I've been listening to a number of music albums from my collection lately. I'm finding it surprising that this would be "news", frankly, bacause for most of my life that was the main way I listened to music.

I listen almost entirely on my iPod [iPhone], and have primarily listened in a random shuffle mode for the past number of years. I have pretty eclectic music tastes, and find the random track selection pretty interesting.

However, recently I've been listening to a lot of music "by the album", as it were. And I've really been enjoying it. I think it started because I was finding that new albums I'd purchased were getting little listening time, and I noticed I wasn't gaining the level of familiarity/affinity that I used to have with albums I had purchased.

The net result has been a closer tie to some of the music in my collection.

A good example might be John Mayer's latest album "Battle Studies". My first listen after buying the album a few months back concluded that it had a number of pleasant tunes, some interesting guitar tones, and a few catchy lyrics. I've tended to think of Mayer as a bit "poppy" for me to enjoy in quantity, though I really like his sound. But the more I listen to this album, the more I have enjoyed it. I'm not a lyrics guy, really, yet many of the songs have left an imprint on me with their honesty and sarcasm. There's some really nice guitar work on here too, which is perhaps more subtle than some earlier albums. Overall a really good listen. But I probably wouldn't have noticed listening only to a song here or there.

I read that Roger Waters wouldn't allow music from Pink Floyd's "The Wall" to be sold as individual tracks, and I can now better appreciate that opinion. I have my favorite tracks off that album, but they really made their impression on me originally in the context of the whole.

I've also been reading about marketing approaches to better sell music lately, and I'm now more of the opinion that albums may have a lasting place in music than I felt a few months back.

Anyway, perhaps I'll just sit back now and listen to Dark Side of the Moon once more. There's a certain comfort in letting yourself go in a piece of really familiar music. G'night!