"no skips"

I hate this shit

If you're over the age of 30, listen to albums like an adult.

lol whiney otm

yes, it's baby-brained stuff

correct

no skips helps to properly evaluate an album out of ten

a salute to the "no skips" warriors who listen to biggie's "fuck me (interlude)" in full each time they spin ready to die

i don't even understand what the gripe is here.

a salute to the "no skips" warriors who listen to biggie's "fuck me (interlude)" in full each time they spin ready to die

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Wednesday, August 9, 2023 1:20 PM bookmarkflaglink

best track on the album imho

also I don't think 'no skips' warriors mean they literally never skip a track on the album. it's just shorthand for 'no weak tracks'.

Yeah what's this about? I've only seen "no skips" used as a positive descriptor (i.e., "there are no tracks on this album that I skip").

(xp)

in the other thread there was discussion about whether an album could be a 10/10 if it had 'skips', and some people seem to have taken it unusually literally

but what the convo really boiled down to, when we take the jargon out, is

"can an album be a 10/10 if there are weak/filler tracks on it"
"No"
"yes, in fact, because if there are no weak/filler tracks, the band didn't take enough risks"
"does it really mean that though?"

and then almost everybody moved on last night

it's lazy gen z shorthand that discourages critical thought about why an album does or doesn't work

is skips the new scrubs? asking for another adult?

If you're over the age of 30, listen to albums like an adult.

― sean paul akerman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, August 9, 2023 10:03 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago)

you mean, while cleaning your house or doing laundry or assembling furniture?

i'm having a hard time understanding why a simple bit of two word jargon 'discourages' anything. anybody is free to elaborate further or continue the discussion beyond the catchphrase, and like yesterday, we actually did. unless there's this big 'no skip' movement I'm missing on the net that has its own manifesto.

no skips is the new "All Lives Matter"

like...."10/10, no skips" doesn't necessarily mean 'because I like every song on this album, it is a flawless masterpiece', it's just a tossed off descriptor. there are plenty of albums with no weak tracks I listen to that aren't quite classics because their ceiling is B+ work, there are plenty of my favorite albums of all time that have a track I hate on them.

in the era of streaming it almost doesn't matter anyway, you can make your own custom playlists and excise what you don't want before you start playing, so the way we evaluate albums is still playing to the pre-digital era a bit.

lol sarahell

If you're over the age of 30, listen to albums like an adult.

― sean paul akerman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, August 9, 2023 10:03 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago)

you mean, while cleaning your house or doing laundry or assembling furniture?

― sarahell, Wednesday, August 9, 2023 1:33 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

No, whilst existential dread

I keep hearing "no skips" in Coily's voice

i don't want no skips
a skip is a move that won't get no love from me
moving to the very next track
cos the last one's wack

My default is pretty much to listen to the whole album, to the point of going back to the last thing I remember hearing before I fell asleep and playing the the rest the next day, which is its own kneejerk type A thing. Though maybe it would be purer to not pass Go and start at the beginning again. Sometimes I do that, too.

But also (xxxps) yes, while doing odds and ends and rarely devoting anything like full attention. But I'd probably try to if I were writing music criticism.

unless there's this big 'no skip' movement I'm missing on the net that has its own manifesto

i suggest you don't download tiktok

Whilst I used to need use some amount of effort to successfully troll, these days I just have to casually remark that I skip half the tracks on Aja.

I never skip because once I have deleted a track from my library, it ceases to exist, even in memory.

https://pa1.narvii.com/6319/8b93fc4b4372e97e66a1a873a2e28a48ff876741_00.gif

going back to the last thing I remember hearing before I fell asleep and playing the the rest the next day, which is its own kneejerk type A thing.

I often do this too, but I'll play the whole thing over in the morning. Sometimes nighttime vs. daytime play leads to perceiving the album differently the second time.

this was definitely a thing when I was young though to be fair that was back when everyone wanted to make their CDs 78 minutes long so they'd stick prank phone calls or 10 minutes of silence in there. the 90s were also the era of extreme frontloading, in fact a lot of the CDs I grew up with I can barely remember what anything on the 2nd half sounded like

but yea I don't think the people saying "no skips" mean they're actually skipping tracks

I do skip bad tracks though if they're bad and I already know they're bad because I'm not gonna live forever and don't want to hear bad music.

"Student Demonstration Time"

I skip "Jazz Police" all the time. Am I in trouble?

You are now *emails the jazz police*

No skips
I know what you're thinking
Leave that Dawn song playing
Don't skip it cos it hurts

I'd skip a lot of songs, but never Jazz Police, that's pure gold

it's by far the weakest track on that album ... but maybe you also like "I talk to the Wind" lol and we are just very different

I still can't tell if we're pissed at dilettantes who do skip or pedants who don't skip.
Which one are proper adults supposed to do?

the King Crimson song? yeah, it's pleasant enough

xp

i'm just here for Neando's song parodies and to clown Whiney

jazz police here, you need to slow down miss

I'm in a higher realm of KC listener, I always listen to all of "Moonchild".

is skips the new scrubs? asking for another adult?

― sarahell

my thoughts exactly

sleep “jerusalem” 10/10 no skips

lol

Lovesexy on CD 10/10 no skips

Yeah what's this about? I've only seen "no skips" used as a positive descriptor (i.e., "there are no tracks on this album that I skip").

