Shuffle

I'm still a big fan of the album. I think that, when it's well-crafted, and the songs are ordered in a certain way -- either by creative strategy, or by accident -- the sum of the whole is greater than the parts. 

I think the perfect example is Slayer's REIGN IN BLOOD. Taken by themselves, there are a few very strong songs, like "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood." But, on a song-by-song basis, it's no match for something like Metallica's MASTER OF PUPPETS. 

As an album, though, I find REIGN to be the stronger of the two. It creates a mood. It creates a world that you live in while it's playing. "Raining Blood" is about on par, on a song-on-song basis, with most everything on PUPPETS. However, after I listen to the entire album, "Raining Blood" becomes something incredibly more powerful than it otherwise would be as a stand-alone song. 

This is the main reason I'm not that big on iTunes and buying singles and whatnot. I'd rather go to Amoeba and buy cheap-ass used CDs. I realize they're becoming an outmoded medium, but I still find the album to be the more interesting form.

However... just to experiment, I've been spinning tunes on "shuffle" this past week. And suddenly -- I get it. What I lose in the smooth build of musical chapters an album provides, I gain by hearing songs outside of their usual placement. I'm running into some really cool and interesting juxtapositions along the way... Slayer to Pailhead to MC Lars to Fear Factory to Ice Cube to Dragonforce to Jay-Z to Minor Threat to Tenacious D to the Bloodhound Gang to the soundtrack to ROBOCOP to AC/DC and on and on and on...

The songs and artists are different. But at the same time, I'm finding commonalities I hadn't before noticed. 

Now... I realize that, in 2010, discovering the joys of the shuffle feature is a little like finally figuring out how to use a microwave. 

I bring it up only because, at the same time I'm approaching music in this way, I'm shopping two very different spec scripts. One is an action-comedy, the other a thriller. They're both very good. There is some crossover in terms of commercial approach, but not much. 

It's interesting to approach the town from two directions and, along the way, finding out the different needs of the various companies. I get a clearer idea of where the town is at in this specific moment in time than if I'd just been shopping one or the other. 

I've found it's always valuable to appreciate things for what they are, but also to try seeing things from different angles. By inviting a fluidity of thought, the collected perceptions become a sum that is greater than the whole.