FEATURE:
National Album Day 2025
IN THIS PHOTO: Wolf Alice, who released the Mercury-nominated The Clearing earlier this year, are among the Album Champions for this year’s National Album Day on 18th October/PHOTO CREDIT: Oscar Lindqvist for Rolling Stone UK
The Importance and Power of the Album
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I have found it impossible…
IN THIS PHOTO: Jacob Alon released their debut album, In Limerence, in May/PHOTO CREDIT: Island Records
to put together a list of the best albums this year, as there are too many to choose from! I know I will forget quite a few and have to revise it. However, I will give it a go. I keep forgetting about new acts like VLURE and Geese. Maybe not new bands, but those I might otherwise have overlooked. Albums from Olivia Dean, Jacob Alon and SPRINTS. I think that you can’t really get a proper and wholesome impression of an artist from a single or E.P. An E.P. can be this amazing project between singles. Maybe if an artist has not got a full album yet. It means fans can have something quite long but the artist is not rushed to making an album. E.P.s are getting more and more common. Singles are all well and good, but I think you cannot beat an album in terms of what it offers. It is this single piece that you should listen to in full. I know we are in a culture where we pick songs and often skip through stuff. We are encouraged to rush and everything is made to go faster. Vinyl sales rising suggests people want to spend time with that format and enjoy an album but, in a digital, smartphone and streaming era, we are often listening to playlists and not necessarily committing to albums. It is a worry. A recent interview from NME caught my attention. Wolf Alice have been named as Album Champions for National Album Day. That takes place on 18th October. This year’s theme is Rock. A genre always evolving and being written off at the same time, Architects, Nova Twins and Iron Maiden join Wolf Alice in championing albums. There is no doubt Wolf Alice love albums and make theirs as strong as possible.
Their fourth, The Clearing, has been nominated for a Mercury. The fourth time the band has been nominated….which makes them the most nominated ever. There is no doubting the credentials of Wolf Alice when it comes to the album! Their drummer, Joel Amey, spoke with NME about Wolf Alice’s ambassadorial role for National Albums Day, and why the album is such an essential and beautiful format:
“A good album is a world you can jump into. How would you describe the world of ‘The Clearing’? Did that reveal itself as you were making it?
“We had more conversations about it than we’d ever done before. It felt like an experiment to me because we chose to write differently to how we’d done in the past. Our previous records are all quite different, but it’s quite ‘Wolf Alice’ to go away, everyone writes, then we pull together what we think is exciting. That has really benefitted the band before. But with your fourth album, you ask, ‘What’s going to be exciting for us?’ It was this idea of making a cohesive body of work where the songs come together more coherently than before. That was a challenge for us. It really made us focus on our songwriting and every single chord change. ‘Do we need to stack 85 guitar tracks to get the same point and emotion across? Joff [Oddie] is an incredible guitar player, why don’t we just challenge him to do that?’
“We wanted all the parts to be chosen and more bespoke to the song. It was about honing in on what was important. It was a really fun thing, but we evolved out of our limitations. ‘The Clearing’ is our most experimental album in that sense, because we’ve never made one like it.”
As you said, albums are a capsule of a time and a very important mode of expression. That becomes a more important vehicle when the world is on fire. Wolf Alice have been vocal supporters of Palestine and said that doing so should allow others to feel less afraid and alone. Do you feel like the backlash is lessening through so much artist solidarity, and that the focus is shifting from the culture war to the atrocities themselves?
“I don’t know, because I’ve seen certain people use their platform and gone to see what kind of response they’ve had, and it can be volatile and violent. There are artists who screenshot DMs they’ve received just for speaking out. I don’t know. I just know that I’ve learned a lot from seeing people use their platform. It doesn’t mean that you have to agree exactly with what they say, but it’s about having a conversation. That conversation matters. We need to remind ourselves that it’s OK to have a conversation with someone with different opinions to yours. It’s OK to use your platform if you feel comfortable to do that and you see a moral cause. You learn that privilege as an artist.
“I applaud anyone who’s using their platform in today’s day and age to try and get a resolution to what people are experiencing.”
Wolf Alice have also been staunch in fighting for artist rights and the grassroots. Do you feel as if some good may come about now that the industry seems more open to that conversation?
“It will only get better with action. Everything seems to fall on the responsibility of the artist sometimes, which can be quite overwhelming. It’s got to pan out on so many different levels: from labels to government to music being taught in schools more, so people can find a love and respect for it. We’re gonna do our bit, I hope more people do theirs, and that’s where the hope comes from.”
What advice would you give to a young artist who might think that ever making an album is a pipe dream?
“You can make an album, fine! Don’t wait for the world to give you the thumbs up to be creative. Don’t wait for the world to give you the green light to do what is inside you. I applaud anyone who has time to make something any way they can. What is a conventional method these days? They’ve all been completely chewed up and spat out and rightly so. Good art always finds a way. Just have fun with it. Make a band with your friend. Make art on your own. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. I used to sit in my teenage bedroom and dream about what I’m doing now”.
Not enough is written about the album format. We celebrate the best albums of the year, though it is rare to find articles extolling the virtues of the album. A format that has existed for many decades, are we in danger of losing the connection to the album as more people stream their music? Even if many people are seeking out physical formats, that is not to say they will necessarily listen to entire albums. So many modern artists release a string of singles before an album comes out. I wonder if that takes away from the impact and purpose of an album. If you give too much away before it is released, will people explore the entire body of that album or skip the singles and listen to the rest? Or listen to those singles and ignore the remainder? A cohesive and full work where the artist can tell a story and engage the listener in a way they cannot get through singles and E.P.s. Albums can be a tricky thing. In terms of engaging people from start to finish. Getting them to invest that time into a work. Also, albums are more expensive than streaming singles. In 2023, Forbes ran an article about the importance of singles and albums in the music industry:
“Instead of releasing content quickly to keep audiences engaged, you can use this to show a specific sound or masterpiece you have perfected. Albums allow for a deeper dive into a specific set of melodies, feelings, and artistic sentiments. There are a lot of listeners who crave a more profound connection to a musician's work, and an album is where the creations come to life.
From a marketing perspective, albums can also be a substantial event in an artist's career because of how costly and draining they can be to create. They present marketing agencies with the opportunity for a comprehensive marketing campaign, creating anticipation and buzz around the release. How you present an album can build you a long-lasting fan base that can eventually cause fans to check out the older releases you already have. An album launch can also be a significant occasion that creates a more effective artist-to-listener relationship, driving both new and existing fans to engage with the artist in some sort of way”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels
It is rare for artists to release albums early on. In that they will put out quite a few singles and maybe an E.P first. Maybe it is the way the industry works now. It is harder to get a foothold and leverage unless you have put out quite a few singles. Demand for an album comes a bit later than they’d like. Maybe the sheer cost of making an album is putting many off. Also, people streaming albums does not make much for artists. These are all drawbacks. However, the vitalness and wonder of an album cannot be overstated. National Album Day is not only going to highlight Rock and put that centre. It is a day when we can very much centre the album. Its relevance and purpose. Those artists who have albums in mind and look at the long term and whole picture rather than pumping out singles and collating them into an album will always endure and stand out more. There are too many disposable artists who pump out singles and you might not hear an album for years. And when it comes, it can be a disappointment. Or you have already heard most of it. The album is a magnificent thing. It is interesting what Wolf Alice’s Joel Amey observed when he said how the band make each album different. A new palette and canvas where they can think about what they want to say. That is why The Clearing is such a beautiful thing. The album still has a lot of power today. In fact, this year has been one of the…
STRONGEST years in recent memories.