While listening to the C-Side of "Swords" this morning,
I was wondering about the reason for releasing double LPs. Probably there are many reasons, but I kind of cherish the idea that it is also, besides all the monetary and production related constraints, purposefully creating a dramatic effect. What I don't like to see are double LPs with songs just on side a, b and c, and side d left empty or printed with a sketch or image, like it happened on Neil Young's Colorado album. What a waste of resources. Even worse, there is no side d but an extra 7" single added to the package. This coming from Neil Young baffled me quite a lot.
With Swords, the four sides add up to a four-act structure, each one divided into four or five scenes. Not quite sure yet, whether there is more to the arrangement than just the individual songs being b-sides and thrown together for this compilation. Maybe there is a connecting theme or the idea of a musical development, etc. Maybe it's just the producer telling folks what comes next.
(Swords, all nicely swabbed and scrubbed)
What I like about listening to vinyl is that it is not as fleeting as listening to a never-ending stream of songs on spotify, for example, or even the whole bunch of songs on a cd. I usually listen more often and more carefully to the four or five songs on each side, because I am simply too lazy to turn over the record after the last song has been played. I just have to push the play button again, preferably with my toe, and then the music starts anew, meanwhile the handful of songs on each side form an entity, with or without an intentional meaning attached to it, but after all, there is a structural element to it which I can appreciate.
On side c of Swords there is "Teenage Dad" which stuck out most today, as it kind of exemplifies the simplistic teenage good-and-bad world view, in which amical sympathy and a general lack of life experience always override common sense and thus tend to lose critical sight of the big picture.