RE: The Four Levels Of Listening
I always have to. This, for me, has been confirmed and the effects exaggerated with the aid of LSD.
For the longest time I listened to music on CD's. I never did own an ipod or anything like that and I was a late adopter of smartphones. The music I had on CD for was what I listened to, when I was away from a computer. As such, I was an avid album listener. Put the disc in and press play. I was not one to jump around searching for specific tracks, only my ipod owning friends were of that variety. A good album is much like a storm. It either comes in subtley and swells up to a climax only to ease you back down to earth, or it starts out strong than tapers off with maybe something of a larger wave (climax) towards the end. A good album is like riding a wave in the middle of a storm. I never understood the hopping around, track to track. Music and water go hand in hand in my mind.
My taste is very similar. I deeply enjoy albums. It is like a picture of an artist at that time. You can experience their growth and inspiration all in one. You can wash yourself in that sound. I love albums.
The only time I really enjoy jumping around track to track by various artists is at bars or parties. When I am by myself it's albums all the way.
Some of my recent favorites...
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
We Get Requests - Oscar Peterson Trio
Healing Sounds And Frequencies 2 - Jonathan Goldman
Talking Book - Stevie Wonder
Another Live - Utopia
Something/Anything - Todd Rundgren