Shuffle Play Is An Abomination

[JKL2000]

I don't like the idea of shuffle play, and I've never knowingly invoked it. It's only ever come into play by accident. Just now I was listening to Gong - Shamal (which I'm not very familiar with) and somehow I guess shuffle got selected and after track one ended the Amazon Music app (which I also don't use much) started playing track 1 of Gong - Camembert Electrique. I was like "is Daevid Allen on this album or not!" And then Gilli starts singing and I know something's wrong.

I'm all full albums all the time. Don't know what's up with you people who CHOOSE shuffle play.

[rcarlberg]

Two words: Jazz and Classical.

[Scott Bails]

Shuffle play is one of humankind's greatest achievements. I use it all the time on various playlists.

[WytchCrypt]

I like both options. Sometimes I want to hear an album in correct order, but being able to put shuffle on an mp3 player with over 2000 songs is great fun

[Poisoned Youth]

Wow.

[mozo-pg]

I like both too. I use the shuffle every evening. It's a great way to hear a big collection. I still play for full CDs.

[Dusty Chalk]

I like both options. Sometimes I want to hear an album in correct order, but being able to put shuffle on an mp3 player with over 2000 songs is great fun

Yup.

[Dave (in MA)]

About a half hour ago I was using Shuffle mode when Zappa's "That's Not Really A Shuffle" came on.

[markwoll]

Shuffle a big ole disk full of music keeps me sane at work.
Shuffling an album is an abomination. The artist recorded it in a particular order on purpose.
Individual songs out of context are fair game.
I also use a pseudo shuffle/sorta Pandora plugin with my Squeezboxes called Smartmix.
You give it a seed song from your collection and it looks at a 'big database in the sky' to pull like music from your collection.
You can fine tune how far the picks will vary by a number of characteristics.
And you can mix in Spotify or some other online streamers that allow picking. I don't do that but it is available.

[3LockBox]

Yup.

is this who I think it is?

[SteveSly]

I have a little IPOD boom box in my office at work and I have it on shuffle play from the minute I get to work until I leave at the end of the night. I am in and out of my office, so I may be listening a lot over the course of the night or just here and there. Personally I love the shuffle option. I have over 9,000 songs on my I-Pod and they range all over the place musically. It is sometimes cool to hear a song completely out of context from an album, and every so often something pops up that I have forgotten about that completely surprises me. It is kind of like having your own personal radio station.

All that being said, at home and in my car I generally still listen to full albums. I don’t have an I-Pod dock / port in my car so it is albums or radio only. At home I typically play albums on my home stereo, although I will occasionally put the Ipod on the dock and random play it. When I travel anymore I only take the ipod for convenience sake and usually have it on random play if in a rental car or listening with headphones.

[NogbadTheBad]

I do both and I'm happy to have the option. Sometimes I want to listen to the full album, it I want a surprise or just background while I'm working or driving its fun to see what comes up.

[rcarlberg]

Concept albums and albums where the tracks fold into each other should never be put on shuffle of course. But outside of heavy ProgRock that sort of thing is pretty rare.

[progeezer]

Wow.

That's enough verbiage for me as well.

[Dave (in MA)]

DEATH TO ALL WHO SHUFFLE

[nosebone]

I cannot tell how many brilliant accidental playlists that were spawned by my iPod on shuffle.

Songs that worked together in ways that were to me unimaginable, fresh and exhilarating.

[JKL2000]

To me, shuffle play is like reading chapters of multiple books at random. But I don't really listen to any pop, which may be a factor.

[JKL2000]

Wow.

I knew you'd be on my side.

[trurl]

Shuffle play is awesome when things like random spoken word tracks from Consequences land next to Ohio Players songs. Don't drop acid.

[ThomasKDye]

I need to control my mixes, because sometimes I'm in the mood for hard rock, sometimes I'm in the mood for pure prog, sometimes I'm in the mood for pop, etc. The idea of shuffle play deciding that Faith No More needs to follow Tangerine Dream just makes me twitch.

[JKL2000]

Yeah, that kind of thing is another issue I'd have. Five minutes of banter from Fish followed by a Klaus Schulze track.

[Scott Bails]

I need to control my mixes, because sometimes I'm in the mood for hard rock, sometimes I'm in the mood for pure prog, sometimes I'm in the mood for pop, etc. The idea of shuffle play deciding that Faith No More needs to follow Tangerine Dream just makes me twitch.

That's why you make up playlists.

[ThomasKDye]

That's why you make up playlists.

Right, that's what I do. I don't depend on Shuffle to do it for me because I don't trust it.

[bob_32_116]

There are some albums that have a structure, and I find it unthinkable to listen to the tracks in any order other than the original.
There are others where there appears to be no particular attention paid to the ordering, they are just collections of songs. Some of my favourite acts (eg. Bob Lind, later Elton John, the Beach Boys, Paul Kelly) fall into this category, and randomising the playing order can give that music an extra freshness when I don't know which song is next. It's a bit like the joy of unexpectedly hearing a song I love on the radio, even though I already have it somewhere on CD. George Michael's Ladies and Gentlemen compilation works particularly well this way.

I don't however listen to different artists together on shuffle - not ever.

[Halmyre]

Some albums (no names, no pack drill) aren't engaging enough to listen to all the way through and by the time you've reached the end you've sort of lost interest. So, sometimes hearing a track in isolation gives you a fresh perspective on it.