Personally I still love albums … but oddly have never listened to them all the way through. I run my music on shuffle almost all of the time (both on the Laptop and on the iPod … Shuffle). Occasionally I’ll cue up a whole album but it’s very rare. The only exception to this is the period after initial purchase. Then the ablum may well be put on repeat for 2 or 3 times to ensure I know what the good stuff is. Even so, such a cursory listen often overlooks the depth or build of some tracks which only present themselves in their true glory later on.

I do like letting the music player of software introduce me to little tid bits I may have missed in my initial listening of a CD but also enjoy the whole album idea. I don’t tend to buy pop stuff anyway and most of the artists in my collection can put together a really good 60 minutes of music. As always there are exceptions – e.g. Coldplay’s Speed of Sound EP I downloaded the b-sides but on the a-side as I was already bored of it – but mostly I’d say I sit firmly in the album camp.

Having said that, there are albums I listen to all the way through, here are some examples:
Imogen Heap – Any of them!
Muse – Showbiz, Origin of Symmetry
Placebo – Sleeping With Ghosts
Jack Johnson
Tom McRae
The Veronicas – Awessome summery pop, go and find some!

Digital music certainly hasdn’t forced people to move away from albums, but it has made people able to just listen/download/buy tracks they like. Is it not more of a sign that albums are getting poorer in overall quality and bands so often just produce one or two ‘good’ singles?
While listening to Tegan & Sarah, for example, I knew a few of their songs from TV soundtracks, but listening to the whole album brought to light some tracks much much better than the ‘well-known’ ones.
/Discuss