If you can really wear out a song in a couple of weeks to the point that it ruins either the song, or the album, the song didn't have the longevity to begin with.
I always listen to singles beforehand, and it never affects my enjoyment of the song or the album. They're often continue to be my favourite off the album.
If it was just snippets I'd understand, as I never have a good response to hearing snippets out of the context of the song.
For me, it's not that early listenining ruins the song or album - I have rarely been disappointed with DT's releases - but I find, that as each DT album has its own distinct feel, I much perfer listening to it in its entirity to get that feel. Then I can dissect and appreciate the single songs for what they are. Take 'Far From Heaven' - I love that song. Would I have loved it had it been released on its own? - I probably would have thought it was pretty nice. But put into the album environment after the epics of BITS and Outcry, it adds a beautiful little quiet spot and breather, and then leads into BAI brilliantly. So the great album placement sorta helped me appreciate it more as a single song if that makes sense..
Some of my favorite songs are still from Awake, FII, Scenes and 6 degrees, and I was fortunate to be a fan before all these releases, and before the days where every household had the internet - so it was just good ol "wait for the CD to come out and see how you like it". (think I actually still have a copy of I&W on cassette..
) And those times, and the times when you first put in that CD were exciting man. And these songs had massive longevity for me, but again - I first and foremost listened to them as whole albums. I always felt Awake had this 'Space/angsty' feel to it, and FII had a 'water/calming' feel - which carries throughout the album. Scenes was just a mindblowing beast on first listen. But once I loved the albums as a whole, other things started to pop out, and make me appreciate some of the songs - standalone - even more. And I distinctly remember these times more vividly than when say 8V came out, where I had heard many snippets and songs already. I like 8V, and still very much enjoy the longevity of some of its songs. But because of having an idea of what all the songs sounded like, and taking out a little bit of the mystery, the initial listening experience was no where near as good as those early albums for me. So I think there is definately something to be said, for those wishing to limit some listening until they have the full album experience in thier hands. Peace
Topic: Along for the Ride Discussion Thread (Read 103619 times)
