How the album survived and why it satisfies the soul!

How the album survived and why it satisfies the soul!

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold February 10, 2026 Duration: 38:46

The album has had 25 years of being hammered by other formats – Napster, iTunes, Spotify, TikTok – and not only survived but thrived. For Keith Jopling it’s the irreplaceable way to hear music and to measure the people who make it. His new book Body Of Work celebrates its battle-scarred trajectory from the beating heart of pop culture to 21st Century affordable luxury, and stops off at …

 

… growing up in the age of cassettes

 

… his lifelong devotion to a Police album left on his doorstep

 

… Adele’s battle with Spotify to get records played in sequence

 

… how albums are how you calibrate a career, from the Beatles to Taylor Swift

 

… has anyone ever loved a CD the way they love an album?

 

… how parents used to despair of their kids loafing in bedrooms listening to records but now try and persuade them to do it

 

… pictures of equipment: rock porn!

 

… the swingback to Listening Parties and analogue recording

 

… records as shining examples of the packaged goods business

 

… “we need to regain control of our attention”

 

… and the iTunes launch party and why Smashing Pumpkins thought they’d seen the future.

 

Order Body Of Work in the UK here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/keith-jopling/body-of-work-how-the-album-outplayed-the-algorithm-and-survived-playlist-culture

 

And in the USA here: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/body-of-work-how-the-album-outplayed-the-algorithm-and-survived-playlist-culture/


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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