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Do you listen to albums?

ScottRNelson said:
Albums that are not greatest hits that I like to listen to:
  • Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu
  • Janis Joplin - Cheap Thrills
  • Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing at Baxter's
  • Jethro Tull - Aqualung
  • Jimi Hendrix - Are you Experienced
  • The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • Simon & Garfunkel - All four of their bigger selling albums
Does that give you a hint of the time period I come from?
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On that list I only have Deja Vu, though one of my 1st albums as a kid was from Jefferson Airplane, and I listened to Sgt Pepper as a kid too. 1st band I saw in concert (as a child, with my mom & older brother) was Simon & Garfunkle on the Oregon State campus.

In the CD era I started burning playlist CDs (better than mixtape cassettes), and that carried forward into the digital era with actual playlists.

Only after shutdown, when I started listening to music on walks did I go back to listening through albums regularly. And I developed huge appreciation for the rare artists who make albums I enjoy cover to cover.
 
Just got this yesterday, ripped it to my computer for use in the iPods we still use in the cars but generally on "shuffle" with 100s of albums.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-mountain-goats-bleed-out/

But when I get a new CD, I play them on my old Denon DCD 820 player using my 1980's era NAD7250PE stereo receiver hooked to my Martin Logan LX16 speakers augmented with dual small subs via a MiniDSP as the crossover and to EQ the MiniDSP using REW and a Umik to knock down peaks in the subs' response.

Geek speak to some, completely understandable to others.
 
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Johndicezx9 said:
I do miss record stores a little bit... but not enough to go in what's left of them now. :laughing
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I miss the experience of rummaging through them, but they're kinda useless to me now. My days of listening to music on a physical medium are long over.
 
TylerW said:
I miss the experience of rummaging through them, but they're kinda useless to me now. My days of listening to music on a physical medium are long over.
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I still buy CDs off of Amazon, and rip them at home. Even though I could download the binary from Amazon if I wanted to, I just wait.

Yeah, the CDs just end up in a pile, but it's not like I'm buying a whole lot of them.

Last spontaneous record store CD purchase was something like "ASIA, complete collection". All 4 albums (they had 4 albums? Who knew!). 2 CDs.

Rush is gone, and doesn't record any more (they send out rehashes and remixes and what not I guess, but I'm not really into that). But they used to produce like clockwork. Used to be able to look at the month of the year and say "Isn't a new Rush album do out?" and, sure, enough, there it was. Before their hiatus, naturally.

But I certainly bought all their new studio work. 'Vapor Trails' was great, 'Snake and Arrows' was "gun to my head" dark, and 'Clockwork Angels' was amazing, and one of the best concerts I've ever seen.

But Dream Theater still records, thankfully, so I get those. Unfortunately, I've missed their past two tours. There isn't much new stuff that really attracts me enough to plonk down and get it, vs just listening to it on YouTube. I find that most of the "Oh, if you like DT you'll love this!", I don't love it. I don't even really like it. Doesn't hold me at all.

Last band that did that was the first two "Circus Maximus" albums ('1st Chapter', and 'Isolate'), really like their vocals, but their third was kind of a dud for me, and I haven't looked back.
 
berth said:
Last spontaneous record store CD purchase was something like "ASIA, complete collection". All 4 albums (they had 4 albums? Who knew!). 2 CDs.
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Did you get the poster and frame it?

569eaf67e6183e28008ba7da


:teeth
 
Ever since my stint at Altec Lansing and having my ears educated I appreciated concept albums. So, yeah, hell yeah, I listen to albums.

Then technology surged forward and the old stuff got remastered, cleaned up and re-released. Hell yeah I listen to albums.

Learned to appreciate efforts made in the studio by artists like Mark Knopfler who insist on perfection before release, so hell yeah I listen to albums.

Now, in a world I didn't expect to enter, I find that classical music, especially the Baroque, is ear worthy of listening to albums all the way through to the coda. Top notch audio engineering on most of that stuff.

