CDs: The 1st Half vs. the 2nd Half?

[grilled_cheese]

...there's a lot more music on CDs than there used to be on LPs, and so the quality is hard to keep up. If you asked the same question 15-20 years ago about Side 1 vs Side 2 of an LP or cassette, you might get different answers. But since a 65-75 minute CD holds almost twice as much music as many older LPs, bands don't have to be as selective anymore about what to include vs. what not to include. Or, they now write more, which likely also leads to a dilution of quality. So, if the CDs are frontloaded with the better songs, the first half will be better than the second half, and the difference not as noticeable as it would have been in a Side 1 vs Side 2 debate

BAM! Well said and tis the truth!

Ken's words also describe the problem with a lot of albums that were meant for release on compact disc compared to vinyl. This is why there are very few "masterpieces" in today's metal world. Do you think Master of Puppets or Peace Sells would still be masterpieces if another song or two were added? I think not.

 

[Magius]

I have almost completely given up on some albums through the first half, only to have the second half redeem the purchase. However. I agree that the first half seems to be better most of the time.
I think "attention deficit" has a lot to do with it. Unless one can dedicate the time to sit and listen to an entire album life creeps in, and the mind turns its attention to other things that need to be done.

I, like others have stated, find the random button to be a great remedy to the problem. My iPod and iTunes live on "shuffle."

 

[nomisofsiman]

I have almost completely given up on some albums through the first half, only to have the second half redeem the purchase. However. I agree that the first half seems to be better most of the time.
I think "attention deficit" has a lot to do with it. Unless one can dedicate the time to sit and listen to an entire album life creeps in, and the mind turns its attention to other things that need to be done.

I, like others have stated, find the random button to be a great remedy to the problem. My iPod and iTunes live on "shuffle."

You know what's weird? I used to be someone that loved hitting random on cd changers back on the day, but nowadays even with ipod in hand, I just prefer listening to the whole disc.

 

[adaher]

I love my shuffle feature. That was what sold me on CDs back in the day, and now with an Ipod I can shuffle thousands of songs. It's pure heaven.

Only problem is, I don't know what's the first half or the second half anymore, since when I get a CD all I do is load it onto the Ipod. I don't think I've played an actual CD in years.

 

[Magius]

You know what's weird? I used to be someone that loved hitting random on cd changers back on the day, but nowadays even with ipod in hand, I just prefer listening to the whole disc.

It's a rare album on which I find every song worth listening to repeatedly. When I buy a CD I listen to it completely 3 times through. Fortunately, I can listen to about half a CD between home and work. The first half gets listened to on the way to work, and the second half on the way home for three days.

The first listen is just for a general feel. The second is to see which tracks really catch my attention. The third time is to allow any marginal, for lack of a better word, songs to grow on me. I write down the track numbers of songs I want, and only those get ripped into iTunes, and burned on the iPod.

I have too much music to suffer through songs I consider to be bad or fillers.

 

[Magius]

I love my shuffle feature. That was what sold me on CDs back in the day, and now with an Ipod I can shuffle thousands of songs. It's pure heaven.

Same.

 

[skyrefuge]

I listen to the ipod on random so I can hear a variety of things (and I def skip songs depending on mood, plus you can't have Phantom of the Opera come on after Opeth ). But this means that an album can't be listened to in order. This certainly hurts some discs like PoS' BE.

As far as I know, all iPods, as well as iTunes software running on a computer, support "shuffle by album".

In that mode, it will randomly select an album, start a track #1, play the album straight through in order, and then randomly select the next album. It's the best of both worlds: you get unexpected variety, but also get to listen to complete albums.

I do the majority of my listening that way. I use the computer to "suggest" the next album for me to listen to. "Grave Digger?" But then I overrule it if I'm not interested at the moment. "Nope, I was just listening to Rage. Give me something else. Earthless? Alright! Great choice, computer!" That way I end up listening to things in my collection that I might not have thought of on my own. Sometimes that's good for hitting things I've forgotten about, and sometimes it's good for creating unexpected experiences. In fact, just this morning, when I woke up, the computer gave me Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects. I would *never* think of listening to something so insane while eating my Cheerios at 8am, but for some reason I let it play, and it was surprisingly awesome.

Neil

 

[skyrefuge]

Wow. That's a lot of listens. How many discs would you say you play in a typical day?

That's 40 listens over ~5 years, for one of my Top 30 albums of the Aughts. I've generally been under the impression that I actually listen a lot *less* to things than most people do. Well, I probably listen to more music overall, but I my listens are distributed more evenly over my collection, rather than being concentrated among my favorite 10 albums.

My records show that I listen to 15000-20000 tracks per year, which works out to somewhere around 5-6 albums per day.

Neil