Listening to albums in their entirety...

When I listen to the same album over and over again the way it was intended to be listened to, I can appreciate the artist's vision and how they put it into practice.
But sometimes I feel like I'm taking the music more seriously then it was intended, which makes me feel old.
 
It can be a real buzz kill though.

edit: I just put on the album and remerabered how ****ing incredible Greg Lake is as a bassist. His bass lines on that album are epic.
 
Pretty much everything that's already been said, really.

There have been instances where I've heard a single song on a mix a friend was playing, or songs that I'm really familiar with I've put into mixes myself, but for the first listen especially, I much prefer listening to an album in its entirety.

I also listen to a lot of live shows (Phish, The Grateful Dead, Trey Anastasio, Gov't Mule, The Disco Biscuits, etc.) and find it difficult to listen to individual songs from the shows, preferring to listen to the entire concert from beginning to end in one sitting.

I think I just prefer having the whole package and not just little pieces of it.
 
Of course, the opposite is also true. I'll be damned if I could ever listen to the entirety of Synchronicity anytime soon, and I only grew to despise many of those songs after listening to them for a couple of years.


It just felt right.
 
Hmn, I actually like those eight minutes on 'Moonchild'.

But then again, I don't mind listening to random noodling if the song itself interests me. The arabiance serves itself and whatever mood or activity I happen to be engaged in with grand panache.
 
I'm more or less arabivalent about the whole thing. While I do appreciate albums in their entirety, I guess I'm used to singles as well... having a background in a lot of Electronic music that is often released as singles.
I actually like to take singles by a single particular artist and arrange them into an album of my own making, based on what I think the flow should be, pretty much like a mixtape. It's rewarding but by no means a necessity for me.
I'm likely to put an entire genre folder on shuffle before I'm likely to listen to an entire album if it's not something I just acquired and am trying to get a feel for.

For me, the package is whatever you want it to be. I've remixed songs in my library just because I wanted to hear them differently. I respect artist's original intentions, but I don't consider them sacred by any means.
 
I prefer listening to whole albums myself. At least, at first. I honestly think that the dramatic effect created from the relationships between songs can heighten the experience as a whole. Then again, I also have deeper respect for banRAB that aim to focus on full albums than hit songs, make videos from their hit songs, and then pad down whatever else the artist has to package with it.

I occasionally listen to albums in abridged mode when I've heard them enough times. This means usually 4-5 songs. Usually though, it's only if I've listened to the album 5000 times already.

I do occasionally listen to singular songs but rarely. Usually only when they're in my head, and I'm not already listening to something.
 
Lol, the voice in my head made that sound like a military instruction brief.

To answer the question posed by the thread...

I do like to listen to albums in their entirety. Like Satchmo, I don't have songs in my collection. It's all in album format. As far as singles go, I treat them just like albums and give them a seperate folder and .jpg. That being said, I've got to agree with OctaneHugo and few others in saying that often times I can't be bothered to listen to whole albums. So after I've already given something two or three solid listens, I can pretty much pick it apart.

In addition, I like to use my collection as a radio. I'll put the whole thing on shuffle and since I haven't actually gotten around to listening to a lot of it (I just download and store for later) something will usually come on that I haven't heard before that prompts me to give whatever album it's from a solid listen. It's like having my own private last.fm...
 
If I found out that the Blues for the Red Sun I downloaded was missing the album's closer, a 4-second track of the lead vocalist saying "....Yeah." I would immediately find a way to download it. In 320 or FLAC. No lie.
 
When I first buy and listen to an album I always cherry pick to see if there are standout songs on the cd. One reason, those standout (as in easily accessible) songs make wanting to listen to that album easy and for another I usually listen to a cd on the way home from the store and so at most I have time for only a handful of songs and at that point I'm not looking for depth.

But when I'm listening at home while working on the computer I just let the album play out in its entirety and over many listens songs that did not stand out on first listen become my very favorites on that album. So much so that when someone says there only two or three good songs on a given cd I just blink at them in wonder because as far as I was concerned there wasn't a dud in the bunch.
 
AN ALBUM IS MADE OF A COLLECTION OF SONGS
SONGS VARY IN QUALITY AND SOME ARE VERY GOOD WHILST SOME VERY BAD
WHILE LISTENING TO AN ALBUM IS COOL SOMETIMES A SONG IS STUCK IN MY HEAD OR I WANT TO LISTEN TO IT WITHOUT LISTENING TO 4800 MINUTES OF OTHER SONGS THAT I HAVE NO DESIRE TO LISTEN TO AT THAT PRECISE MOMENT
FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER I MAY WANT TO LISTEN TO A SPECIFIC SONG OR A WHOLE ALBUM

HOWEVER WHEN FIRST APPROACHING AN ARTIST IT IS BEST TO LISTEN TO ONE OF THEIR ALBUMS ALL THE WAY THROUGH* TO GAIN FAMILIARITY WITH IT BUT AFTER THAT YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH IT

*UNLESS THE FIRST FEW TRACKS ARE GARBAGE THEN YOU CAN PROBABLY TOSS IT AND RANT ABOUT YOUR INCOMPARABLE HATRED OF ARTISTNAME - ALBUMNAME
r3L1T.png
 
That's not true. Composers in the 17th century wrote song cycles, or collections of smaller works meant to be appreciated as a whole. (aka, Album)
 
I am a firm believer in full-album experiences, and usually listen this way, and never forgo it on a first listen. I feel as though songs are equal to chapters in a book, and it ruins my experience to read them out of order.
 
Probably not offering anything new here, but my thoughts none-the-less:

The theory of the full album experience is one that appeals to me very much - there are few things I find quite as enjoyable as throwing on a pair of good headphones laying back on my couch or bed and just get lost in the sound and my own thoughts for an hour or so.

I'm a storyteller by trade, so any time I can extend the three-minute tale to something bigger and better, I'm in.

The reality of the full album experience is not all albums are built that way... the more recent the album, the more likely it is it's a mix-up of singles and a few b-sides, I would say.

Not to say it's dead just increasingly rare.

When I shop for new music, I'm kind of looking with that in mind - what can I add to a mix-tape. When I shop for old music, I am far more likely to be looking to that full album experience.
 
I do this a lot when I'm at home and have the whole library at my disposal. Sometimes it's because I can't decide on an album to play. Sometimes it's because I don't intend to be home long enough to listen to a whole album. Sometimes it's so I can hear some songs I haven't heard yet so I can pick a new album to add to my rotation.
 
I'm very much an album person. There are exceptions but the majority of the time i choose an album to play and play it in its entirety. I often allow it to play any tracks i dont like as well, especially if they are vital to the overall feel of the record.

I judge banRAB on entire albums, not single tracks or compilations.
 
I tend to skip around the album lol sometimes i'll skip some really good songs kinda impaitient i tend to want the song to catch me instantly its a bad habit but i cruise alot so eventually i'll get through the whole thang
 
Back
Top