― Nonhuman biologics enthusiast (morrisp),

I've heard it as a positive descriptor for decades.

I'm the low tier KC listener -- 20th Century Schizoid Man, In the Court of the Crimson King, Epitaph -- skip everything else on that album

Lovesexy on CD 10/10 no skips

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

otm

The Joysticks Battle The Scan Feed Relay To Your Skull
Vitalogy
OOBSREC-21
After an article was published in the City Paper, The Joysticks attracted the attention of a local rock-based label, Hometown Records. The label requested some recorded material, so The Joysticks sent them a modified version of Pearl Jam's "Vitalogy." The compact disc was scratched, slightly bent, burned from fireworks, and labeled with a small Joysticks' sticker. It produced a variety of clicking noises and the sounds of lasers misreading information. The music created by "Vitalogy" depended on the compact disc player that was used to listen to the product. This conceptual release was packaged in the same packaging that Pearl Jam used for their album, except there was a picture of The Joysticks taped on one of the pages.

Oval - 94 Diskont
10/10, a thousand skips

Not every skip is voluntary, CDs do get damaged.

my thoughts from the other thread

i don’t buy the argument that an album not making you want to actively stop listening at any point is sufficient for 10/10 status. often indicates an album that sounds the same all the way through (a favored buzzword, cohesiveness) which is fine but not a virtue in and of itself. nor is an album with one or more tracks you don’t need or want to hear more than once necessarily worse than one that has no such tracks (an entry level example being the white album, an obvious 10/10 to me with multiple songs i skip 90% of the time)

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Tuesday, August 8, 2023 6:23 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i am responding to an idea that i’ve seen proliferate among the tiktok generation of armchair critics where the first criteria for a “10/10” is “no skips”

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Wednesday, August 9, 2023 8:35 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's not just tiktok. for example, there was this ringer podcast about rap albums called no skips that covered some classics with some very obvious skips (i.e. ready to die, mentioned above)

how come nobody did something like this with Student Demonstration Time? couldn't hurt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k08xcZ8ydZ8

I guess I didn't realize the lack of skippable trax was being used as a sole criterion for awarding "10/10"... I would disagree w/that too, if I encountered it

got some monster munch, there were no skips

there are no skips on REady to Die unless we're talking skits which i'm p sure don't count

"no skips" is what I said when I saw these disturbing adverts xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmD7Yih6N50

I'm in a higher realm of KC listener, I always listen to all of "Moonchild".

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, August 9, 2023 2:02 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I admit it was immensely dissapointing to hear this the first time because up to that point I thought I was maybe listening to the greatest album ever made. I do enjoy that part quite a bit now though, I get a Mr. Rogers vibe from it

https://i.imgflip.com/7v9cy7.jpg

only song I regularly skip is the first one on AnCo's Spirit They've Gone, not cuz I dislike it but because I think it will actually give me hearing damage

think we need a companion poll thread for this

"Student Demonstration Time"

― linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal)

i'll admit i am enough of a nerd to actually make my own version of "Surf's Up" that's only tracks written by Brian, Carl, or Dennis Wilson

“jazz police” is the reason i’m your man is a 10/10

it really puts it over the top

i'll admit i am enough of a nerd to actually make my own version of "Surf's Up" that's only tracks written by Brian, Carl, or Dennis Wilson

I'll trade you Al Jardine's "Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)" for anything Dennis wrote in 1971.

I never skip "Student Demonstration Time" whereas I always skip "Good Vibrations" on "Smiley Smile".

I always skip tracks 1-12 when listening to Korn’s Follow the Leader

I sometimes skip pulling my pants down before i start peeing

I'll trade you Al Jardine's "Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)" for anything Dennis wrote in 1971.

― Halfway there but for you

yeah that's pretty much exactly what i did

also i threw on "sweet mountain" because fuck i love that song

I sometimes skip pulling my pants down before i start peeing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAy-6OiAQBQ

... oops, that's a quote!

The only context I have for this is as part of a record grade. Literally meaning “this record does not skip”

I.e, grades G+ with many scuffs and scratches but no skips.

no skips is the new "All Lives Matter"

― sarahell, Wednesday, August 9, 2023 12:36 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol

NO
SKIPS
TIL WILCO

My real dislike re:'no skips' is the 'mention an album that has no skips' that surfaces repeatedly on Twitter and Facebook. EEG shows no cerebral activity.

"no skips" is what I said when I saw these disturbing adverts xp
― he thinks it's chinese money (soref), Wednesday, 9 August 2023 20:31 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This is a post after my own heart

so albums with a shitty song or two are actually BETTER than albums with no shitty songs because the artist took risks.

it’s fucking idiotic to be “well this would be a 10/10 if didn’t have those fart sounds on track 11”

Here's why I deeply hate "no skips"

As a grown man, I listen to albums. If I put on an album, say, Biggie's "Ready to Die," it's not only to enjoy the music of Biggie, but to experience a fully-fleshed project made with the intent to be cohesive. It's not a collection of songs, it's a "work." Beyond that, it's a time-capsule of 1994, a historic record of the sounds, references, ideas of a certain time. This means not only the good tracks are important, but the bad tracks provide insight too.

