With DoT, I listened to the singles A LOT, it really affected the way I listened to the whole album afterwards. It seemed like those songs didn't fit the rest of the album.
I tried something different with a recent release, Haken's Virus. I listened to the three singles only a couple of times out of curiosity and "saved" the rest for when the album came out. It actually worked really well! I was only left with a few memories I had of the songs and they didn't feel worn out when the whole thing was out. Gonna try this with DT15. But it is a lot of self control not to listen the songs over and over, yes. To those who don't suffer anymore, I admire you
I did that with LTE3, only with the first single. Listened once to hear how they sounded, then forgot about it until the release. Worked like a charm.
With the new NMB album, I'm choosing to wait til it comes out to hear anything. I tried with the newest Transatlantic album, but I sneaked in one quick listen to one of the singles (I forget which) then waited til release day. Again, worked out well.
I definitely developed this habit with new albums recently in the last couple of years, what with the way music is marketed now, and how 3, 4, sometimes 5 singles are released for a new album before it's released, spoiling the new album listen for me. Happened with DoT for me in a lot of ways. I now think those first 3 tracks are some of the worst DT songs and could have been left off (along with Room 237) for a tighter album, something DT rarely, if ever, releases. It doesn't help that I find DoT has no "opener" songs, and for me the album doesn't get going until track 4, not good.