Gets expensive though, accurate speakers/headphones are not cheap but worth every penny. But, hell yeah. . . etc.
 
Pushrod said:
Ever since my stint at Altec Lansing and having my ears educated I appreciated concept albums. So, yeah, hell yeah, I listen to albums.
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I've heard the term "concept albums" kicked around a couple of times in this thread, and I feel like I can infer a few different meanings from them. What does this term mean to folks?

For myself, I've always used it when an album is used to tell a narrative story from the first song to the last song - or perhaps also when every song on an album is tied to a singular theme.
 
TylerW said:
I've heard the term "concept albums" kicked around a couple of times in this thread, and I feel like I can infer a few different meanings from them. What does this term mean to folks?

For myself, I've always used it when an album is used to tell a narrative story from the first song to the last song - or perhaps also when every song on an album is tied to a singular theme.
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yes
here you go
https://jethrotull.com/too-old/

be3f058fc817238f938b394bf8feb6e5.jpg
 
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TylerW said:
I've heard the term "concept albums" kicked around a couple of times in this thread, and I feel like I can infer a few different meanings from them. What does this term mean to folks?
Click to expand...

I think the term came from albums that blew people's minds as they were not expecting them from band that had created a path from which the "concept album" took a might turn from.

Sgt Peppers and Tommy are the 2 most mentioned.

Sgt Pepper came out after "Revolver" and Tommy came out after "The Who Sell Out,' an album I've actually never heard to be honest.

Small Beatles fan, (loved Revolver), bigger Who fan, (I still think "Who's Next" is one of the best rock albums ever).
 
I've always been a "shuffle" listener. Lots of music in my queue, always randomly played.

Except, Pink Floyd's 'The wall', 'A momentary lapse of reason' and 'the division bell'. And Tool's 'Stinkfist'

Those albums are still ones that I'll play them start to finish pretty much every time I listen to them.
 
GAJ said:
Sgt Pepper came out after "Revolver" and Tommy came out after "The Who Sell Out,' an album I've actually never heard to be honest.
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The Who Sell Out was totally a concept album. As were Tommy & Quadrophenia.

All of Halsey's studio albums have been concept albums too, each with a unifying theme.
 
GAJ said:
Small Beatles fan, (loved Revolver), bigger Who fan, (I still think "Who's Next" is one of the best rock albums ever).
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Ditto on all that.

I was probably a bigger The Police fan than fan of either of those two. But The Police never had a studio album I enjoyed without skipping songs. They had 3 extraordinary musicians, including a brilliant song writer. But the albums always included songs by the other guys. Their only album I enjoy cover to cover is Certifiable, the live album from their 2007 reunion tour.
 
TylerW - "For myself, I've always used it when an album is used to tell a narrative story from the first song to the last song - or perhaps also when every song on an album is tied to a singular theme."

Bat Out Of Hell
 
davidji said:
Ditto on all that.

I was probably a bigger The Police fan than fan of either of those two. But The Police never had a studio album I enjoyed without skipping songs. They had 3 extraordinary musicians, including a brilliant song writer. But the albums always included songs by the other guys. Their only album I enjoy cover to cover is Certifiable, the live album from their 2007 reunion tour.
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Saw them live in Miami in 1982 or thereabouts.

Great concert as you might imagine.
 
davidji said:
I posted on Facebook asking friends what 2022 albums they'd been listening to, and the response was mostly "who listens to albums anymore?"

Do you search for albums you can enjoy without skipping songs?

Do you appreciate artists who can make good album with a flow or theme or some connection between songs?

Or is it only me?
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Yes, when I buy a CD, I listen to the whole thing.

:D
 
All the above are great ‘concept’ albums as described. Sometimes like one song and sometimes an album, it depends. Random others: Neil Young-Greendale, new one from Tedeschi Trucks- I am the Moon and this from Bela along with his new Bluegrass Heart.
 

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