One of my favorite rap albums is Diamond D's Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop (1992). Beyond it's many many amazing tracks is the loathsome dance-rap-adjacent "Confused." Now, every time I play this great album, I play that track too just because it provides insight into the world the album came out in, the dying breaths of the C+C Music Factory/Snap! universe still pulling at an artist who is clearly a master of dusty breaks. I listen to it as an element of a greater whole that provides a look into an even bigger macro picture. I don't scream like a broccoli headed zoomer, "Gimme the aux fam frfr this NOT bussin *plays subway surfer*"

Now, I can't fault anyone under 30 for growing up when they did. Getting into music in a world of "playlists" and YouTube tracks and MP3 blogs and ipods and then streaming lets you A) Curate your experience and B) Excuses you from being a little deficient in the attention span dept. But when grown adults say this, it really makes me think you're a lame or a hellofellowkids.jpg tryhard weirdo.

So rephrased as “no duds” wouldn’t bother you

Not every song needs to be judged on the banger/dud dichotomy.

classic

I think people get a pass to skip Beats for the Listeners

NO

does that Fantano dickhead say no skips? It seems like the kind of thing I'd imagine him saying.

Xxxpost I mean I don't object to any of that but skipping started with CDs Holmes!

I do love that we all interpreted everything diff itt though

Skipping tracks is like skipping your veggies because you don’t like the taste: a sign of immense immaturity and a sure fire way to cut years of your life. Every time I listen to fitter, happier I can feel my lifespan increase by double the track length

Um Fitter Happier rules of course

Also I have it on good authority that listening to N.W.A.s "Something 2 Dance 2" is like smoking 5 Macanudo cigars a day

MAMACITA

PAPADONNA

Fin

Fight this generata

https://frinkiac.com/video/S06E12/Y9_rJJcBy8H8tBw-6n8A6QrGSC8=.gif

when i listen to my strictly rhythm 2x12" of "set u free" by planet soul i have to listen to all five mixes in a row, no skips, 10/10

I’m compelled to listen to “Mamacita” every time just for the extremely weird Witchdoctor verse.

I have always loved Mamacita tbh

It was convenient of The Power Station to put their lame T. Rex cover at the beginning of side b for east skippage

Here's why I deeply hate "no skips"

As a grown man, I listen to albums. If I put on an album, say, Biggie's "Ready to Die," it's not only to enjoy the music of Biggie, but to experience a fully-fleshed project made with the intent to be cohesive. It's not a collection of songs, it's a "work." Beyond that, it's a time-capsule of 1994, a historic record of the sounds, references, ideas of a certain time. This means not only the good tracks are important, but the bad tracks provide insight too.

But isn't that an argument in favor of "no skips" as a valid form of praise? Like, if you're going to listen to every album that way regardless, wouldn't it follow that the albums where you can experience the entire cohesive project without having to listen to bad songs are better albums?

Very pro no skips when driving. Safety first!

an album with no bad tracks is generally going to be better than an album that has some bad tracks, but not having any bad tracks isn't enough to make an album a masterpiece or whatever? and there's a difference between forgettable interludes and actual unpleasantly bad missteps - both can be skippable but the latter brings down the quality of an album much more

xxp, saying “no skips” implies that you regularly listen to albums by skipping tracks

As a grown man, I listen to albums. If I put on an album,... but to experience a fully-fleshed project made with the intent to be cohesive. It's not a collection of songs, it's a "work."

okay, positing this as equal to "adulthood" or "being over 30" is absurd. It's a little late to call my almost 80 year-old parents and confirm that they generally would define "albums" as "collections of songs" and not a "work" ... except for like soundtrack recordings of musicals or operas or symphonies.

And dude, "skipping" goes back to the LP vinyl. Like, yes, you have to pick up the stylus and move it to the next track, but ... I remember being like 6 years old and figuring out how to skip the "weak tracks" on my copy of The Muppet Movie soundtrack on my Kermit the Frog kids record player.

Then there was the cassette! Where you could "fast forward" through songs you didn't feel like listening to at the moment.

for the record, I think my favorite was "Movin Right Along"

i like to call it "dipping" instead of "skipping", like i'm dipping a toe into the corpus of biggie

Listening to music like an adult is putting on an album and then leaving the room to carry out some chore while it’s still playing, so you never hear all the tracks

I appreciate the idea of taking in an album as a whole and think it's def a good idea for the first few listens but once you're familiar enough with it sitting through sounds that bore or annoy you out of some sense of loyalty to the Full Experience feels silly.

It's also not at all true that every record is designed this way - obv I listen to a lot of pre-album era stuff where this wasn't a consideration at all but even in the modern era not every artist cares that much about how an album flows. Plenty of examples on record of bands padding albums with filler that they wish they hadn't included in retrospect, sitting through that out of respect for the artist's vision is ???

And if skipping is so bad is putting on a record just to hear this one song you like worse?

xp
that's what I call doing it right

I usually skip all of the weak tracks on OK Computer - Let Down, Karma Police, No Surprises and Lucky.

