The Post-Album Blues (Album Journal #1)
Since I started this songwriting journal back in 2022, I have wanted to include (but forget to in real time) a sort of "as it happens" angle about new songs or albums. Once a new album reaches your ears, so much thought has already gone in to almost every element, including the top-level thoughts of whether or not what is being released is any good.
I more or less believe in an album once it's done, but not in equal measure song to song, or album to album. A song that I was excited about it the beginning might be a weak link in the final product. Another song that was a real dark horse might become my favorite --either in studio, or just late in the writing process. And that's to say nothing of the transformations songs go through in the weeks, months, and years after their release.
Now three months since Rift, this entry can serve as introductory thoughts on the next album, which is logically very much in its infancy. The purpose here is provide a real-time update as an album develops and see how the feelings and mechanics around it evolve over time. Things are likely a bit too intangible to be hugely valuable to others at this stage, but my hope is that this writing acts as a ground-level memoir for the ups and downs as the project develops from a weird, ethereal thing, to a concrete creation that feels like it was always meant to exist. In that moment of realization, I hope these writings become retroactively validated.
A vacuum is created after releasing an album. For one, you mostly rob yourself of all your content --like raiding your minor league system and then having no quality prospects left to call up to the majors. Second, there is an exhale. Few people are waiting on my next record to drop, but I have an internal expectation that something gets released about every two years. Once I've made good on that, it feels like I've checked a huge box off of my to-do list. And third, you're just kind of tired. It's romantic to envision yourself hunkered over your notebooks and instruments pumping out dozens of songs and whittling them down to their best selves, and then selecting only the best to move forward. I have come to find that to this point in my work, I'm just not that prolific. It's not as romantic as people make it sound; it's just really, really hard.
Maybe from all of the hypothetical work that is yet to be done, or that I just don't have a center from which to venture out, the feelings about the next album are slightly negative here at the start. It's mostly a resting heart rate sort of negativity, rather than being specific feelings about the viability and direction of the project --like how a digital scale might rest at -0.01. There just isn't anything to get excited about yet.
I have a song called "Sunny Side Road" that was almost part of Rift but just didn't quite have the polish ready in time. "Sunny Side" feels a little rudimentary at this stage, as I only know so many chords and fingerings in the Open-E tuning. I also have nine other songs in that tuning, so until I learn a few new tricks in it, I have kind of exhausted what I can offer with it. The good news is that even with that potential criticism, several of those Open-E songs have turned out great --"The Balloonist," "Simulation Avenue," "These Hills Are Gonna Rise"-- so there is hope yet.
I have had a few in-between-albums songs before. "Carolina Mountain Girl" took three years to end up on an album; "Call of the Trumpet" had the same three years but ended up on a b-side EP. A few others just fell through the cracks and never saw the light of day. At this moment, I'm leaning more b-side than album for "Sunny Side," though a lot will depend on the kinds of songs that emerge in the coming months.
I also have a piece called "Recurring Dream" that I think will work nicely as a spoken word. I haven't put any music to it yet, but it feels like it might have potential. After not despising my first full attempt at spoken word ("Crickets"), I'm anxious to keep working in that direction and see what comes out.
The goal is to keep a running journal as this album comes together. I imagine that will mean monthly updates, but might be more often if I decide there is something to say.