Albums and Songs
 

I've noticed a lot of people talking about how they listen to a song or two to get the idea of what a band sounds like.. I just think that you're never going to get the idea of how a band sounds that way. An album, to me, is the work of art, while the songs are bits and peices that make the whole. Think of the Mars Volta's De-Loused.. Or Sean Lennon's Friendly Fire and Into the Sun.. Also, QOTSA's single No One Knows and how it compares to their older and newer stuff, as well as the other songs on that same album.

Am I alone on this or are there others who agree with me on this?
You can't say you know what The Beatles sound like if all you know is "she loves you, yeah yeah yeah.."

Depends on how many albums that band has out.
If a band has one or two albums out then I think you can judge them by one or two songs. If you have a 25/30 year body of work to look back on then you obviously have to go that bit deeper , unless you are listening to AC/DC or the Ramones.
As for the Mars Volta , they may well use lots of bits & pieces to make up their songs , but they always seem to use the same bits & pieces , one of the reasons I got bored of them in the first place.

I'd agree with you as far as an album is concerned.
Some albums need to be listened to in their entirety and obviously hearing the odd selection isn't going to give you a fair representation of a band like The Flaming Lips for example.

Having said that though, it's introduced me to so many bands I wouldn't normally have had the time to get into, giving me the option to hear more if their music makes me sit up and take notice.
These days samplers are the only way to get introduced to a band, for me personally, because there's so much out there to keep up with.

And on that premise, I'd disagree.

If someone were to rave about a band to me & i was to say OK then give me three songs I should hear. If I go listen to those 3 songs and they're all generic slop it's probably fair to say that the rest of their stuff is like that.
You don't need to listen to much of someone's work to get a spark of originality or individuality. I didn't like Tom Waits on first listen yet that voice is so unique it gave me something to latch on.

Ditto on that you have to listen to a whole album to appreciate an artist. One hit wonders are just that - they're forgettable! The album is the legacy.

you can't say you know what pink flowd's the wall sounds like if you haven't heard the album from top to bottom.

time definitely is an issue, i have to agree on that.. there's little arguement against that..

i just wanna add (for no real reason) that i kinda thought of this thread when thinking about how i listen to my ipod by picking an artists song, then picking another artists and one or two songs by that artist, and sometimes i listen to half the track then change my mind.. it kind of takes away from what an album really is, having an ipod.

hello all, this is my first post ,thats an interesting thought, i have to agree that you can't really understand what a band sounds like from one song, but then there are certain bands that have a "sound" such as tool for instance, even though there albums are different in there efforts and form, there sound remains pretty much the same on them all, dark and metal-ish, so i think it really depends

I agree completely.
Good first post.
Better than mine was.
I think I started by going off at RezZ.
=]

I think that the shift from albums to songs is as much to do with the artists, as with the listening habits of fans.
In the past, the albums flow and play order was more of an issue. With lp's, going directly to a certain track is a delicate movement of the needle. Not the button of a cd player.
Ever notice that on an album that's more a collection of potential hit-singles, than a piece of music,the production varies from track to track?

My main complaint with discs, (Besides the SQ- which is getting better) is the length. I love 'Amputecheture', but 78 min? That's a long time to listen with the attention that the album deserves.

I think the perfect time for an album is about 40-50 minutes, anything over that is overkill

Its great that they keep putting extra bonus tracks on reissues, but it doesn't make for a good listening experience, its best to turn off the cd at the end of the original album and check out the bonus tracks later