Albums, Songs, and the Changing of How Music is Heard

[fcgamer | 4,754]

I was talking with one of my mates a few months back about how it annoys me if I'm hanging out with someone and they are playing music from a singer, only to have the following happen: they skip a song on the album, or even worse, the songs from the artist are just incoherently mixed up into a big mess. My friend agreed, and mentioned how it bugged him when he was driving his wife around, and the album tracks 2 and 3 were reversed, due to mp3 playlist shenanigans.

Granted, we both play instruments and enjoy music on at least a moderate level, compared to a lot of people who are very casual listeners. So I'm just curious, does anyone else here prefer to listen to "albums" or collections of songs, or has everyone now just gone to picking out their favorite songs and skipping the rest, rather than enjoying the whole?

[Gloves | 11,843]

I go both ways (  ) - depends on my mood, and the album in question. Some tell a literal story (e.g. Primus - The Desaturating Seven), while others mesh from one song into the next in a cohesive way. Some albums are simply collections of songs, and I see no issue with hitting the "Shuffle" button from time to time.

That said, most of the time I will put on an album and listen to it in order, in its entirety. About 15-20% of the time I'll just hit "go" on Spotify and let the music go wherever it goes.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

6 minutes ago, Gloves said:

That said, most of the time I will put on an album and listen to it in order, in its entirety. About 15-20% of the time I'll just hit "go" on Spotify and let the music go wherever it goes.

If listening to songs on YouTube, for example, I don't mind if the order is mixed up if I'm listening to a random mix. When it comes to a single artist though, it has to be the album in order for me though.

[Gloves | 11,843]

15 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

If listening to songs on YouTube, for example, I don't mind if the order is mixed up if I'm listening to a random mix. When it comes to a single artist though, it has to be the album in order for me though.

I try not to listen on YT as much as possible, due to the audio quality degradation of their compression.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

12 minutes ago, Gloves said:

I try not to listen on YT as much as possible, due to the audio quality degradation of their compression.

Yeah I can understand that. Usually when I'm listening though, I ultimately end up picking up my guitar and playing with. If I want to actually get anything done, I'll usually listen to Australian crime documentaries.

[Gloves | 11,843]

17 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Yeah I can understand that. Usually when I'm listening though, I ultimately end up picking up my guitar and playing with. If I want to actually get anything done, I'll usually listen to Australian crime documentaries.

I find it hard to work on most things if there's words involved so I'll toss on a video game soundtrack like the huge loser I am.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,593]

Depends.  If I'm at work it's probably a Spotify playlist.  I have to constantly come and go or do conference calls, and that's not super conducive to listening to or being engrossed in an album.

But in general, I prefer full albums. Especially in the world of metal where there is a lot less emphasis on glossy pop singles.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

2 minutes ago, Gloves said:

I find it hard to work on most things if there's words involved so I'll toss on a video game soundtrack like the huge loser I am.

I wish more people were releasing chiptune albums on cartridges. I love plugging a cart in and then being off to the races.

[Tulpa | 3,537]

1 hour ago, fcgamer said:

So I'm just curious, does anyone else here prefer to listen to "albums" or collections of songs, or has everyone now just gone to picking out their favorite songs and skipping the rest, rather than enjoying the whole?

I generally give an album a full listen when I first listen to it. Give every song a chance.

But if some of the songs suck, I'm not listening to the entire album again. Even if that's how it was intended. Make the songs not suck and I won't skip them. (And I realize "suck" is subjective.)

[Scrobins | 1,729]

16 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

I wish more people were releasing chiptune albums on cartridges. I love plugging a cart in and then being off to the races.

I try to nudge some of the chiptune musicians I interview by asking if they would ever publish on carts.

[RH | 4,980]

12 minutes ago, Gloves said:

I find it hard to work on most things if there's words involved so I'll toss on a video game soundtrack like the huge loser I am.

There are actually a lot of good ambient (as in no-vocals) artists that are easy to find via playlists that are assimilated into one video.  By looking at their list of songs, it's easy to find new bands which you can then go listen too on Spotify or Bandcamp.  I assume Bandcamp has better audio, but at least you're assured to get an entire album over there, in the order that they were intended to be tracked on a CD/LP.

You don't have to stick to just game OSTs (all though there's 100% nothing wrong with that.)  Bands/musicians that I like to listen too that do not have lyrics (or have albums without lyrics) include Mitch Murder, The Midnight & Hello Meteor.  YouTube channels that make killer chill wave (e.g. work mixes) include Odysseus, SoulSearchAndDestroy and Asthenic.

Bu back to @fcgamer's question, I like to listen to albums start-to-finish, unless I make a random playlist of various artists.  I abandoned my Spotify account to my wife and kids partially because the order can be off but also, for some reason, some albums will exclude a song or two for who knows whatever reasons?!  And when I say exclude, it might not be excluded in the track list but it will be disabled and there's been a message like "This track is not available in your region".  Seriously?!  I can understand why due to weird licensing reasons some albums might not be available but sometimes individual tracks are blocked.  I hate it.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

11 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

I generally give an album a full listen when I first listen to it. Give every song a chance.

