Column: Why can't artists stop spoiling their music

There’s no other experience like waking up on Friday morning and seeing a new album from an artist that I like to listen to. Sometimes I know they’re coming, there’s been promotions, ads, and usually a single leading up to it, sometimes it’s a complete surprise and for the most part I’m dying to consume all the new music that has been released into the world.

However, a disturbing trend amongst artists has begun. They have developed a habit of releasing an overflow of singles that spoils the first listen to their new albums. This sacred moment of experiencing a collection of new music for the first time is under fire as artists feel the need to release half of their new albums in the form of singles, thus robbing fans of the magical experience that is an album first listen.

Now I know that I could just not listen to the singles until the whole album is out, but seeing a new song from someone is the equivalent of someone handing me a free slice of chocolate cake, and there is absolutely no way that I can turn that away.

Recent sinners include but are not limited to Lorde, Troye Sivan, The 1975 and G-Eazy. The long four years wait that many fans painfully drudged through during the release of Lorde’s “Pure Heroin” and “Melodrama” was broken when the single “Green Light” was released.

“Green Light” was a great single and would’ve supplied enough anticipation alone to garner “Melodrama” the attention it needed to be successful but it’s unclear if it was her label’s choice or Lorde’s own that led to the seeming weekly release of song after song off “Melodrama.”

By the time her album had rolled around into the public’s headphones, singles “Green Light,” “Sober,” “Liability,” “Perfect Places” and “Homemade Dynamite” had all been released. Almost half of her album was out before the full product hit the shelves.

Both the intro and outro songs off of “Melodrama” were singles and left no surprise for how the album was going to open or close. It’s as if with every single release her album was left out on the kitchen table slowly spoiling in room temperature and by the time its full form was released it was already chunky and sour.

The 1975 are currently on a steady streak of overflowing the music world with singles off of their next album “A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships.” Their next project is slated for release next week on November 30, and at this point they have shoveled out five singles, “Give Yourself A Try,” “Love It If We Made It,” “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME,” “Sincerity Is Scary” and “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You).”

At this point over 18 minutes of their album is already released.

Is it their worry that no one is listening, their worry that they’re not getting enough attention or is it something else that is making these artists seemingly double or more precisely quintuple text their fan base with single after single?

All I know is that I’m sick of it. Just release your promotional single and then let the world judge your album. Can we go back to the day when a single was really a single and not half the freaking album?

Colton Newman is the photo editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted by email at photoeditor@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Coltonperson.