Something something rockism

It was convenient of The Power Station to put their lame T. Rex cover at the beginning of side b for east skippage

― brimstead, Thursday, 10 August 2023 04:21 (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nonsuch by XTC is one of my favourite albums, but whenever I listen to it I go straight to the second track because I don't like 'The Ballard of Peter Pumpkinhead'. Maybe I'd have learned to love 'The Ballard of Peter Pumpkinhead' if I'd had more discipline and sat through it every time I listened to the album? I usually switch the album off when 'Books are Burning' starts, as well, so my personal version of Nonsuch begins with 'My Bird Performs' and ends with 'Bungalow'. But skipping tracks midway through an album seems weird to me.

Oh yeah tbf I always start Blur's 13 at Bugman, avoiding a crashing great opening menace is one scenario where you can enhance a listening experience without compunction

isn't "no skips" just a rewording of "all killer no filler"? How does the anti-"no skips" caucus feel about that one?

They're both extremely glib ways of talking about music?

What's filler on one listen may seem essential on another. An album is a document just as a song is, can't be thought of otherwise. The exception is whatever your personal fan edit of The Fragile is. I don't make the rules

I mean it CAN be thought of otherwise, as a vehicle for songs, but then it's hardly an album qua album any more is it, it's just a coincidence of musics, a blank canvas for your playlisting pleasure

This isn't to say that you're required to listen to a whole album every time you want to hear any songs from it lol, but if you pick and choose you're probably not listening to the album, just some songs. And that's fine, and here's why, etc

Rockism lives here.

Say you're listening to a comp or greatest hits record, as a "collection of songs" instead of a "cohesive work" it's not an "album"? So it's okay to praise as "no skips"? Seems overly pedantic, but I'm not in the industry.

Also, what of concert recordings?

what about poetry collections

why make aesthetics a chore

peter pumpkin head sucks so bad I hate that song

peter pumpkinhead skippers are the people who would keep us on our knees!!!!

fascinating thread about an important issue well worth feeling strongly about

i can't believe anyone would disrespect the sanctity of the album

thread is like a time machine

some music is so boring you forget to skip though

thread.jpg

https://frinkiac.com/img/S07E24/358040.jpg

Pumpkinhead skippers be damned. Fine art never moved their souls.

I usually skip all of the weak tracks on OK Computer - Let Down, Karma Police, No Surprises and Lucky.

― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, August 10, 2023 4:24 AM bookmarkflaglink

WHAT

a pumpkin
in a cage
in antibiotics

This feels like a good companion thread to

is pausing your music rude to the music

spiral stairs fans to thread

[camera pans to an empty field]

I very rarely listen to any albums all the way through these days, and mostly just throw it all in a giant playlist and hit shuffle. Sorry I'm a baby.

Another logical conclusion for this anti-skip approach is if you have an extended edition of any kind, you must stop after the original album ending and go do something else for a while before listening to the bonus tracks.

just kidding, I don't have any strong opinion either way. Sorry SS

I used to be a passionate album as a "document" purist years ago, but now that shuffling my gigantic eclectic mp3 library is so easy it's too much fun for me to have pure randomness spit out insane playlists of all the music I love. That being said I relegate my focused listening to the format that is least conducive to the temptation of customization - vinyl. But in general I'd say some albums are very much "designed" to flow to create a atmospheric narrative and some albums are simply just a collection of songs. It's highly contextual so feels weird to get too upset about maintaining the intended "album experience" if and when the LP in question itself is not really too concerned about it either.

lol Camaraderie those are also my skips on that album

yeah I guarantee the logic behind so many of those 70+ minute CDs that came out in the 90s was "if they think this is dumb they can just skip it"

What's filler on one listen may seem essential on another.

I always wish this to be the case (when hopefully re-listening to “mid” tracks on favorite albums), but it very rarely pans out :(

it also works the other way around so the scientific approach is you should skip your favourite tracks some times

Tbh I can think of only one 60+ min “proper album” that I didn’t find myself wanting to skip tracks on… the first Tindersticks album.

When I was a CD user I’d always skip “We Came Through” and “30th Century Man”. I’d skip Cale “Macbeth” like always, I don’t think I’ve ever actually listened to that song. I skip every cover on every Bowie album, including (and especially) “Wild Is The Wind”.

There’s that Lisa Germano song that is a home invasion, I skip that. I skip “Me And A Gun” for the same reason, and “China”, and “Leather”— crazy! considering it’s one of my favourite albums. I basically skip the entire back half of Homogenic. I skipped so much of Vespertine that only “Cocoon” and “An Echo A Stain” were left.

I think Smashing Pumpkins made their albums intended for people to be skipping around. By the time the record makes it to Galapagos I’m like really tired already

It is funny that as I’m massaging my brain for “skips” I’m coming up with “suburban gay teen in the CD age” vibes

i had been avoiding this thread but now that i have read i need to note that this is the most otm thing i have read itt

And dude, "skipping" goes back to the LP vinyl. Like, yes, you have to pick up the stylus and move it to the next track, but ... I remember being like 6 years old and figuring out how to skip the "weak tracks" on my copy of The Muppet Movie soundtrack on my Kermit the Frog kids record player.

Then there was the cassette! Where you could "fast forward" through songs you didn't feel like listening to at the moment.

