Why you should listen to albums from start to finish

I recently began an exercise where I’d “put on an album” — and listen to it start to finish, doing my best not to pause it, and definitely not skipping anything. I also try not to do much else while I listen. (I am trying to replicate the listening experience of records).

What a completely different way to experience music instead of my usual approach of listening to music while I am cleaning, texting, watching tv, and doing work (i.e. flipping through 1500 tabs). 

This is fairly difficult exercise this days — or at least I find it to be. For one, I feel like streaming music services have made it so easy to have very A.D.D. music habits. I click around and listen to songs like 30-45 seconds at a time, and I feel like I’m not actually enjoying anything. I also end up listening to music that, at least sometimes, is completely out of context.

Albums are like stories being told. If I’m just bouncing between track 3 here, and track 9 over there, and track 1 on this other album… I’m not getting the whole story. 

My goal is to do this at least once per week. It sounds relatively easy — but that means putting aside about 45-60 minutes a week where I am just going to listen to an album start to finish, and do nothing else. So I’m starting with this commitment!

The few times I’ve already done this, I have loved it. I felt like I was experiencing so much more from the music, and I began to appreciate the songs in the context of the greater album. I love the transition work that some albums featured — how effortlessly one song moved to the next.

I’ll be writing about my album of the week here, so be sure to subscribe (below) and check back weekly! They will range from being totally brand new albums, to being super old ones. I’ll do my best to change out genres too.