Album fan? Track fan? Or Both/ depends.

Now of course there has been a lot of music designed as hits to be played on their own, but I'm not thinking of that kind of music. I am thinking of more progressive and artsy forms of music than the hits (or the majority of hits) and I'm not thinking of singles. This topic really is about music found on full studio albums, and how one feels about listening to those tracks independently or as compilations (you own or others) and random shuffles....

I've heard it said before at PA a number of times that you can only really appreciate Prog tracks within the context of an album -- I suppose that statement should cover studio albums, live albums and compilation albums put out by labels and artists since lives and compilations were not excluded in the statements and part of my rebuttal was to talk about compilation albums as well as how live albums commonly draw songs/pieces from various albums. I also have heard that real music appreciators only listen to full albums. And that you should not judge a track on its own, or even an album on its own if an artist put out more than one, as that album is taken out of context by not considering the full discography (there usually is some specific context to such discussions, but sometimes those are just the blanket statements -- also read that one should never consider one album better than any other in a discography.

I commonly do listen to full albums, but I also like listening to much from albums in other forms, including making my own compilations, playlists, different live albums and concerts with different setlists. and I have found that randomly shuffling my collection (used to do this on my iPod quite often) has been a wonderful way to re-discover music and gain a new appreciation for music in a different context. I often would be wowed again by music, and actually love the contrasts in the random shuffles.

I appreciate both listening to full albums and hearing and focusing on tracks independently of an album. I do find value in listening to full albums, of course, and I would not want to judge/rate/ evaluate an album without listening to it in full first.

Sorry, the poll options are a bit of a silly mess, and I hope I have explained where I am coming from. Please don't get too hung up on the poll, that is just intended as a fun accessory to discussion and posting. I'd rather read your own thoughts than see how you voted.

I am 'old school'. I always play the full album. 

When it comes to checking out new-to-me artists, I often will look at the ratings and reviews of albums before checking them out. Unless it's album recommendations from users here, I mostly discover new-to-me music through looking at RYM using whatever filters interest me at the time these days (sometimes I googlesearch Reddit based on my interests du jour). So I also decide based on how the albums are tagged/ labeled. When checking out a new-to-me album via youtube or some other streaming platform, if not playing the whole album the first time, sometimes I do play bits and pieces of all the tracks looking for that which most interests me. I do find some albums where I might like a middle song but not like the first one (I might grow to like the first song later), and sometimes I do want to more quickly check out music. Likewise, if I were to go the full discography route, I might be put off any the first albums whereas later albums would have appealed.

It's a matter of time and efficiency for me, especially as I don't want to spend many hours a day listening to music (sacrilege I know). I would rather sooner get to those albums that are most/more likely to appeal by an artist and sometimes that can be true of songs. And then if I like a track, I might well play the whole album.

If I buy an album, than I almost always listen to the whole thing. And when I play physical albums in my collection, then I almost always play the whole thing -- same for most albums that I own digitally. It's with streaming that I am more likely to act differently. And as said, I long have enjoyed making playlists (as a kid I made mixtapes)

In sum, I am a flexible listener and quite supple overall -- hardly a contortionist level of flexibility, however. :)

I came to the conclusion years ago that there will always be a huge raft of music I would probably enjoy, that I will never get to hear before I die, and I'm actually quite content with that. I long ago conquered the 'Fear Of Missing Out' phenomenon and will listen to far less new music, but explore it thoroughly and methodically, which suits me. Consequently, I have not heard a single album released in 2023 yet.

^^ I take no criticism Jared, and I have greatly appreciated reading both of your posts. And thank you all for the thoughtful posts.

I have no issue with people having different approaches, but I have taken issue when people have stated, without irony or humour, that there is something wrong with me and others because we can enjoy listening to the songs by themselves (outside of the album context). It's been inferred that someone I and others are only in it for the "hits" because of our thoughts on this, and I have seen the "No True Progman" fallacy brought up on more than one occasion by more than one poster in regards to those who can enjoy listening to music in different ways. With the help of Wikipedia with my slight alterations: "No true Progman, or No True Master Pwogman (there's a blast from the past) or appeal to purity, is an informal fallacy in which one attempts to protect their generalized statement from a falsifying counterexample by excluding the counterexample improperly." It's an overgeneralisation and very presumptuous, and excludes all those who don't conform to a stereotype or claim as being true this or that. Suppose I assert that no Progman likes to hear tracks outside of the context of the albums from which they derive. You counter this by pointing out that your friend Mr. Progus likes to hear tracks outside of the context of the albums they come from. I then say "Ah, yes, but no true Progman likes to listen to tracks outside of the context of the albums from which they derive. You then sigh.

I really don't think any forum member should be making value judgements on the way others listen to their music; it's not at all constructive, doesn't engender forum harmony and is more than a tad disrespectful. There would be a point to make in saying that in the spectrum of overall listening styles, you are near to one end of the spectrum and I'm probably at the other end, but that's all for the good because we want different things from our experiences.

Edited by Jared - June 15 2023 at 04:05

Not pretending it is THE way to go, but I generally listen to full albums, sometimes one side of an LP, but never a single track (unless it's a side long track...). I hate compilation albums. Otherwise I'd listen to the radio and browse the Internet to listen to new discoveries (and if possible to a full album to get to know an artist).

Edited by David_D - June 15 2023 at 09:31

I am using the queue feature at TYM (obviously) to help with keeping track of what I want to listen to. Currently the queue contains more than 200 releases that I at one point wanted to listen to later. With so much new music coming out, it's difficult to keep the list from growing ... each day I'll alternate between picking something from the queue and just randomly selecting a favorite album, or listen to something that I see other people listening to.

At the end of the day I'm really am a full album kinda guy, but realistically I'm so busy most of the time that I find it hard to spend the time doing so. As a result I end up with the 'ol Timoom player loaded to the brim with prog, classic rock, blues, jazz and even a few classical pieces on random play for my musically thirst.