Songs or albums?

[MadTinus]

This is a topic which I've been wanting to post for a while, so finally I did.

When you listen to music, do you (pre-dominantly) play albums in full or is the 'random' option on your CD/media player always on and you play different songs by different artists mixed up all the time?

I was wondering because I sometimes view other people's Last.fm profiles and I see 11 different songs by 11 different artists as last played tracks and I wonder if that's how they always listen to music.

Personally I almost always listen to albums instead of individual songs. I think generally it's somehow 'wrong' to just listen to songs and 'rip' songs out of their album context, it's like you don't fully appreciate the music as you should. As a serious music listener, one should listen to the whole album i.m.o.

Of course everyone sometimes just wants to hear (a) certain song(s), but the question here is, what do you do most of the time?

 

[Katatonic89]

I almost always listen to a whole album.

 

[the mourner13]

If I like the album overall I listen to the whole of it.But mostly I listen to different songs from different albums.

 

[Lisra]

I'm either a "one song" or "album" person. I could not stand owning an ipod shuffle.

 

[BlueSky]

Albums.

 

[Hobo]

Mostly albums, but for some occations single songs on random just fits better...
I think it mostly depens on what i want music for..
If it is for serious listening, i go with albums, but if i want background noise i go random (in my car, at work..)

edit; sorry for hijacking your thread, but in a somewhat related question, if you are focusing on something, can you listen to a good album at the same time? If i put on a really good album at work, i just tend to stop working and listening to music instead, so i mostly just listen to the radio there, where almost no music is good enough to steal my concentration away

 

[Phoenix5]

I listen to mostly albums in full. There are times that I like to put my iTunes on shuffle, but that's not very often.

 

[daimonion]

Almost only whole albums because of the atmosphere it creates. If i listen to single songs its usually only a couple. I couldn't do that for long at a time. ...exept when i'm drinking.

 

[Noituudenaika]

I listen to the whole album when I first get it, then I get obsessed with certain bits and songs and keep listening to them over and over. Sometimes I put my playlist on random and other times I play the whole albums.

 

[Belligerent]

It really depends. If it's an album as incredible as Agalloch's The Mantle for instance, I listen to it all the way through.
But if it's something I just downloaded, I usually skip around a bit until I find my favorite song, part etc.
Good thread Tinus!

If i listen to single songs its usually only a couple. I couldn't do that for long at a time. ...exept when i'm drinking.

I have a bad habit of changing cd's ALOT when I'm drinking. I always want to find the right tune for the moment I guess.

 

[Mantraschism]

I really enjoy listening to whole albums. It's part of my ritual when I get a new album, unless it just bores the shit out of me or I hate it immediately. Entire albums do create an atmosphere that you only get a fraction of with individual songs. But then, there are times when you just don't have time to listen to a whole album (like when you're driving to work), and then I have no problem just listening to certain songs. And then there are other times when all I want is a song or two from a certain album (when I'm in 'frantic listening' mode).

But if I'm either a 'songs guy' or an 'album guy', I definitely say I'm an 'album guy'.

 

[LifeDepraved]

Full albums definitely.

 

[Bleak Eyes]

If I personally own the album, I ALWAYS listen to the album in full. If I have it downloaded, it depends how much I like the album if I want to play the entire album. Two examples for me recently have been Myrkgrav and Kaki King. I got into Myrkgrav in December and I almost always listened to the album in full because I enjoyed the album that much. Kaki King's new album, Dreaming Of Revenge, has mesmerized me. I will start listening to the album and tell myself that I will listen to some tracks on the album and then I end up listening to the entire thing.

Albums are meant to be played throughout. I only start albums if I know I will have time to listen to the entire thing. I cannot stand stopping an album in the middle. Sometimes I want to hear individual tracks, but for some odd reason I am completely incapable of doing that.

 

[the-great-cold-distance]

Usually albums... its (generally) the way the songs are supposed to be listened to!

 

[stefan86]

I mostly listen randomly.. I've got a short attention span for music. Unless I'm really in the mood for one particular band Guess I'm a minority hah

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

I do both, but it depends on the style of music or particular artist. For most of the metal bands I listen to, like Katatonia or Moonspell or Entombed, etc., I always listen to the whole cd. But when listening to more classic rock or pop/new wave stuff I tend to have it on shuffle and just listen to individual songs. I can't listen to, for example, one song from Viva Emptiness and then quickly move on to another song, that just feels wrong. Certain albums especially, such as that one, are just made to be taken as a whole and meant to be listened to from beginning to end.

 

[Clayman77]

Personally I almost always listen to albums instead of individual songs. I think generally it's somehow 'wrong' to just listen to songs and 'rip' songs out of their album context, it's like you don't fully appreciate the music as you should. As a serious music listener, one should listen to the whole album i.m.o.

That's pretty much exactly how I see it. There's always album context/dynamics which mix by using shuffle or similar feature. I have iPod Shuffle and I don't think that I've ever used the shuffle option on it intentionally.

 

[BlueSky]

Guess I'm a minority hah

Maybe here, but I'd say you're with the majority of the majority.

 

[Phoenix5]

Maybe here, but I'd say you're with the majority of the majority.

Yeah, I guess I'm kind of the same way. Truthfully, the only Katatonia album that I have to listen to the entire way through is Brave Murder Day. Otherwise I can just listen to single songs from my favorite albums.


When it comes to stuff like Saturnus, Pain of Salvation, Symphony X, Dark Suns, Agalloch and Virgin Black, I have to listen to the entire album all the way through. Same with a lot of Devin Townsend's stuff.

 

[MadTinus]

I guess actually I agree with most of you, except Stefan of course

Sometimes you just need to hear some song. Of some artists/albums you can just like certain songs and it also depends what you're doing. When I stay later at work I sometimes just put songs on random, cause then I'm working and it's also nice to be 'surprised' by songs, like when you're in a pub or something.

Also some albums are simply more song-based and you can listen to individual songs, when on other albums the songs are really part of a whole and it makes less sense to listen to them separately. Katatonia is generally a pretty song-based band I think, but Porcupine Tree for instance is more an 'album' band, especially their more recent albums.