Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx A new John Foxx album! How do you listen to it?

So you get a new John Foxx album in the post. After unwrapping it, admiring the artwork and so forth, how do you listen to it?

I know that most people prefer to listen to a new album all the way through in one go, but for me that's rather like getting a lovely big chocolate cake and scoffing all 10 slices in one sitting. I prefer to ration myself to 1 or 2 new tracks at any one go, so the thrill of hearing a new piece of John's music for the first time stays with me longer.

I like to hold off playing the last track on the album as much as possible, partly becuase I know that once I've heard it I may have quite a wait before hearing a new piece of music for the first time again, but also becuase more often than not, the last track on the album tends to be the best one.

Yet I suspect I may be in the minority as most people seem to belive that an album is a body of connected work that should be heard all the way through as each track flows into the next.

So - all in one go, or track by track - which do you do?

Interesting point of view.

I expect I'm in the "majority" as you put it. For me, it has to be all the way through, and I go into 'isolation' mode to do it.
The first time of hearing a new album is a special moment, so I actually have to reserve listening time and can't have it as incidental music or anything.

But it HAS to be all in one go. I'm a great believer in the progression through a set of tracks, the implications of one on the other and the ideas that grow as the music develops.
I believe most albums are conceived that way, and that the tracklisting is an important part of the design and structure.

I also listen to an album at least twice first time off, because ideas become clear and you can listen to the beginning again with (I think) a slightly better/different understanding

So for me, it's a cake. Yum yum.
No knives, no slices, no plates

An interesting topic.

For me, the first play has to be all the way through.

There is however, often an impatient side to me, that, prior to the first full listen, previews the first minute or so of each track!!

Before growing up and moving out in 2003, when I still lived at my parents, I absorbed myself in music all the time. Getting a new album, and particularly John Foxx, would involve shutting myself in my room, laying on the bed and having a very personal and intense, uninterrupted listen.

These days, it's quite different! Sadly, I hardly ever listen to music on a stereo, which is really a shame. But "music enjoyment time" no longer exists for me in the same way it did due to a variety of changes in my lifestyle and work etc, etc.

Nowadays, I'll unwrap the new CD as soon as I get home, but don't always have the chance to sit down with it. I'd rather wait until the right moment, than play it partially just for the sake of it and spoil the moment.

However most of the time, I do have time to give it a spin all the way through, and this means listening to it on my mac, usually whilst going through emails or working. But, thanks to a good set of speakers, I still get to enjoy it properly. Then it will go straight on the iPod for the journey to work the following day.

Great topic! Arrested devolpment means that I still just 'get the album home and stick it on' as I did as a teenager. To avoid any 'life' getting in the way, when My Lost City arrived I left work an hour early, so I had plenty of time to get home and listen to it.

I think this is the middle-aged equivalent of when you were a kid and would queue outside the record shop on a Monday morning* waiting for (insert name of fave artist here) latest master work. Waiting for a small jiffy-bag to arrive doesn't have the same feeling.

(* I wasn't the only person to queue outside a record shop was I? )

Nope - I was there too may times also...

Actually, this is one of the reasons why I have struggled to get into online purchasing of music.
I paid for My Lost City about two weeks before I got it. Grrr

I guess I'm old, but for me, nothing will replace that anticipation, the bus journey /walk home reading the sleevenotes and the door-shutting 'first play' experience.

I think it's only happened to me once, but receiving your long-awaited, much-anticipated CD in the post to find the casing shattered to pieces, is one major potential downside to online shopping.

As I've said before, I like online, I'm more patient than I used to be, but it still doesn't beat the feeling of walking into the music shop and seeing your much-wanted new album sitting there gleaming away on the shelves.

It's a shame that My Lost City or indeed the upcoming albums won't be very likely to hit the shops - unless I'm wrong of course, but what a shame that is.

I listen to it all in one go the first time whilst reading the sleeve notes.

Yes well again it's definitely the case of finding the right moment (or hour) to listen to a new album. For me now that has to be driving in the car to/from work, a journey of approx 50-60 mins so works out alright for listening to new or new-to-me albums. Mind you I've noticed with MLC that it works fine as 'background', no sorry, *ambient* music around the house whilst doing other things (tax forms, hoovering, etc.) and it has grown on me in that way ..
yes online shopping isn't really the same as going into a shop and the thrill of seeing / finding /buying a record, but living out of the UK I can't really say it isn't a valid alternative. I get my thrills off the postman now..oooer.

I guess I myself savour the moment for an inordinate amount of time as I still have TCM in its original wrapper.

I have to listen to a new album in one go. I really like to savour the moment.I really hate being interrupted when doing so.

I order all of my CDs on the internet these days but I too miss going into a shop and looking to see if that new release is sitting there waiting to be bought and then rushing home to listen to it. Internet buying takes away the immediacy of buying and then listening to a new album straight away.