I’ve been on a anti-streaming platform tirade as of late. The latest target has been music. Since discovering the platform SoulSeek I’ve been gathering all the tunes from nostalgia and my current Spotify lists.

With this, I’ve been listening to music locally using Fooyin. I went through a few media players, even terminal based MPD ones. Fooyin just worked with no fuss.

A side effect of local listening is that I’ve been listening to music in terms of “albums” and not assorted songs on a playlist. At first, I didn’t like it.

That was until the other day when I went back and listened to 2000s Ohio band Hawthorne Heights. They were one of those bands I had my favorite songs added to some lists, but never the whole album.

I played some games and threw the album on to discover several songs I just forgot, then found ones I’ve never heard that I enjoyed. Hell, I listened to a whole 2008 album that I never realized existed. I liked it too!

Listening to the entire album from start to finish is an interesting experience that I think a lot of us (at least me) have strayed away from.

It reminded me of the time before instant accessibility when you would buy a CD for one song but listen to the entire album because it’s all you had.

We gave artists the attention to hear their whole vision. Albums had intros to set a theme. They included interludes. Most of the time there is a goofy song thats a little different than the bands usual sound. It was special.

Now, we have condensed artists into their top songs. Most people save a few songs from an artist and move on to the next. Playlists are compilations of a vibe.

If you haven’t in a while, spin up one of your favorite albums and just listen to the whole thing, start to finish.

Here is a few that I’ve been listening to:

Hawthorne Heights – If Only You Were Lonely (2006)
Sugar Ray – 14:59 (1999)
Post Malone – F1-Trillion (2024)
Unleash The Archers – Time Stands Still (2015)