and they can't be reworked then they probably can't be classified as good art. Of course, this might reveal much about record companies and their "artists" in the last ten years. But, for the good musicians, hopefully this trend will continue to spread and many amazing songs that have not been heard in a long time will be resurrected.