Death of the LP?

I put the question mark in the title here, because this is really a question for all of the modern music fans out there. At the moment, I'm kinda fascinated with the idea of contemporary music--which as I stated in a previous post at first seems almost overwhelming to me--and I'd really like to try to delve a bit more deeply into its tangled webs. I was reading a review for an LCD Soundsystem CD (this seemed like a trendy enough band, right?), and this quote stuck out for me: "Like just about everybody else these days, Murphy's more skilled at creating isolated tracks than making full-lengths, even though this particular full-length has few weak spots and unfolds smoothly as you listen to it from beginning to end."

I had mentioned in my previous post a fear that the album as an art-form is dying. It seems to me that with the advent of downloadable music, no one really cared about buying entire albums anymore, so of course artists don't really care about them anymore. People just listen to one or two hit songs from each album, and even if they do have the entire album, they can listen to it on their computer in any order they want. I like that freedom, but I love the idea of getting really into a deep album and losing yourself in the tracks. Great albums aren't about hits, but about the ebb and flow of music, the valleys and the peaks. Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan for me is all about that progression from the unearthly, magical "Visions of Johanna" through the joyful yet melancholy "I Want You," culminating in "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again," which really sums up the album with its crazy-carnival mood (what Dylan terms "that thin, wild mercury sound," which was as close as he got on record to the sound of the music he heard in his head). Not every song on this album is amazing, but it is the total experience and the fact that you discover something absolutely new on each listen that makes it my favorite album of all time. What's Going On by Marvin Gaye feels like a total musical journey, but all the songs blur together to me. The White Album is such an experience in and of itself, becuase of the sheer variety and the fact that they Beatles threw everything and the bathroom sink at your face.

I am curious, modern music fans, do you feel like people are still making great, full-length albums? Is the quality still the same as it was during the peak years of rock 'n' roll? Do you feel like things are changing in an era where no one buys CDs anymore? I don't really download much music, so I don't know if people usually DL the whole album or just their favorite songs or what. If you download the whole album, do you listen to it all the way through in order? That is always something I try to do at least once. Honestly, with the best albums, you discover something new on every play through. I am so ill-informed about music from the last decade, but there are a lot of '90s albums that I love, from Nevermind to Play by Moby to Beck's albums to Radiohead's albums. These people were making great LPs, but still, this was primarily in the era where people actually went out and bought the CD. I am a bit worried that it is a dying medium, however, just like the novel might one day be phased out. But I'm curious as to what better-informed music fans than me have to say on the issue.

--Edward