Albums or Singles
 

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I'm new :hphones:


Personally I never get Albums, as there is usually a few good tracks and then the rest is rubbish, so my entire music collection is singles

I get albums man. Singles have no life to them, I have to have the whole thing to really get into the music. I may get a single if its one of the bands I'm really into and they drop a single because their album was pushed back or something like that. Otherwise I just wait for the whole thing.

Overall I appreciate albums much more, as a great album can be more than the sum of its (great) songs. Some artists, however, work better with the single format; many pop singers, for example, release brilliant singles, but I have no interest in their albums.

How can you even appreciate an artist just by listening to one song? That to me is rubbish. I have to listen to a full album to really stand by my opinion on that artist.

Also, the non-singles are usually a lot better than the singles.

I'm afraid I just wrote about you and people like you in my journal. People who only buy singles lose the chance to get into some really fine music, and I just don't get it. It's like reading one chapter of a book and saying yeah that's good but I ain't gonna read the rest, or leaving a movie after the trailers. Just don't get it.... :confused: :banghead:

Also, your statement above does not stand up: if you never buy albums, how can you possibly know that there's nothing good on them??

both in a Blender MIX .... ;P

Sounds like you've been listening to the wrong albums.

I rarely listen to single tracks.

I'm mostly an album kind of guy, but I can appreciate that singles serve their purpose, especially for the average top 40 artist, where I have little interest in listening to their whole album. But normally the album format is where most of the magic happens for me. And of course there are many albums out there which are solid most of or all the way through. You have not been listening to enough The Beatles.

I listen to singles if it's an artist that I am eagerly waiting on for an album to be released, even then I don't really make judgement calls, because it's impossible to know what the rest of the album will sound like based on one song alone.

Personally I get the list of tracks on an album when it comes out, and I do listen to every song (usually on youtube) and then pick and choose which to download and which not to. I rarely download more than 50% of the songs. I just don't see the point in having a load of tracks that I will never listen to/not enjoy.

I've never really understood why people ask generic all encompassing questions like this.

Obviously I listen to what format the artist decides to put it out as, I have no control over that. If a band I like puts out a bunch of singles or EPs then obviously I have to listen to them in that format or go without.

As a mod, you should crack down on them - lock 'em up! :jailed: The threads that is, not the users. ;)

Albums for me, but that's more due to the storage and that fact that I like them more as I have the time to hear and experience.

I don't dis the single, though. My New Wave and Punk years had a lot of 45's being in my collection, some remaining with me now for either having interesting B Sides or just for being stand alone Indie happenings.

If this were The Pre-Pepper 60's, I would mainly choose the single for both economic and collecting reasons as many bands had some very interesting stand alone singles that were cheap to collect at the time and also had some very disappointing albums that due to pressure or outside influence had very weak tracks or quickly recorded covers that did not show the band at their best.

I have a feeling that due to the huge amount of music being generated and presented on the Internet, it's kind of understandable to see people into separate tracks, especially those who are just new in getting into music. There is a lot to discover on the web ("a click of the mouse" is seriously showing my age!) and maybe it's a way to find out if one wants to go for the whole round.

Sometimes the single (or maybe now I should say "Downloaded song") is a fine way to pinpoint a time, a place, and sound.

i go with albums, then eventually i keep the songs i really liked

I prefer albums because often times my favorite songs on the album are not the singles.

Depends on how much I like the particular artist. I have a much greater appreciation for albums. I usually only buy singles if I only like the one song from a particular album. But even then I usually give the rest of the album a shot and more often than not I end up enjoying the rest of the album. So yeah overall I like albums much better.

I'm not sure about the pricing of digital music, but with old-fashioned physical copies, singles are poor value and waste space. Even though I believe that singles are almost always better listening material than non-singles.

I don't think I've brought a single in about 15 years.

I buy the album, unless I have heard all of it alredy and I KNOW that I only want one song.

They still make 'singles'? What do you do these days...go out to the record store and buy them? :) I have boxes full of 45's from the 60's and 70's that have collected dust for over 30 years now. Will probably never listen to them again unless someone gives me a jukebox for xmas. :)

If you just go for hit singles you'd miss out on a ton of great music still being produced in this sensory overloaded world. Exceptional albums like Dylan's awesome back-to-back trilogy (Time Out Of Mind '97, Love & Theft '01 and Modern Times '06) or swan song albums like Joe Strummer's Streetcore, Levon Helm's Electric Dirt and Warren Zevon's The Wind just to name a few would sneak under your radar if you are just considering the latest trending hot single.

I find it a lot less frustrating in the 21st century to find music I want to explore vs. back in the 70's, 80's and even most of the 90's. What's great about acquiring music these days is that you have a wealth of resources to find stuff you'd really like from any particular artist and not just a hit on the radio or a review in Rolling Stone. But back in my day Rolling Stone was a lot more reliable and lead me to some great music that I normally wouldn't be privy to through a hit single I'd hear on the radio. Artists like Midnight Oil, The Clash, Joy Division and Graham Parker which had very few to no hit singles had a lot of great albums.

well, I think that need albums, at least it most beautifuls or those what like us.
...and then have all singles that like us.

I like albums... A good album or EP (not just a single) can provide 30 minutes + of entertainment. Singles I find short and unsatisfying. If I enjoy the song I want to hear more than 5 minutes of that artist. If an artist or album only has one good song, I'll usually get tired and dispose of the song anyway. My favorite songs on any album will often vary depending on mood.

This! So true!

If I love a song I hear on the radio then I will always check out the album it is on. And then if I find the band fluked it I often get bored of the single.

Plus sometimes the album is better as a whole.

Take The Suburbs by Arcade For example, it's chock full of amazing tracks but when you listen to it back to back it seamlessly flows > contextually, lyrically and sonically > which makes the album better than the sum of its parts.

Thoughts?

I'm guessing you don't buy much punk rock, dance music or stuff on small independent labels because in those areas singles are frequently released and always have been.

Rock - albums
Hip-Hop - albums as well, but should really be singles as a I find the norm in Hip-Hop is 3-4 great tracks and then the rest ranges from average to filler. Rock is more consistent.

THis is exactly how I feel... and that album is a great example. As much as I love albums, the first time I hear one, I often focus on songs first. The Suburbs was one that didn't grab me until I really got into the album.

Another one that was similar, although I got into it right away as an album was The Hazards of Love by the Decemberists. The sum is better than the parts there as well.

There are a *ton* of albums where you need to hear the whole thing in order to feel the full effect of the songs. A favourite example of mine is Radiohead's In Rainbows (though you can apply this to any of their albums). If you listen to one of the songs, sure it's good...but taken in as an album, that is to say as an entire piece of art is much different.

A more "top 40" example would be Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, m.A.A.d City. That album is *definitely* a front to back listen. The hit single from that album "Swimming Pools" was catchy, but as a single there is no context whatsoever. I heard this song being played at parties because people took it as a celebration of drinking and getting wasted, when in reality, in the context of the album, it is exactly the opposite. It is not a happy song, it is a song about turning to alcohol to solve problems and the disastrous things that can accompany that lifestyle.

Albums >>> Singles.

After much deliberation I have changed my opinion, albums are the way to go, apart from the odd pop single :)