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Hi Gang,

I am sure most of us are old enough to remember listening to albums in their entirety right when we got them, and frequently replaying the whole thing a couple times before moving on. Obviously most people's listening habits have changed over the years thanks to technological 'advances' and the demise of free radio, for the most part.
For many years I have gotten in the habit of running playlists on shuffle, at home as well as in the car. The car music was usually an iPod that I left playing in random mode most of the time. This was cool in some respects, occasionally getting reminded of great songs or albums that I had forgotten about for example.
I recently got a car with a sound system that included a 28GB hard drive and loaded a bunch of classic and progressive albums that were mostly not on the iPod. One of the controls with the system let me play through albums alphabetically, which I didn't think much of at first. About a week ago I decided to check this out more, I was even just curious as to what might come up first. Turns out it was A Song For All Seasons by Renaissance. I decided to leave it playing and realized that it was really nice to hear something from top to bottom again.
I was also curious as to what would come up next and did not look ahead. As of now it has been a couple weeks and I have enjoyed everything that has popped up. Here is what I remember so far-

A Song For All Seasons
A Trick Of The Tail
Abraxas
Acquiring The Taste
After The Goldrush
Alchemy
All Things Must Pass

A couple times when I saw what was up I almost skipped ahead, particularly if it was long (Alchemy, All Things Must Pass), but now as I am in the jam record of ATMP I am really glad I didn't skip anything. It is making all these albums seem new again.

I am interested to hear if anybody has been listening to complete albums lately, and if so, what are they?

I will keep you updated as the surprises keep coming.

Neil

PS. Pizza points for anybody who can identify all the above albums without searching!

Not lately, but about a decade ago, when I joined this site and started learning "Stairway," I bought all the Led Zeppelin albums on CD. I had listened to them constantly as a kid, and into my 20s. But then I stopped almost entirely for nearly 20 years, because classic-rock radio had sucked all the joy out of them through overplay (as corporate radio sucks all the joy out of everything). Even when a Zep song (and especially "Stairway") came on the radio, I would turn it off. The only exception was when I would play my electric along with a few tunes, like "The Rover" and a few other things on "Physical Graffiti." That was really about it.

So my reacquaintance with them was pretty amazing, and I heard them with new ears. I played all of the albums straight through a bunch of times (with the exception of the substandard "In Through the Out Door" and "Coda.") I did that for about a year, and haven't gone back much, except, again, for guitar-playing purposes every so often. But I will again. The 20 years I spent in the wilderness was so worth it -- it was *almost* like hearing them for the first time. I listened to that "Stairway" solo I don't know how many times, newly awakened to its greatness.

Otherwise, I don't do a whole lot of full-album listening these days (and in fact, most of my music time is spent learning stuff on guitar). But I do sometimes: a couple of Radiohead albums, some Iron & Wine stuff, a couple of Tool albums, Larry McMurtry's "Where'd You Hide the Body" (just because I like basically everything on it so much, and it was sort of the soundtrack for my 1995-96), and a few others. Otherwise, I listen all the way through on new bands I've discovered, just to get a feel. I've done that with the Avetts and a few others, but I haven't really been keeping up with new stuff in the past couple of years.

On my "to do" list is replacing the turntable I foolishly gave away the week I joined TG and listening to all the vinyl albums I have left. I will also be using the 50 CD stacker again to play through some CD albums. Just need to move house first... roll on November....

I did a time-travel thing back to 1966 the other day for 35 minutes. I listened to the UK version of "Rubber Soul" (from beginning to end - in order). It was fabulous although I would have preferred to hear the US version as that was the album I was familiar with.

Listening to albums in the order in which the artist arranged them is the proper way to hear them (IMHO).

Neil

No pizza for me,
I had to jog my memory twice !

I'm not always taken by Random / Shuffle play.
Often the same few songs keep playing out of xhundred songs !!

Interestingly though, when I hear album songs out of sequence, I can have an ear worm for the next song coming up
and it doesn't feel right when it doesn't :dry: !! It's broken sound !! :ohmy:

Dermot

Broken Sound - like my guitar playing too :huh:

So after All Things Must Pass this came up-



Any guesses as to what will be next on the slightly eclectic playlist?

Neil

I had an earworm planted after IGC for albums I used to play all the time in my freshman year of college, so I've been playing the following all the way through (and over and over ):

Aqualung
Chicago Transit Authority (altho I skip Free Form Guitar! :S )
Chicago II
The first four Led Zeppelins
Blows Against the Empire
Argus
Paranoid
Smokin'
Electric Warrior
Trilogy
Fragile
Close to the Edge
Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Tapestry (Rainy day music! B) )

I'm still conditioned to expect to hear some songs in album order, I hear one and then it seems like something's wrong if I don't hear the next one. Listening to Departure without it being followed by Ride My See-Saw doesn't even make sense. :S And playing Heartbreaker without Living Loving Maid is like stopping in the middle of a song. I've spliced some of these mp3s together so I can play in shuffle mode and still not be left hanging.

-Marc

P.S. I also play them LOUDLY!!! :woohoo:

I usually listen to albums start to finish when i'm in my car. Right now I'm at my desk listening to the Essential Al Green (Greatest hits). I guess a greatest hits album doesn't qualify.

Next up? Did your list miss "The Allman Brothers" or would that be under "T"?

I listened to Hot Tuna (1969) live.
Great album, but I can't claim that I listened to it back in the day... Hot Tuna was a later discovery for me.
Also listened to Jorma's Blue Country Heart this week.

Or am I only supposed to talking about classic old albums?
Lynn

Hi Lynn,

You can talk about anything you want! :laugh: :woohoo:

I never listened to Hot Tuna at all back in the day. Just wasn't my style at the time, altho I do like them today and have several of their CDs. My tastes have expanded a bit over the years, altho music from the old classic albums still have that extra nostalgic connection.

-Marc