But if some of the songs suck, I'm not listening to the entire album again. Even if that's how it was intended. Make the songs not suck and I won't skip them. (And I realize "suck" is subjective.)

There's some albums with real turds (generally I don't buy such albums). Then there's other albums where after a few plays, songs grow on you, maybe even becoming some of your favorites.

[RH | 4,980]

Oh, I enjoy listening to LPs too. Yeah, I guess I'm one of those guys.  I mean, we're mostly all collectors hear so I assume we all prefer physical media, but I really don't buy CDs anymore, so I've settled to streaming.  If I really, really want an album I'll hunt down an LP but usually at a minimum that will set me back $50, and for an album I really, really love I'll go up to $100.

This is all indy stuff made by synthie audiophiles so the LP quality is usually pretty good and I don't feel it's from CD masters but if I'm 100% honest, in most cases I can't tell.  We're in a very cool era where there are a ton of indy artists who 100% produce their own music and there are some fantastic gems out there, for almost any genre you can imagine.  I mean, I wish many of these artists were the real pop-sensations and getting paid their dues because they make so little on their music that this is a hobby.  But the bright side is that they do this for the sake of passion and it 100% comes out in their work.

[Tulpa | 3,537]

8 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Then there's other albums where after a few plays, songs grow on you, maybe even becoming some of your favorites.

That's very rare for me.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

3 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

That's very rare for me.

Well if you always skip them of course that'll be rare

[Tulpa | 3,537]

2 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Well if you always skip them of course that'll be rare

I can't think of a song that I've gone back and listened to that I was like, "you know, I like this now."

Certainly not "this is my favorite."

I find pretty quick whether I like something or not.

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Tulpa

[RH | 4,980]

Here's a different question for you guys that are also musicians--do you find it tough to listen to a song on repeat?  I do.  Even my most favorite songs, I can listen to it once and I just have to have a buffer period before I listen to it again for enjoyment purposes and hearing a song again, and again, and again just kind of gets annoying to me.

However, when I was into playing the bass, I found that if I was listening to a song to pick it apart and learn it, I could legit put it on repeat and listen to it 20x times with no problem.  It was 100% based on intention whether subsequent repeats would get annoying or not.

Anyone else feel this way?

[nrslam | 477]

Mixed bag for me. Some albums just have to be listened to in full and in order, doing otherwise disrupts the story the album tells. Trans Siberian Orchestra records are like this.

Some artists, even if I don't wanna hear every song, I prefer to hear chronologically as that tracks how their sound changes over time. The Beatles are a great example.

The vast majority of popular music I prefer in random mixes, both stylistically and chronologically so missing songs from albums is a non-issue.

[doner24 | 1,197]

I consume a lot of music and it goes both ways. I still love throwing an album on my record player and listening to the full thing in order, but a playlist is such a convenient way to listen to a varying bit of music. I mean, it’s not like an artist usually plays an album from front to back at a concert. 

[Gloves | 11,843]

1 minute ago, doner24 said:

I consume a lot of music and it goes both ways.

[DefaultGen | 5,436]

There's so much music I feel like I don't have time for the B-listers. The average experience of me finding a new artist is me finding literally their best song, deciding none of their other songs are as good, then the couple best songs make it into my rotation. I'm not a very adventurous listener though, I'd rather listen to the same track 100 times than 50 tracks twice.

The only albums I listen to are the albums I actually owned and listened to as a kid or if it's instrumental to the point I don't even know the track names. I don't know a single Miles Davis track, but I know a couple of his albums.

[Nugfish | 653]

There are some albums that I almost have to listen to start to finish: Led Zeppelin II, Metallica's Death Magnetic, Avenged Sevenfold's City of Evil, Creed's Human Clay, to name a few. There are also bands that I really enjoy, like Whitesnake and the Scorpions, whose albums I do really like, but I'd much rather just listen to the songs I love and skip the filler. 

 

After contemplating this for a while, I think it may be due to some sort of emotional attachment to those albums more than anything else...

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Nugfish

[RH | 4,980]

A concept album, for me, has to be listened too 100% complete.  In my younger days, the poster child for this was Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by Flaming Lips. Another one was the Whole EP by Pedro the Lion, but I doubt that’s a guy (Dave Bazan) you all might be familiar with.

[Abelardo | 154]

I'll occasionally give a full listen to my favorite albums, but in the streaming era I usually listen to my own playlists, genere specific playlists or discovery mixes, I might listen one or two albums a week that I haven't heard and add any songs I like, sometimes when the album is particularly good I give multiple listens and pick out more songs, rarely I get obsessed with an album and listen to it almost daily for weeks (last one was Blue Rev by Alvvays), but eventually every song I like goes into my playlists and that's it.

[fox | 1,681]

Albums > singles