The Dying Art of listening to an album the full way through.

[warphead]

I listen to full albums all the time, I'm from the era before ipod so playing from beginning to end is a natural process for me. I also skip between bits and pieces plenty if I need to, depends what mood I'm in.

Right now. I'm playing LCD Soundsystem This is Happening. Yesterday I played Talking Heads Remain in Light, Tools Lateralus. and a few eps from Autechre.

Though I use mp3 players for years. I've never made a playlist in my life lol. Heh, I'm a bit of a luddite. I presume a playlist is when you randomly put together a mix for certain things? Like a running playlist and a cycling playlist? Yeah whatever, I couldn't care less mate a bit wanky imo

I'd just like to say one important thought. Many, many times I have had that eureka moment with tracks I thought I definitely did not like when I could not be bothered to press skip, or when the skip button wasn't close to hand (for example when cycling heh). And that is the main reason why I like listening to full albums. There are a lot of tracks that I've just had 'lightbulb' moments with. And those moments are special imo.

[Mexicola]

I listen to full albums all the time, I'm from the era before ipod so playing from beginning to end is a natural process for me. I also skip between bits and pieces plenty if I need to, depends what mood I'm in.

Right now. I'm playing LCD Soundsystem This is Happening. Yesterday I played Talking Heads Remain in Light, Tools Lateralus. and a few eps from Autechre.

Though I use mp3 players for years. I've never made a playlist in my life lol. Heh, I'm a bit of a luddite. I presume a playlist is when you randomly put together a mix for certain things? Like a running playlist and a cycling playlist? Yeah whatever, I couldn't care less mate a bit wanky imo

I'd just like to say one important thought. Many, many times I have had that eureka moment with tracks I thought I definitely did not like when I could not be bothered to press skip, or when the skip button wasn't close to hand (for example when cycling heh). And that is the main reason why I like listening to full albums. There are a lot of tracks that I've just had 'lightbulb' moments with. And those moments are special imo.

I think you and me would get on just fine and dandio. I could have written this post. Spot on.

[warphead]

Yes I think we would get on Mexicola, we from the same era and from a metal background.To be honest, I don't think I've ever disagreed with anything you've ever wrote on these forums.

I haven't posted for a while and glad I did with this. I've posted a few bits and pieces on twoism in the past which have been a bit negative towards some people here. Sorry about that I was bit messed up with the Peruvian marching powder. That's all in the past now.

Anyway this is a great thread. I was actually thinking the same sort of thing a few days ago.

[North by North]

I'm a full album guy overall, but have just recently enjoyed making a few playlists- notably my master 10 hour BoC playlist- this was very fun to do as I have listened to the albums, EPs and old tunes from start to finish a million times, so this provides a new experience and is cool when you get a great transition from one album/era to another. I also did a 6-hour playlist for my wedding reception last May, using all sorts of artists and genres, which was fun. So I've gotten into this a little more- creating an overall mood/vibe/theme while using a bunch of different artists.

I'll also put together playlists of songs from an artist if there are albums that are lacking overall, but on the whole- I prefer a full album experience when possible- I like to take it all in as a full body work. It's been a Mazzy Star day today.

[d e n]

only full records! it doesnt feel right the other way... i also tend to be attracted to bands that I feel release music that is intended to be listened to as a whole. having a good amplifier and two channel speakers with a cd player also helps. the amplifier i have also has a usb port so i can make full use of an ipod to listen to records i dont have physical copies of. the ipod is great because it lets me keep my physical collection of music from getting out of hand... for example i recently chose to buy the files of
an autechre album from the warp website instead of the physical copy. if there isnt time to finish the record all the way through i will finish it later. id say there is an even mix of listening while engaged with something else and the preferable listening without being engaged in anything but the music.

the last few records i listened to were:

trans canada highway

heijira by joni mitchell

36 chambers - wu tang clan

transmigration of the magus - john zorn

i almost never listen to playlists but i think they can be great, especially a well crafted one for a party...

in highschool me and friends would have things like the peel session version of aquarious bumping and the overall vibe of the party would feel blissful

[FernieCanto]

It's funny that I hear this dichotomy of "full albums vs. playlists" and hear about the dying art of listening to albums, when elsewhere on the Internet I see nostalgic people reminiscing about the dying art of creating mixtapes in the 80's. As far as I can see, neither of those things are dying; they're just changing and adapting, like things always do.

