So Twitter #Music opened it’s gates today. My first impression, it’s like the scan button on your car radio. If you’re the kind of person who selects your station that way – Twitter music is your dream.

Honestly I’ve struggled with the whole internet music thing. I’ve tried Spotify and Pandora and whoever else and maybe it’s just me and signs of aging or something but I just can’t make them work. They never do what I expect which is replicate a really cool radio station on the internet.

So I just fall back to listening to my favorite radio station via their live stream. And lets face it, at my age that means I’m listening to the same stuff I’ve loved for the last 40 years and hearing very little “new” music.

My first real meaningful impression of Twitter #Music was Holy Crap – Twitter’s bringing Album Art back.  I mean seriously when was the last time you paid attention to album art?  Those of us who are old enough to remember record stores remember how much time we all spent flipping through albums judging them by their covers. And I cannot tell you how many hours I spent kicked back on my bed as a kid, listening and staring at the detail on cover art like Bat Out of Hell or News of the World. Cover Art used to be everything!

When CDs became the norm and they were smaller and wrapped up in 3 pounds of security plastic, it started to mean less. That was the beginning of just running in and buying what you came for. The last CD I think I bought because of the art was TMBG, Apollo 18 – in 199?.  Browsing was more work than fun at that point. We stopped killing time looking at albums. (We also started buying in Walmart and online and not in record stores  – and teenagers no longer “hangout” anywhere because their mommy’s are afraid they’ll be kidnapped but those are other balls of wax for another day)

Yes I know the art is there on itunes and Amazon too, but the way it’s shown, it doesn’t dominate, it competes with the page for time and real estate and interest. There is so much else going on, the album art shinks in comparison and you don’t notice it.  I cannot begin to tell you what the art of any album in the last 5 years looks like.

But today for the first time in almost 10 years.. I sat and looked and browsed music because of the Album Art today. Because my screen was full on nothing but this

One thing is clear. Music Artist have gotten lazy about cover art. The reality is I stared at this screen and this is what I saw…

I had never heard of Two Door Cinema Club  (remember the stuck in on an old Beach radio station thing)  but you better believe I clicked on that Album Cover  – it caught my eye, it interested me. The weird surreal image of Barbie doll legs hanging out of a mattress on a ceiling made me wonder about the music.

So I clicked and listened to the sample, and it was cool. So I clicked more and went on to purchase.

So if Twitter has anything to say about it  – Album Art is Important Again.

Graphic Artists of the world REJOICE!

Music Artists – Get over yourself  – a headshot  is not cover art. And seriously I cannot stress this enough, put some damn clothes on. Save that shit for Vanity Fair.

(I was going to say that’s what the free poster inside the album is for but you  know… no more albums)

And let’s face – no one is every going to do “naked” better than this little guy.