― sarahell, Thursday, August 10, 2023 1:20 AM (seven hours ago)

You are tripping if you think I'm not skipping

This thread as Whiney started it is imo much more about the irksome language choice of 'no skips' as an accursedly consumerist indicator of artistic quality than the practice of actually skipping songs, which we all do

peeving about language choices -- there's another thread for that

like 5 of them probably

haven't read, but are there really 150 posts about an irksome language choice...oh wait this is ilx, never mind

lol xpost

from a single irksome language choice sprout forth a thousand discursive buds

i am sympathetic to whiney, but idc if people skip tracks i just don't think that an album having "no skips" is the end-all be-all criteria for judgment. a "perfect" album may have a skippable track, plenty of pleasant albums that never rise to transcendence don't have tracks i am inclined to skip

xp or i guess what imago said

Theres a possibility to consider that people saying "no skips" aren't treating it as the end-all be-all criteria for judgement either!

the practice of actually skipping songs, which we all do

Not to put words in Whiney’s mouth, but I think he did say that he doesn’t do that (“it’s not an album, it’s a work”) and seems to look down upon the practice… so that’s part & parcel of the discussion here.

(sorry if I misquoted of course, I guess I should scroll up and “click to show more”)

I put all my Bruckner symphonies on shuffle

This does raise the interesting question of which listen it's acceptable to start skipping on. Second? Fourth? Twentieth?

There's obviously no universal answer to that question even if people decide to humor it.

like whiney i don't skip, i treat the record as a whole or i never listen to it

trying to think of a record i like that is outright begging me to skip tracks... korn's follow the leader, definitely

i don't even know how to engage with "no skips". i don't listen to albums as "an element of a greater whole that provides a look into an even bigger macro picture". listening to music is primarily a _hedonic activity_ for me, like, it's something i _enjoy doing_, and if i'm not enjoying listening to a particular song, i will listen to a different one. i mean fuck, what are you _really_ missing out on by not listening to "confused"? you've heard the fucking song already, you know you don't like it, i'd hazard to say that you have a better idea than most exactly how it fits into the "bigger macro picture".

if you want to listen to songs that you don't enjoy listening to, well, it's your life. going on a rant and calling anybody who doesn't share your commitment to pointless masochism "broccoli headed", though, seems a little, i don't know, mean-spirited. i'm not sure i can get behind that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNqm25YW-II

I think the broccoli headed thing was just a joke about popular zoomer hairdos

Theres a possibility to consider that people saying "no skips" aren't treating it as the end-all be-all criteria for judgement either!

― But his face would not turn into hot Kirby (Evan), Thursday, August 10, 2023 9:39 AM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

then they should tell me another reason why they like the album

i like trying to figure out, at least for myself, why an artist made certain choices in the construction of moods over time, and steeping myself in tracks that i may not "like" on first/second/third blush at least helps me get out of my own head (to the extent that it's possible) and the arbitrary limits of my own taste. idk can't say i often listen to an album with a track so egregiously bad that i can't sit through it for three minutes

it’s a value-neutral bit of criticism, not a self-evident proclamation of greatness

And it should be said that just putting on something to listen to the 3 or 4 tracks you like is different (and whiney approved) practice. Totally different than putting on a 12 song album and then screeching “NO! BIG YIKES NO CAP HIGHKEY NOT BUSSIN” on track 7 and 10.

"no skips" as a phrase feels like an outgrowth of music vloggers and tiktok to me, annoys me on the same frequency as f*ntano's "hard 7, soft 8" thing did, talking about music without effort or insight, i'm trying to not feel contempt for this school of criticism as a whole but it's hard

feel like i'm recapitulating points already made in this thread lol

so, for the "album as a whole" people, do you always flip the record over or put on each record in sequence (in the case of a 2+ LP set)? That's real dedication. ... or do you only listen to "albums" on digital media?

All this skip talk reminded me of Lester Bangs writing about the Stones' Sucking in the Seventies:

"I stood in Bleecker Bob's and looked at the song titles, some of the choices they made, and how they were programmed so you already knew you'd never be able to listen to a side all the way through, you'd have to get up every time right in the middle and move the needle over to avoid some little four minutes of irritating lameness they obviously made sure to put right there so it'd cause maximum inconvenience — I mean, I've heard of people paying to be beaten and whipped, but can you imagine what we must have come to when people will go like johns and pay to be inconvenienced?"

Tbh I can think of only one 60+ min “proper album” that I didn’t find myself wanting to skip tracks on… the first Tindersticks album.

i'm far more forgiving of endless cd bloat musical experiences than you but yeah here's one where every fuckin song leads you further into the depthless mood

so, for the "album as a whole" people, do you always flip the record over or put on each record in sequence (in the case of a 2+ LP set)? That's real dedication. ... or do you only listen to "albums" on digital media?

