The Room 102 thread - for things you love or just having a bloody good praise!

[Snowy]

I will listen to teased tracks from forthcoming albums - I have done so recently with Devy, Opeth and a young Danish band whose first album I loved called Iotunn. I know the Iotunn guys a little bit, and they asked me what I thought of their latest offering. I had to tell them that I had only listened to it once, as I wanted to enjoy the album in full when it dropped rather than listening to a single track out of context.

I understand that I am a dinosaur regarding how I consume music, but for me sitting down with a new LP and playing it through, reading the sleeve notes and lyrics as I do, is all part of the enjoyment of a record. I don't have playlists, I don't use Spotify, I listen to albums as they were intended to be heard. For me that's important.

[Animalmother]

I still buy CD's..

[Wrathbone]

Another tick for listening to full albums here. I’m not strict about it, but some albums are like books in the sense that listening to an individual song is like reading a favourite chapter - it’s still good, but you’re not getting the full story and context.

As much as I love collecting physical media for films and TV, I never got into vinyl, though my 14 year old niece has done recently. Nice to have an easy, obvious option for buying her presents!

[Raid]

It's funny, I didn't realise this was even a thing that people could get worked up about until this very discussion. I never had any musical upbringing, I don't think I even really listened to music for pleasure until I hit university age, and it's probably the form of artistic expression that I have the most difficulty connecting to (with the exception of TV and film scores, which weirdly are one of the artistic categories I most connect to). I do have what I consider to be a favourite album, American Idiot, which has a *very* solid theme running through it, I've listened to start to finish maybe three or four times in the 20 or so years since release, and it just doesn't feel like doing this is necessary. Hell, I'm struggling to name five albums I think I've ever actually listened to "properly", to the point where I'm thinking now that "favourite album" isn't really a worthwhile measure for me.

Basically what I'm saying is that I guess I'm part of the problem

[Rusty]

I hadn't thought about this until a year or so ago. I found electric callboy and enjoyed a few of their songs - thanks to youtube.
I thought this is good enough for me to buy the album.... only to find out there was no album. Just a string of 4 or 5 songs.

They only released the album containing their newer songs quite recently- which I got of course... but it struck me as odd that there wasn't an album first that singles get released from...

[Drarok]

It's funny, I didn't realise this was even a thing that people could get worked up about until this very discussion.

Yeah, me either. I'm really into music, and I love streaming services because the algorithms constantly give me new bands to discover. Loads of them aren't for me, but the feedback loop keeps giving me stuff to try and regularly serves up things I've never heard of but really enjoy. Then I go find the albums and give them a spin, and go to live gigs, and buy merch, etc, etc.

Very few albums are front-to-back winners, so I favourite and rate songs, make playlists, all that jazz. I don't really have or understand reverence for albums. There's a couple bands I always buy the new releases of on CD, even if I never open them. It's just a way for me to give them some of my money to keep doing what they do.

I thought this is good enough for me to buy the album.... only to find out there was no album. Just a string of 4 or 5 songs.

Err, what? They've got six albums? I've only listened to the latest one, but I knew they had at least one!

Drip feeding songs is the only way you can keep the modern audiences who all have the attention span of goldfish thanks to the none stop crap dopamine hits they get from scrolling through absolute inane rubbish on social media.

This sort of thing smacks of "old man yells at cloud" to me. Everything new is vilified, even the newspaper when it was introduced got stick for reducing novel reading, or something like that. Don't yuck other people's yum. There's some absolutely brilliant creators on all sorts of platforms. Yes, there's crap on there too but maybe people need to switch off after work?

[Rusty]

I thought this is good enough for me to buy the album.... only to find out there was no album. Just a string of 4 or 5 songs.

Err, what? They've got six albums? I've only listened to the latest one, but I knew they had at least one!

Oh yeah, meant to say it was the 4 or 5 songs from their Tekkno album that hadn't released at the time. I made do with all their older offerings whilst waiting

[Mantis]

Drip feeding songs is the only way you can keep the modern audiences who all have the attention span of goldfish thanks to the none stop crap dopamine hits they get from scrolling through absolute inane rubbish on social media.

This sort of thing smacks of "old man yells at cloud" to me. Everything new is vilified, even the newspaper when it was introduced got stick for reducing novel reading, or something like that. Don't yuck other people's yum. There's some absolutely brilliant creators on all sorts of platforms. Yes, there's crap on there too but maybe people need to switch off after work?

Well there is the argument that people's attention spans aren't what they once were, which necessitates the need to release steady streams of content to keep people engaged, which social media is definitely a factor of, and which think has a degree of validity. Beyond the limited impact it has had on my hobby as a musician I can't say I have much more of a positive or negative opinion about that really.

Regardless, for many other reasons, I don't think I'm being too hyperbolic when I say that social media is one of the single worst inventions of the last twenty years.

[Alan]

I feel a little bad about this but I got a set of Sennheiser Momentum 3's for cheaper than the 2's go for because they were listed as "Momentum Witless" ¬_¬


Just as an aside its amazing the step ahead sound quality took from these to the 4's but what a step back design took. The 3's look amazing (like the 2's), the power button is in one of the arms so when you fold the arm in it switches off which is genius, I love that so much! Also because they fold when you use the case you dont have to resize them to their smallest size like you have to with the 4's (and every other bloody modern headset). Oh and no touch controls! Though their button placement could be better. ANC isnt great, just ok and sound quality out the box is baaaad but once you EQ the bass and treble down they can sound pretty good. If they would just stick the innards of the 4s into the structure of the 3's I'd be over the moon.

[Mantis]

Sony did that with the XM4 to XM5 update. Took an absolutely perfect set of headphones which were only getting better sound-wise and made them look absolutely awful and flimsy.

[Wrathbone]

The headband on the XM5 is way too narrow - it’s carved a ridge in my skull.

[Snowy]

I am still using my XM3s because they work perfectly and are comfy. No desire for any upgrade as I simply don't need one. I don't mind the touch controls either, I don't find myself triggering them by accident and they can be useful - if I am in the gym for example I don't want to get my phone out of my bag (where all phones should be kept in the gym, to all the fuckers in mine who sit doomscrolling on kit I am waiting to use )

[Wrathbone]

Yeah, I still use my XM3s too. The ANC on the XM5s is better, but the XM3s are much comfier and still excellent sound quality.