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Do you have kids? If yes, you know how it is.
Audiophiles treasure the time spent listening to their systems—but how often do you get to listen to an entire album uninterrupted?
Unfortunately, it's only about once a week that I take time to stop everything else and listen. Something gets played on the system each day but usually it's environmental reinforcement whether it's old Stooges, homage to Rostropovich or new bands like the Kooks. I seem to pick from those plays when its time to go back and really hear.
It's hard to come by any program that's worth listening entirely uninterrupted, with the exception of classical music. Mahler symphonies, Bach cello suite or Beethoven piano sonatas etc, to name a few, really require listening to the whole program to truly appreciate it's beauty. It's like hearing the whole story rather individual chapters, that's the composers intend. To push it further, the whole Mahler Symphony cycle is related, though I can safely say that no die hard Mahler fan or audiophile can listen to the whole Mahler cycle at one go. Rarely in other genre (other than opera or theater stuff) do composers/musicians utilize the entire length of the album to tell a story in continuity. In my opinion, Wynton Marsalis has quite successfully utilized such story telling perhaps most notably on Citi Movements. There are some concept albums too like Dream Theater's Scene From A Memory or Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, which certainly requirs listening to its entirety to fully appreciate it. Happy listening!
Does listening in the car count? Driving to work is about half of an album, that makes an album a day. But I can listen to a good album without replacing disk for 2 to 4 weeks. Unfortunately, multitasking makes home systems less often used; therefore “serious” music enjoyment takes place on the road. My car system doesn’t rattle windows and walls, but it took almost 3 days in the shop to install.
I’m pretty unstable. My listening habits change by the hour, day, week, month, year, etc., along with my tastes in music. I agree with my niece, Megan that to listen to an album to start the day is good. I’d say even better to end the day there. About a year ago I was recovering from knee surgery, and I listened to an LP as I iced my knee after both morning and evening physical therapy workouts. I try to save a block of time each weekend for extended listening.