Whenever I hear a song I like for the first time, I go to the album to listen to it in context. Artists (foe the most part) put their songs together in a specific order and I want to view it through that lens. Sometimes it's trash and you move on, but sometimes you find "perfect albums". They take you on an adventure through the course of the album
Some of mine are:
Random Access Memories - Daft Punk
The Mistress - Yellow Ostrich
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
This is how I feel about all bands/artists...they may have a one or two songs that I like and the rest of their discography is not something I want to listen to at all.
I've heard pretty mid songs that turned out to be incredible albums and I've heard amazing songs where it's the only good track. But I always try to listen to an entire album in most cases. There's so much good music out there, just under the surface.
Literally, most people with Goyte; his music outside his one hit wonder is so fucking good. I highly recommend listening to more of his work if you haven't.
I’m not relating to this one, I generally only listen to full albums. I’ll get into an artist and stick with their entire discography for a while. But I’m also a fairly picky listener. And I typically hate modern pop.
I don't usually look up the rest of the album because when I used to do that, I almost never found even 1 more song on the album I liked. There are exceptions, of course. But there aren't many artists that have nothing but bangers.
I find it really interesting how different people have radically different relationships with music.
You've got like depth first listen to everything. Listen to stuff on repeat until you know it by heart. Listen to it once and forget. Critical analysis of lyrics. Getting all the words wrong.
I tend to listen to the whole band's discography if I like them , and if there's only a song or two I like I don't really stick with it
Very relatable. I have entire discographies with only about a song an album I like. It's kinda difficult to let go of the entire rest of the album without being sure I can access it at some point in the future.
This was a real issue back when we had to buy full albums (cassettes) back in the eighties.
Sure, we look back to some epic albums from that time, but a whole lot of them were the one top forty hit and a bunch of crap filler songs. But we had to suffer through it because we'd spent eight dollars of our hard earned money on that crap. (Eight dollars back then would be over twenty dollars in today money)
It was groundbreaking when the CD listening stations came to record stores.
All this said, I love listening to full albums and was one of THOSE guys back in the nineties who would seek out things like Japanese releases that had ever so slightly different versions of songs.
With the advent of electronic tools (computers and other digital means of sound creation) IMO it has become rare to find an album that has a decent number of good songs on it. The band or musician(s) just seem to throw a bunch of styles at the wall and see what sticks, or the songs are so similar they just run together in a boring mass. Maybe it’s because music is so cheaply and easily produced with so little oversight and editorial input we just get what any mid can crank out with basic Ableton Instrument packs. Before, bands would have to fight to hold on to the crown and keep airplay and the record contracts coming (not trying to say the recording industry is good - its a shit industry - but it did have a few good points) and that pressure came from the record companies and radio stations. Now anyone can dump almost anything on Spotify and never look back.
Streetlight Manifesto is one of the few bands I go out of my way to listen to every song on every album, because they're that good and have almost no bad songs. I can't wait for the next album that's supposed to drop this year.
I'm a mix of both. That's why I pay for Spotify, and also own a turntable setup. Sometimes I just want single tracks, sometimes I want to sit down and listen to the entire album. There are some albums where I'll only listen to the entire thing.
I'm the opposite. Usually listen to full albums and even if I really like one or two songs, if the album sucks otherwise I'm unlikely to listen to them much, if at all.