― sarahell, Thursday, August 10, 2023 10:04 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

nah, I listen to vinyl as a whole, digitally I skip around a lot. though maybe something to be said about a lot of 70s records in particular where each side was meant to be its own thing, for example a lot of Popol Vuh records

the "no skips" thing dovetails with a developing ideology that i've noticed where any bit of discordance or discomforting noise leads directly to the skip button and becomes evidence of a music's badness. the notion that music that subverts expectation, adds some kind of off-beat, off-key, or noisy element in this quantized era isn't up to snuff

i mean, many people have always thought like that, but in the past, they didn't claim to be music critics

yeah idk there's no "wrong" way to listen to music, some people just don't give a shit about albums and just wanna put on the songs they like, I'm not gonna criticize those folks. maybe its just a different personality type thats all

it’s actually a sign of advanced maturity and sophistication to sit through songs you don’t like

the "no skips" thing dovetails with a developing ideology that i've noticed where any bit of discordance or discomforting noise leads directly to the skip button and becomes evidence of a music's badness. the notion that music that subverts expectation, adds some kind of off-beat, off-key, or noisy element in this quantized era isn't up to snuff

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Thursday, 10 August 2023 15:11 (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

where are these monsters and how can I defeat them (with a bit of noise apparently)

I think the broccoli headed thing was just a joke about popular zoomer hairdos

― But his face would not turn into hot Kirby (Evan)

oh, ok, most of my zoomer friends have side shaves but i only really know a, uh, selected subset of zoomers

it's mostly that i felt called out by whiney's post, i mean i'm 47 but i'm also very much _not_ a grown man, i'm a woman in the throes of puberty, and i also absolutely have ADHD, though in my case i have always blamed "the MTV" for ruining my attention span. i rarely find the time to listen to an album all the way through. even an album i love, like talk talk's _laughing stock_, which is an album that i really would _prefer_ to listen to all the way through. for me it's that i have a hard time splitting my attention when i'm listening to an album. if i'm listening to _laughing stock_ i'm _listening to laughing stock_. it's not a matter of "respecting the music" or whatever, it...

shit i started listening to it and i had to turn it off so i could finish this post. at the risk of sounding like a total fucking boomer listening to that album is a deeply spiritual and meditative experience for me.

anyway yeah finding 43 minutes and 25 seconds of uninterrupted time is not really easy for me. so i don't listen to a lot of uninterrupted albums, is what i'm saying.

You are tripping if you think I'm not skipping

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, August 10, 2023 10:13 AM bookmarkflaglink

Fuck yes

Ok, so is "no skips", like, the central tenet in long critical essays about the greatness of an album, as opposed to just something ppl say because it's shorter than "I love every song on this album"? That I could see as annoying yeah.

Tbh even the people who initially otm'ed each other all seem to have had different opinions about the same central thesis when pressed to elaborate

Like if there are reviews which essentially say nothing more than "10/10, no skips", ok, but TikTok was mentioned earlier as an example and I don't go to random people's TikTok vids for music criticism.

Also a diff between someone writing it as a Twitter shorthand and linking it to their full review.

In conclusion I have learned nothing

the kids are doing it wrong again

https://✧✧✧.shop✧✧✧.com/s/files/1/0038/3952/4953/products/5000237202692_5✧✧✧@2✧.j✧✧

https://i.postimg.cc/GpK7RZQz/5000237202692-500x-2x.jpg

I'm starting to wonder whether the problem with "No skips" isn't that it's "I usually skip" so much as "I CAN skip" - that it's an affirmation of the listener's supremacy and power over the artist. No longer bound by financial obligation or the need to affiliate with a subculture, the listener now turns their ruthless attention to systematically deconstructing the art into its constituent parts, to be reconstituted as endless personalised Choice! You wouldn't skip a car, or at least, a movie! A book? J'accuse!

we need to focus on how much peter pumpkinhead sucks

& No Surprises

Do people really listen to albums as a complete body of work ripping it out of context from a band’s discography? If you want to hear the sophomore you owe it to yourself to listen to the debut immediately beforehand

peter pumpkin head came to town - oh yeah? in south minneapolis it's on sight, i put the word out

People who ever have time to sit down for 50 minutes and listen to an LP, I would like to swap lifestyles please.

we need to focus on how much peter pumpkinhead sucks

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, August 10, 2023 11:48 AM bookmarkflaglink

otm

we need to focus on how much peter pumpkinhead sucks

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, August 10, 2023 10:48 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yea I truly cannot understand why anyone likes this tune. Good example though Nonsuch is totally one of those albums that benefits from skipping a few tracks

ok, i was able to compromise on just listening to side A. thank god for vinyl formatted records.

see, the stereotype about ADHD is that we're flibbertigibbet airheads (yes, that is the exact word everybody uses, "flibbertigibbet") who can't hold a coherent thought in our heads for more than five seconds at a time, and the truth is almost exactly the opposite. i can't _split my attention_ in the way a lot of other people seem to. when i'm doing a thing, _i'm doing that thing_, to the exclusion of all else. yet i'm bombarded by constant demands for my attention, so the thing i'm doing does tend to change an awful lot. i don't really like this, but it's the world i live in!

I'm wondering how much this no skips conversation applies to music critics vs normal people who just like to do things because they are fun to do

I'm starting to wonder whether the problem with "No skips" isn't that it's "I usually skip" so much as "I CAN skip" - that it's an affirmation of the listener's supremacy and power over the artist. No longer bound by financial obligation or the need to affiliate with a subculture, the listener now turns their ruthless attention to systematically deconstructing the art into its constituent parts, to be reconstituted as endless personalised Choice! You wouldn't skip a car, or at least, a movie! A book? J'accuse!

