Anyone listen to entire albums?


I assume the answer is yes since many of you run vinyl rigs, but just wondering how many around here listen to entire albums at a sitting?  In the age of instant gratification and playlists I seem to be, recently, gravitating to listening through entire albums.  I don’t have vinyl and only stream or play from a network drive so it’s easy for me to bounce around from song to song, artist to artist.  Maybe it’s a nostalgia thing but I enjoy hearing a record in it’s entirely the way the artist recorded it.  I’ve flirted with the idea of vinyl for the very reason that it seems to be a format that lends itself to listening through an entire album in one sitting.  I seem to be less inclined to make that move though now that I’ve been doing the album thing via streaming. 

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It really depends. First of all, I don’t listen to music as an ambient background noise while I am doing something else. Either I am listening to music or the hifi is shut off. When I do listen to music, I want to hear the whole piece, or a logical equence of pieces. Most classical and jazz albums are fairly well organized for a satisfying sequential listen through the whole thing. Pop albums, which to me includes just about everything else, can sometimes be brilliantly organized (Joni Mitchel "Blue", Ziggy Stardust, OK Computer) but many have no narrative sensibility and can contain "clunkers". I still tend to listen to the whole album, but I’ll get cranky if it starts to bore me or if I have to listen to a track that sucks. For that reason, I don’t listen to much pop music.

For me, it depends on so much about the album and my mood.

Sure, there are times when I want to listen to the entire album, but other when I do not. I often get in the mood to listen to only a song for two off an album.

I listen to quite a bit of progressive music, which is often in the form of concept albums, but even then, I don’t always feel the need or the want to listen to the entire album. Or, I may be feel like in am in the mood for an album, but then while listening, my mood may change, and I feel a stronger mood for something else.

I do not feel any obligation to listen to an entire album, even if it was my original plan.

Just last night, I felt like only hearing the opening 2 tracks (Eternity’s Breath, part 1 and 2) from Mahavhishnu Orchestra’s album, "Visions of the Emerald Beyond", and that was all I was in the mood for.

And that put me in the mood to hear Allan Holdsworth’s, Devil Take the Hindmost" and "The Un-Merry-Go-Round" off the album, Metal Fatigue.

The rest of my listening session went in a similar direction of only listening to a track of 2 from several other recordings. A couple of tracks of Swedish prog band’s 2012 album Viljans Öga, a couple of tracks off of Alice Colntrane’s, "Journey to Satchidananda".

Even an album like, Genesis, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", which tells a narrative story from beginning to end, and begs to be completely listened to; I will still listen to selective songs from time to time.

And of course, all bets are off with regards to classical music. It is very often the case, that a composer and/or a specific piece I love, will be paired with composers and music I don't like.

I don't stream....I just listen to my lps,cds,cassettes...on LPS sometimes just one side ,usually on cds the whole cd...cassettes sometimes just one side ,so I'm a wackco....lol.