What is “album?”
I am not excited to announce that I’m releasing a new album this fall!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much excited to work on the album, and I’m excited to release the album, which will coincide with the 20th Anniversary of the Pachelbel Rant show on November 23. It’s the announcement part that was filling me with dread.
But before I explain the dread I want to front-load this post with the good vibes I found. The reason I’m making this album is because I like making albums. It sounds simplistic but there’s really no better reason I could come up with.
I like arranging songs. I like figuring out if a string part or a horn part or a bloopie synthesizer is the right sound. I like playing with genres and discovering what makes a yacht rock arrangement in this song different from the lite-pop 1970s sound I’m going for in another.
I like arranging backing vocals!
I also like writing songs and I think I’m pretty good at it. Setting meaningful lyrics to a good melody with an interesting underlying chord structure fires the best-developed sections of my brain and it’s hugely rewarding when it works. It’s like that satisfaction of solving a tough crossword or sudoku times a million.
So the reason for releasing an album in the year of our Lord 2026 to me feels like the reason some people (definitely not me) run marathons. Most people who run them aren’t trying to win, or even finish in the money. They’re doing it to challenge themselves. The date of a marathon gives them a date to structure their running, because a lot of people (again, not me) enjoy—or at least feel compelled to—run long distances.
They’re pushing themselves to do something better than they’ve done it before. Or they’re pushing themselves to keep doing something that they love. Results be damned, finishing the thing is its own accomplishment.
With that as my new perspective, I’m super excited to work on and release this album. And that excitement makes me dread announcing that I’m releasing an album a little less.
So, why the dread?
The dread came from me trying to figure out what the point of releasing an album even is these days. I put my first albums together in the 90s to have something to sell after comedy shows, and it wasn’t just to make a little extra gas money from weekend gigs. Back when sharing music online was difficult to non-existent, selling a CD was a way for someone who enjoyed my show to hear the songs again and share the fun with their friends. Now you just repost a link to spotify, soundcloud, or (shudder) a low-fi phone-recorded TikTok video.
In the early days I would send the CD to radio stations, especially morning shows that were always looking for comedy to fill three hours every day. If the songs got airplay I could find new fans. Now you record yourself singing the song into your phone, post it, and hope to be blessed by the algorithm.
As far as making a little gas money goes, I haven’t sold more than 1 CD at a show in years. In fact, I just got rid of a few hundred copies of my old CDs, finally admitting that there was no chance to sell them. With each release I’d order fewer copies, from 1,000 of American Cheese(1998) and Living it Down(2001), to 500 of Songs from the Second Floor(2009) and A/B(2016), to I think only 100 of The American Songbook: Redacted(2022).
Releasing an album these days is mostly about getting it up on the streaming services and YouTube, where artists get infinitesimal compensation and independent artists are being drowned out by growing waves of AI slop.
So it would seem that putting out an album in 2026 accomplishes none of the goals I had when I started putting out music 30 years ago. Yet when I decided to put my latest work together, finish up a set of songs, and set a release date, I found myself excited and motivated and eager to share the work with whoever may find it.
And that’s where the analogy of running a marathon has become helpful. I’m not looking for this album to bolster—or even greatly affect—my comedy career. But maybe a few friends will cheer me on as I challenge myself to achieve a personal best.
And I’m having a blast working on the bloopie synthesizers and backing vocals!
My plan is to release an advance single in mid-September and the whole album on November 23, when I do my big 20th Anniversary show for the Pachelbel Rant. It’ll be available on all the streaming services, I’ll probably, stupidly, get a few actual physical copies pressed, and maybe I’ll send a QR code to a link to a digital version for radio stations and playlist makers.
And yes, I’ll probably make some vertical videos for TikTok. Haha, El-Oh-El, hashtaghustle.
P.S.
Most importantly there will be no generative AI in this project. F&%$ that stuff. All of the sounds will be played and programmed by me, playing guitar and bass, singing, and programming and playing the samples and synthesizers. I’m not even using any pre-made loops or chord packs, which are a thing that DJs and producers use, like stock photography for music I guess.
AI tools should be used for things like going through a stack of contracts to find out the average royalty rate of a company’s patent over the last 20 years, arranged by country and industry. Or whatever. But using it for creative expression and communication? Nope. Uh-uh. Keep that slop away from me.