The Last Time You Listened To An Entire Album

By Brian J Barr Wed., Feb. 20 2008 at 10:08 AM

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Last week, I went back home to Pennsylvania. My folks and I have always had similar taste in music for the most part, so I never have to worry when I'm there. It had been a while since my last visit, so my old man and I spent a couple nights drinking too much beer and listening to records.
But he did something this time around that I realized I hadn't done myself in months: He put records on...and listened to the entire thing!
I mean, we listened to entire Hank Williams collections, Mark Pickerel's Cody's Dream, Kristofferson's Silver Tongued Devil & I, a bootleg of Neil Young's October 2007 show in Seattle, and even the entirety of Neil Young's cut-and-paste masterpiece Arc.
Following an album from beginning to end was so much fun that I made a pact with myself to set aside at least one night each week to do this (started last night with Archie Shepp's Attica Blues, in fact!)
So, I gotta ask...when's the last time any of you listened to an album the whole way through? Or am I in the minority here?

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Crazy, we must be twin sons of different mothers Brian. Just yesterday morn, 8:30 I played Side A of \"Silver Tongued Devil\"....as you\'ve said before, Kristofferson is a great way to start the morning and then moved on to Side A of Joe Thomas \"Masada\", got in my car and throughout the rest of the day, played the new Raveonnettes \"Lust Lust Lust\", I got through the entire record by day end. Buy this....and see them live (instore at Easy Street 03/09). I currently do not have a CD player, so vinyl only at the house for the last 6 months or so. Tends to warm the house up a little more than an i-pod, you think? I do have one, but haven\'t used for almost a year. I like full records...and CD\'s. Yes, something just a little sexier playing a full record. Your more aware of the artist and the concept of the record and the era. i just got back from a 5-day ski trip with 10 other folks high up in the Sierra\'s. There were too many i-pods going and nobody knew what was playing even those whose i-pod\'s they were. One song into another with no rhyme or reason, confusing, not to mention, compressed sound. I\'m no audiophile, but it sounds pretty obvious to me that i-pod sound is well inferior to CD and when it comes to older music (pre-1990) that was meant to be mono, analog, or stereo, the vinyl editions are far superior to that of an i-pod or even CD. For some reason however, those recent Doors reissues are mindblowin on CD. Pusherman
ALL THE TIME! Working at a record store, it\'s all day, every day, five days a week, so I could go on forever. Just in the last week outside of work, my ears have been affixed on: Ride \"Nowhere,\" Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings \"Naturally,\" The Wipers \"Is This Real?,\" Bjork \"Post,\" The Heliocentrics \"Out There,\" Manitoba \"Up In Flames,\" Blood on the Wall \"Liferz,\" and Boredoms single 40+ minute track on Super Roots 9. The one I\'ve been listening to the most in its entirety, both at work and at home, is The Raveonettes Lust Lust Lust. I should also mention that Atlas Sound\'s new full-length is killer from start to finish. I\'ll be listening to it a lot this year, I just know it.
during the knitting night i go to, when we aren\'t listening to riz on kexp, we play whole albums... when radiohead\'s new one came out we did that, then the bends, then m.i.a.\'s new one, then james murphy\'s fabric compilation, then panda bear, then jens lekman... i agree, it\'s so satisfying to take the time to do that. good thread.
I do it every day, multiple times, on the clock radio CD player in my office. I just made it through two Nada Surf albums in their entirety. But this could be because I don\'t own an iPod and rely on a clock radio in my office for aural pleasure. Can we name one of our columns after that phrase: \"Aural Pleasure\"?
The only time I don\'t listen to an album the whole way through is when I listen to the radio. It\'s too much trouble otherwise - it\'s difficult enough deciding which album to put on next, farless individual tracks. . Cheers, Neil.
I actually do this all the time; I have my ipod and itunes set to shuffle by album (which rules!). I also put on albums around the house and listen to them - last night it was the new Vanderslice while making dinner.
hmmm. I would say I usually listen to albums all the way through. Been through two this morning.
We\'re just talking whole vinyl, right? Two weeks ago, Jimmy Buffett\'s \"You Had To Be There.\" That might ruin my metal cred, but I don\'t care. Few things beat Buffett, a margarita and a good book. Even if it\'s snowing outside.