Listening to full albums is an excellent way of sinking into an experience, of giving yourself away to music in a profound way, of just letting the music take you wherever the hell it goddamn pleases; while making mixtapes, or playlists, is not just a selective process, but a creative process, which allows us to run free and make new connections between things we know dearly. It's the difference between being under the control of music and being in control of music. Both are worthwhile. I mostly listen to full albums, but it's partly for laziness on my part. When I was in my teens, I'd obsessively record mixtapes (in actual cassette tapes) for roadtrips. I'd record the same songs over and over again, on the same tapes, in search of the "perfect order". Nowadays, I just can't be bothered, so I stick with full albums -- but sometimes I do fantasize about creating the perfect mixtape for driving down the road at dusk, curving down the lake, with the wind turbines showing up from behind the hills.

As for the musician part of me, my feelings about full albums vs. mixtapes is why should I give a fuck. Once I put my music out there, I'm no longer in control of it. It someone chops up my lovingly put together 16-minute-long magnum opus just for those 2 minutes in the beginning, what should I complain about? And why should I complain about that when, on the other hand, my favourite musicians are constantly making remixes of other people's music like nobody else's business? That's what music is all about: reinvention. It excites me.

So, as for the actual questions:
1. All the time
2. Yesterday, Elis Regina at the Montreux Jazz Festival
3. They're fun and great

[warphead]

when elsewhere on the Internet I see nostalgic people reminiscing about the dying art of creating mixtapes in the 80's. As far as I can see, neither of those things are dying; they're just changing and adapting, like things always do.

good point

[turkanen]

when elsewhere on the Internet I see nostalgic people reminiscing about the dying art of creating mixtapes in the 80's. As far as I can see, neither of those things are dying; they're just changing and adapting, like things always do.

good point

Indeed.

I won't make a point how anyone has better listening habits than someone else but I certainly have feelings towards my own. I have kind of woken up to my decline of listening to full-length albums recently which has happened maybe because of Spotify, maybe because of my own occasional DJ gigs.

I noticed that I've become addicted to making perfect playlists and finding eccentric new genres via mixtapes and hours of youtube/spotify digging. These kinds of playlists certainly do have their function as something you can casually put on while hosting a house party (and not having to constantly switch records) or as a way to find big quantities of great new music. But for me the downside is that I have tons of artists in my playlists that I don't feel connected to at all.

I used to have many albums I was really obsessed about (and I still do have those of course) but nowadays it feels like I'm just impatiently browsing through the vast vault of music in the internet without really concentrating to what I hear. So I'm kind of in a position where I listen to a higher amount of music but REALLY LISTENING to much less stuff. So I'm kind of trying to go back to the mindset of listening albums as a whole in pursuit of being more intimate and thoughtful with my music.

1. Not as often as I should.
2. Yesterday. The album was: Posse - Soft Opening
3. More in-depth answer there ^, but in my case I need both - albums and playlists.

[d e n]

I don't think spotify is a beneficial way to listen because its akin to turning on a faucet and having that endless and seemingly limitless flow of water right before you. in some strange way it seems to homogenize the way one listens to music.

[jcotteri]

I listen to full albums all the time, I'm from the era before ipod so playing from beginning to end is a natural process for me. I also skip between bits and pieces plenty if I need to, depends what mood I'm in.

Right now. I'm playing LCD Soundsystem This is Happening. Yesterday I played Talking Heads Remain in Light, Tools Lateralus. and a few eps from Autechre.

