How many listens is enough? - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

pearljammer13
Young Pilgrim

Gender: Male
Age: 36
Location: Massachusetts

How many times do you think you have to listen to an album before you can form a true opinion of it? Specifically how many times before you can place it on your chart if you feel it deserves to be there. I know it can be different for different albums and everything, but just in general how much listening do you think is necessary?

For me this question specifically is referring to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. I had never even heard of it before I found this site...I finally started listening to it only a couple days ago, but I'm guessing I'm already somewhere between 12-15 listens all the way through. I already put it on my chart, cause I know it needs to be there, but I'm wondering if I'm putting it too high too fast...I even feel like it could be in my top 10 soon, but then I wonder if when I step away from it for a while i'll still feel that way. I suppose that's why our charts always change. Anyways just curious what people think about formulating quick opinions.

SquishypuffDave

Gender: Male
Age: 33

For me, my opinion on an album can continue to change no matter how many times I listen to it. There is no 'arriving' point, where my opinion locks into place permanently. That's why my chart is always just a reflection of whatever I feel at the time.

sgraham1990

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Oregon

I agree that an album may never have a final "arriving" point, but I think at the point when you stop thinking of it as a "new" favorite, and instead just think of it as another one of your favorites is a good point to put in into your chart if you think it deserves it.

For example, I love King of Limbs; it might be my favorite Radiohead album, but I still think of it as "Radiohead's new album," so it's not in my chart.

Guest

I'm willing to put an album on my chart after one full listen, but every time I listen to an album that's already on my chart I reconsider it's position.

fellow

pearljammer13 wrote:

How many times do you think you have to listen to an album before you can form a true opinion of it? Specifically how many times before you can place it on your chart if you feel it deserves to be there. I know it can be different for different albums and everything, but just in general how much listening do you think is necessary?

For me this question specifically is referring to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. I had never even heard of it before I found this site...I finally started listening to it only a couple days ago, but I'm guessing I'm already somewhere between 12-15 listens all the way through. I already put it on my chart, cause I know it needs to be there, but I'm wondering if I'm putting it too high too fast...I even feel like it could be in my top 10 soon, but then I wonder if when I step away from it for a while i'll still feel that way. I suppose that's why our charts always change. Anyways just curious what people think about formulating quick opinions.

Seems I look at things very differently. The only music I keep/have on my mp3 player is the music that has been added to my library within the past week, the music I've listened to in the past week and my top 5000 played tracks/songs. With that, things tend to take care of themselves.
As far as my chart is concerned, I just take a mathematical approach. The more I listen to it, the higher it gets ranked. Which also makes it so things take care of themselves.

Yourselfisntsteam

SquishypuffDave wrote:

For me, my opinion on an album can continue to change no matter how many times I listen to it. There is no 'arriving' point, where my opinion locks into place permanently. That's why my chart is always just a reflection of whatever I feel at the time.

exactly. My opinion tends to swing wildly over the first 5-10 listens of most albums, however it never fully stabilizes and sometimes my opinion will completely change after many listens.

however there is a tendency (not universal) for albums that I enjoy greatly on first listen to quickly lose their power, while albums that take longer for me to form an opinion on tend to stay at a high position if they reach it.

Some albums I'm sure deserve a place among my favourites after a number of listens, others I'm not sure until months after I buy them...

nrs182

Age: 32

That has always been a huge problem for me. How many times you have to listen a record to judge it, to decide wheter if it's good or not? After all this time I've decided that it's not the same with every record, it depends on what's going in your life, how you're feeling, even the weather, I think everything affects how you listen an album for the first time, so i guess at the end it's a matter of luck maybe?
For example i remember i listened In Rainbows at least 5 times and I decided I didn't like it at all. Few months later I found out I didn't erase it from my pc and I gave it another shot. Now it's pne of my favorite records ever, if not my favorite. That's luck isn't it?
So now i'll listen something at least 3 times to decide, and i think most of the times you know when to give it another chance later if you stil don't like it, other times it just sucks and you know it will suck for a long long time.

19loveless91
mag. druž. inf

Yourselfisntsteam wrote:

however there is a tendency (not universal) for albums that I enjoy greatly on first listen to quickly lose their power, while albums that take longer for me to form an opinion on tend to stay at a high position if they reach it.

Yep, same here. That said if I do enjoy an album that much I still sometimes put them on my chart even after one listen. But unlike those other albums (aka "growers"), they will most likely lose positions after a while.

40footwolf

Gender: Male
Age: 33

It varies on the album but I would say 3 or so.
_________________
I love all music. It makes you feel like living. Silence is death.

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thoughtful_salt

I find that 3 listens all the way through is the minimum before you can at least start fully understanding an album. I had to listen to Revolver a good 3 times before its greatness became even more evident, ditto with Dark Side Of The Moon. It's easy to fall into the trap of only listening to an album once and then dismissing it entirely (see Animal-Ke$ha for those types of knee-jerk reactions, or any first reviews of any Heavy Metal group from the 70's), so 3 is the minimum for a fully thought out opinion to be formed.