Yeah, sounds like the advent of recorded sound was a pretty bad step, I recommend listening exclusively to live music in order to maintain the prefered position here.

peter pumpkinhead is the only song i've heard from nonsuch. thanks thread for reminding me about this great tune!

don't skip the piano player

People regularly skip through the Bible

peter pumpkinhead was too good
they all skipped it when
e'er they could

i have a terrible attention span. listening to complete works is a way for me to kick my attention span in the ass and tell it who's boss. i'm not in here with you you're in here with me

also there should be a tool that reassembles commercial movies so you can watch them out of order in ways the artist didn't attend.

every film gets the David Lynch treatment. including Follow That Bird

People regularly skip through the Bible

― linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal), Thursday, 10 August 2023 15:58 (eighteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

for every banger like the intro track or absalom there's a bunch of filler tbf

I listen to albums straight through when I can, but a lot of it gets done in the car cos of life atm so whatever your first three songs on your album are better be amazing cos they're the ones I hear the most.

and I'll be goddamned if I'm gonna listen to "Stupid Mop" again

someone assembled a Pulp Fiction cut that displayed all the scenes in their actual chronological order, I thought that was pretty cool

i don't sit down but i have a record player in the living room so i listen when i'm cooking or picking up the house or working

i have a terrible attention span. listening to complete works is a way for me to kick my attention span in the ass and tell it who's boss. i'm not in here with you you're in here with me

― ivy., Thursday, 10 August 2023 15:58 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

the ultimate expression of listener supremacy: defiantly forcing the full album to be heard despite its wishes

during the pandemic actually I invested in a mediocre turntable and speakers and was buying lots of vinyl and listening that way actually made it more of an event for me and it was nice to engage with music like that again. the system somehow got damaged in transit when I moved so it doesn't work, and now I'm in an apartment and don't want to piss neighbors off anyway, so it's pretty much digital headphones listening.

but I can't take having cans on my head for too long either so I have a beat up Sonos that I drag out on occasion to play stuff like rap where I can't take the shitty non-bass of my headphones

i skip stuff on my phone if i'm on a walk or in the car but i never skip on vinyl cuz it seems like too much work

i listened to "stupid mop" the other week! it's dope

for every banger like the intro track or absalom there's a bunch of filler tbf

― imago, Thursday, August 10, 2023 8:59 AM (one minute ago)

can't believe no one else reps for Numbers ... y'all be skipping Numbers? You clearly don't "get" the Bible

most of my concentrated listening occurs through headphones, on walks, which usually last 30-60 mins to begin with, a perfect amount of time to really focus on the detail of a record while walking in a circle and looking at trees and water. if you have a convenient place to take walks: take one, listen to a record, it's nice

i never have time to devote to my turntable (and i have roommates so i'm always worried about taking over the sound of the apartment) but when i do it's great

otm re walking and listening. i just listened to an album for the first time while strolling through a park myself. it owns

there was even time at the end of the walk to go back and listen to a few selected tracks i'd really enjoyed

in a way my going to digital only hurt my music listening habit. I mostly did because I had two CD players break down in a year and I was tired of spending money to replace them, and also, the space CDs took up, and also lol my terrible organization skills.

but in those days it was easier for me to commit to what to listen to as I had to seek the item out and put it on and I didn't feel like getting up a million times to change it. plus, i enjoyed the release day deliveries from Amazon/wherever I ordered them from, opening the package and throwing on. Digital, like streaming services, gives me too much access at once and too easy to change my mind on what to listen to, as I do frequently. likewise, not having a tangible product I can hold onto. I don't see myself going back to it though, even with a portable discman and having a cd player in my car, because it's just product I'll wind up not taking care of and don't have room for in this house.

which is why I liked my little temporary vinyl experiment so much! it was really exciting when USPS Informed Mail would tell me I had a package coming and got to throw on a new rekkid.

but hey whatever. digital made me more selective in some ways. "you want me to keep listening? fuck you, make me!"

(mind you I purchase all of my digital albums, lest anybody think I turned into the "fuck buying albums, it's MERCHANDISE that pays the band!" crew)

I can't remember the last time I listened to an album all the way through on one listen. I usually listen to 3-4 tracks in one go then leave it...

^bait. also, praxis

Protect innocent albums from Zoomers with this one weird trick:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/TvQAAOSwFnVi7aZZ/s-l1600.jpg

I'm with Neanderthal here, though collecting vinyl makes zero sense from a logical standpoint I think you can say that about listening to music in general. and so maybe there really is something to the idea that, if you're paying money for it, and finding space in your house to store it, and physically getting up to put the thing on, and maybe even having to clean and care for it once in a while, then emotionally you get a connection to it which helps you appreciate the music more, even the tracks you don't like. I mean I've got tons of LPs that I never really cared for as one of 8000 albums in my iTunes library, that now I actually dig, at least partially. I mean how many CDs did y'all buy as a teenager that made you go "eh, this isn't really good, but I paid $15 for it so I might as well learn to like it"? Which likely made some obscure album track like, I dunno...say, "Sunflowers" by Everclear somehow emotionally significant for you? idk I think that shit is really cool.

