An old music-making friend emailed me a interesting comment that he really loved albums like PF's The Wall because "you really have to listen to the whole thing from start to finish." While I don't necessarily agree with that particular example, it got me thinking what albums fall into category for me.
Surprisingly, not too many, but...
Pink Floyds that would fall into that category would be Meddle and Dark Side
Yes Tales
Beatles Sgt. Peppers and Abbey Road
Soft Machine 2 and 7.
Yours?
I can't imagine listening to any of those albums from start to finish, particularly Abbey Road and Dark Side. Abbey Road side one is the "hits", side two is the quasi-progressive suite. I don't listen to albums from start to finish regardless of the artist. But that's just me. I play tracks as I like them, from album to album.
Thick as a Brick, but that's an easy one.
Real Enemies, by Darcy James Argue and the Secret Society - not really prog-rock, but with a huge sound and heavy on the composition, it is certainly prog-jazz.
Almost any opera.
I listen to all albums from start to finish unless time intervenes.
I listen to albums in their entirety, so the answer for me would be "all of them."
I don't do "singles".
Always listen to albums in their entirety as the universe intended!
JG
"MARKLAR!"
I mostly listen to full albums but especially DSOTM, WYWH, and Tangerine Dream’s early albums. Basically most anything with at least one long track
Most albums I'd say or at least that's the ideal. Of course they are many where I skip the tracks I don't like, there's too many to list either way.
I see an album like a book. Don't like to jump from one chapter to another in no particular order either. There are moments where I listen to songs separately from the album, usually when I have visitors, but other then that, please give me the whole album. I want a journey, not a quick run around the house ;-)
All the way through for me too. Maybe the odd bit of Zappa humour needs to be skipped....certainly on Lost Episodes.
At home, as the records are mostly stored in a different room, I play whole albums almost all the time.
In the car though, it's always songs on random shuffle. It's a great way to connect to stuff I've not heard before, but I also find that some material only emerges for me when heard in isolation from the album, which is always a great moment. The last example I can think of was 'On the Surface', on Peter Hammill's 'Out of Water', which I must have heard so many times before that without really noticing.
Here too, most of the time.Originally Posted by rapidfirerob
If an album has tracks I feel I need to skip then I am probably about done with that album.
Do you guys listen to everything start to finish because it is on CD and you just let it play out? Or, if on vinyl, do you try to always flip and listen to side 2 after side 1?
On vinyl I often had preferred sides that would get much more play than the other.
And I guess then the question is also more interesting for doubles, like the Wall. Do you feel a need to put on disc 2 after finishing disc 1?
Last edited by arturs; 12-18-2022 at 10:18 AM.
Pawn Hearts
Still Life (Opeth's version)
MDK
Kohntarkosz
Passion Play
Blackwater Park
Foxtrot
Rotters Club
Any classical symphonies
Anything designed to be "a suite" like TAAB or CTTE
Stuff that plays as "a suite" in my head, like AR or CS&N or "Blue" or "Kind of Blue"
The lamb lies down on broadway
Tales From Topographic Oceans
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Quadrophenia
The Similitude Of A Dream
Thick As A Brick
The Prog Corner
Another Pink Floyd album: Wish You Were Here.
Or insert the name of any concept album.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
anything by The Necks, which... if you know them should be a pretty obvious statement but I just wanted to name drop them to further cement my ageing hipster street cred
best
Michael
If it ain't acousmatique-It's crap
Preach, brother.
I don't know those Opeth records very well (yet), but I've got it some of them and have spun them a few times.
"what's better, peanut butter or g-sharp minor?"
- Sturgeon's Lawyer, 2021
Your money's no good here.
As a yout, I heard the hits from The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and always thought that's nice. It wasn't until I was middle-aged that I got a copy of the album and listened to it all the way through. I almost cried it is such a work of art. Now I can only listen to it start to finish.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
I would say The Beach Boys Smile ...which apparently Brian Wilson obviously decided that the order of the tracks for the official release in the 2000s was close enough to the original idea he was going for. ???
I believe it's enjoyable as it is..however its always questionable that during his phased out reality during the "FIRE Tapes" he had other intentions as that is much like The Residents in some ways..so maybe if he had the will to release it in 67' it would have been something different.
Growing up in the early 60s and hearing The Beach Boys, The Beatles etc...in Pop Music and then turning age 13 and hearing them suddenly turn to Psychedelic was rather odd.
It was a strange experience. Suddenly realizing that an album could be listened to in its entirety and that it revolved around a concept. I experienced that from one extreme to another. Delia Derbyshire, David Vorhaus White Noise 1969 to Jethro Tull A Passion Play 1973. It no longer felt natural to select tracks from an LP.
Sometimes I found it unnerving and fell mercy to Electric Flag, BB King, or Humble Pie where I didn't have to deal with concept themes. Or perhaps I'd find a band that wrote a 20 minute epic on side 2 of their LP while side 1 having more selected songs...like Rare Bird As Your Mind Flies By.
I never fully understood if Meddle by Pink Floyd was a concept album and if it was better enjoyed if listened to in its entirety, but it always felt that way to me. I couldn't deal with just hearing "Echoes". I needed to hear side 1 first. One without the other just didn't work for me and you gotta hand it to Pink Floyd...they really understood the entirety or overall affect of an album.
Sometimes the more simplistic style of bands proved to be more affective when listening to the album in its entirety. For example Tommy by The Who. You can obviously grab tracks from that album which actually hold their own..but there is still..to this day...something very odd about that album. I realize that Pete Townshend was influenced by The Kinks to a degree, but on Tommy he hits a peak and produces an album that can be haunting and luring which separates him from Kinks formula. John Entwistle french horn adds in a progressive element and you really have to listen to the album in its entirety to understand its purpose.
I would say that I listen to pretty much all my albums from start to finish, because I love taking the immersive journey in its entirety. Whenever I listen to anything intently, I want to hear the whole statement by that artist, not just to let the CD play out, or whatever. To me that is almost part and parcel with this genre. Way back in the day, I probably played sides of albums and then occasionally jumped to another record, but this is a different era, plus I don't even own a turntable.
Neil
"Metal Machine Music" said no-one ever.
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