Though I use mp3 players for years. I've never made a playlist in my life lol. Heh, I'm a bit of a luddite. I presume a playlist is when you randomly put together a mix for certain things? Like a running playlist and a cycling playlist? Yeah whatever, I couldn't care less mate a bit wanky imo

I'd just like to say one important thought. Many, many times I have had that eureka moment with tracks I thought I definitely did not like when I could not be bothered to press skip, or when the skip button wasn't close to hand (for example when cycling heh). And that is the main reason why I like listening to full albums. There are a lot of tracks that I've just had 'lightbulb' moments with. And those moments are special imo.

Yeah this essentially..

I think playlists should begin at DJing and be left there, and many may many years ago I would have identified as a DJ, now not so much, but I can certainly still throw a few records together. I like to think that an artist that I listen too would prefer her or his music to be heard in the order that it is released in. If I have a favourite track on an album, I relish hearing it play sometimes seamlessly after the track that precedes it, and when it ends I find bliss in hearing the song that proceeds it. I think that most of the artists that I listen to in the electronic/post/psych/shoegaze/synth have all intention of one track following a certain track on an album, and then in turn being followed by another track, it's obvious really as elements of songs are heard in the previous song and there is no gap in between tracks when heard on a CD player or on record. Or if you turn off automatic fades on your media player of choice and rid yourself of synthetic gaps between songs when you rip them off CD if you still in fact do that.

Of course there is always music that was created without an album in mind and for this, I think it's ok (in most cases) to listen how ever you please, take for example Erik Satie or Dmitri Shostakovich, It is here however that I personally would listen as the the artist wrote it if it is possible, for example Shostakovich's 24 prelude-fugue pairs (one in each of all of the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale) in Opus 87 would be listened in order C, Am, G, Em etc. etc. to Dm. In most cases however this isn't possible and so I listen as the performer or recording label has gathered the tracks, as it's usually with some uniformity, take for example Fujiko Hemming performing Chopin standards on La Campanella, or Idil Biret doing the same.

The there is the compilation and the mix, where I listen as the artists that compiled the tracks intended. A great example would be an original Sasha and John Digweed Northern Exposure, Adam Freelands Back To Mine, The Art Of Zen Relaxation released on Creative Vibes, pretty much any DJ Kicks or as someone mentioned Thievery Corporation. All worthy of a mention but in completely different styles of mixing and compilation. A good mixtape is any of the 2-TIMES mixes currently, particularly the Ptaki and Paul Murphy ones. These are well thought out, and aren't just slap-sticked together like some gym playlist (gross).

So after a bit of a rant..

1. Pretty much exclusively
1. It was yesterday, the last time I listened to music apart from right now. Bing & Ruth - Tomorrow Was The Golden Age.. Though I'm listening to Loscil - Plume right now.
2. They are pretty chav IMO and have no place in my life. I would't consider a mixtape or a compilation to be a playlist.

Spotify is a crud of our musical world and predominantly only serves to further disintegrate music. All all for the future, but this service is just too unfair to artists.

[aquarius]

1. I don't really listen to full albums, because I'm so indecisive. Unless it's a new album out.
2. I wanna count it, but I was pulling my earbuds in and out, is Geogaddi. I was playing it all the way through. However, my sister was in the car, and I was trying to listen to her too.
3. I actually like playlists, but only from other people, not myself. Though I do love using them for like showers, because I live with my family still, and don't want to scare them with some of the songs BOC (or another artist I love) puts out, haha.

[The Telepathic Kid]

I mostly listen to albums by myself, especially while walking (great way to digest a record)

but when giving people music, I make mix CDs or playlists on USBs, since many people don't do albums.

And in the case of an event I'm partaking in on another forum, I made a mixtape around a theme, and sequenced it like a journey. It's for a thing called "Mixtape of the Week" where each week, a person makes a tape 30-60 minutes long, following a theme, an idea, or even a story.
Really interesting how you can recontextualise music when saddled with a theme or an idea.