I used to listen to full albums in the car, now I'm driving my kids around a lot and they talk all the time so it doesn't really work. I still have a playlist of my 2000+ "favorite" songs that's always on shuffle, and while yes this is a very awesome thing to be able to have I also have a lot of solo car rides where I'm just hitting the skip button for 5 minutes. Sometimes when you have everything you have nothing.

yeah like...I struggle to find the sweet spot I'm in the mood for somedays, so it winds up being trial and error.

the other day I was listening to death metal and I got a feeling of nausea and fatigue, partially from the 99 degree sun bearing down on me through my windshield, from overeating, and from...well...constipation probably, and so days later my brain is associating that nausea with the music. i hate classical conditioning.

I mean how many CDs did y'all buy as a teenager that made you go "eh, this isn't really good, but I paid $15 for it so I might as well learn to like it"?

lol some of us were adults by the time CDs were the dominant form of music recording. ... and you could sell them back to the store if you didn't like them! And for those of us who worked "in the industry" we made up for the shitty wages we got paid by selling the promos we received to the record store. I am sure unperson could confirm.

It’s interesting that like when thinking about “classic albums that have skips”, my brain recherches to the 90s and early 00s when I was listening on CD; funny, too, that Radiohead is mentioned, for a band who has released a number of albums that people deem to be “classic albums” there isn’t a single one of them that I’d believe you if you said it was “no skips”. Even In Rainbows has “Faust Arp” on it

But yeah I mentioned Tindersticks s/t but I do remember feeling and talking with others about the fact that it is a remarkably long 80 minute album with “no skips”, and one of the few (maybe the only) album I felt that way about in the CD era

radiohead albums are "all skips" for me tbh

I mean how many CDs did y'all buy as a teenager that made you go "eh, this isn't really good, but I paid $15 for it so I might as well learn to like it"?

i bought so many $18 CDs as a teen but never really force-fed myself anything i wasn't feeling. honestly the CD cost back then and my economic demographic pushed me into my vinyl habit, back when one could find an early pressing of Exile on Main St. for $5, or On the Beach for $3, or buy up all the Steely Dan albums for $15. that's kinda how i got into a lot of music, and developed my listening habits. not that i didn't buy a bunch of CDs too, i was just careful about only buying what i really wanted. the '92-'97 era for me was a big one in that regard.

Keep thinking this thread is about off-brand sneakers

I bought Anthrax's Volume 8: The Threat is Real, which I"d wanted for weeks, and spent almost $20 on it, which was a lot for me, and on the first listen I fucking hated it so much. tried to force myself to like it but after three or four listens decided it was a coaster.

was so mad about that failed investment that when I got signed on to review for Satan Stole My Teddybear, I immediately wrote a review shitting on it and lamenting the lost $20, which made the website owner mad because he loves that album.

radiohead albums are "all skips" for me tbh

Oh I am decidedly an un-fan now but I liked them as a teenager, skips and all

Is it my imagination or wasn’t it a thing with CD players where you could program them to play tracks off a CD in a specified order? It was, wasn’t it?

Yes indeed you could

it's true, though literally no one ever did it and anyone who claims otherwise is a liar

I did! Honest... hook me up to ye olde polygraph.

lol I might have too once (maybe more than once while dubbing something to tape?), but I mostly remember it being supremely not worth the effort

I loved the really awkward invention for people whose cars still had tape decks. that little plastic cassette tape with a cord on the end that fed into a portable cd player, then you'd put the tape in the tape deck, and click play on your portable cd player, and it'd play cds through your tape deck.

My wife used one of those when we first met (along with a carrying case full of CDs in plastic sleeves). Eventually, the iPod was introduced, and she was excited to get one. Me, being who I am, was like – "whaddya need one of those for?"

I had a tape to aux cable/ipod thing in my VW for years

it's true, though literally no one ever did it and anyone who claims otherwise is a liar

My car has a tape deck and less than 100k miles on it … I am on my 2nd cassette adapter thing because they are cheaply made

I use it for my iPod because the car also has a cd player

My mom had a leased car for a couple years with a five-disc changer and she loaded it up with five CDs that were very familiar to me, and would have it on random at all times. It was kinda great? Like a collage of five great albums. idk if there's a contemporary listening experience that compares to that particular period in CD history

What were the 5 albums?

"The Spaghetti Incident?"
"Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip"
"Extreme II: Pornograffitti"
"Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album"
Disc 3 of "Biograph"

I have deep nostalgia for the 6CD changer in my mum's old car from the late 00s and even early 10s (when she got another car that also had one). There's many albums - Viva la Vida maybe the most extreme example - where this association is and forever will be instant and inexorable.

"The Spaghetti Incident?"
"Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip"
"Extreme II: Pornograffitti"
"Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album"
Disc 3 of "Biograph"

ahhh yeah. well here goes my dorkiest post ever. I used to play Magic: the Gathering at this comic shop that had one of those 6-disc changers. one of the CDs was TMBG's Flood and one was one of those compilations of songs from The Simpsons. When "Whistling in the Dark" came up in the shuffle I swore what I was hearing was Principal Skinner's voice. And it bothered me because I was so sure I'd seen every episode of the Simpsons and THAT song wasn't in it

Honestly? I remember. Blue, Chalk Mark (really good in this context!), Tracy Chapman s/t, Joan Armatrading something, and Chopin Nocturnes

Although I do appreciate Whiney’s visions of fgti’s mom

morrisp, not me

I blame you

I didn’t realize it wasn’t morris p’s mom :/