Do you shuffle your prog playlist?

'Do you shuffle your prog-playlist?'
Heh... just something very peculiar about the sentence that tickles my funny bone
Prog playlists eh? They don't really exist in my world. Playlists usually contain prog but also everything else under the sun. Stickers don't really matter in real life other than in conversations about music where they help explain other folks in the know about albums and bands they haven't heard before.
My friends and I often make playlists at get-togethers - often influenced by beers and the odd joint - and I have never seen one that didn't mix it up. Nahh strike that - some times I've seen all electronic playlists. It's when a small get-together suddenly develops into a huge party with people dancing in the cupboards.

Anyway I have decided to give the shuffle thing a go...but I am not doing a prog-playlist dammit Nahh think I'll shuffle the old iPod instead. 1102 songs to chose from.

I shuffle. With 1,762 songs on my ipod, I want to be able to listen to most of these. I often feel I am overwhelmed by so many songs, that it makes more sense to choose at random than to choose myself most of the time. I do not shuffle a whole album though. That must be listened to in a specific order. It's also more interesting to have a higher spectrum of prog, going from Yes to Porcupine Tree to Pink Floyd to Kansas etc.

Also, you mentioned in the first post that King Crimson are not on ITunes. They are now! See for yourself!

gr8dane wrote: I am curious ,how the folks ,who insists on the whole album at a time play,do under certain situations. What you do under different circumstances . 1.-What happens if you fall asleep during the album.? Do you have to start the album  all over ? Look for the place where you think you might have drifted off  ? Or do you finish the album ,and then look for the place where you think you drifted off.? 2.- Are you allowed to read while you listen to the album,or does that ruin/interfere with the whole album experience ? 3.- If you have a friend coming over,and they request a certain song.Do you make them listen to the songs that comes before and then the ones that come after also. ? 4.- If an artist make an album,song sequence not to be interfered with.How come they never used to play the whole album from start to finish at concerts.? I may have more questions later,but i guess I gotta start somewhere.Thanks

A more burning question is simply,

What happens when you only have time to listen to three songs?

When I have as few as four minutes of free time, I can listen to one song and get enjoyment out of it. It can be any song in the middle / at the end of an album, such as Agalloch A Desolation Song. Do I not know A Desolation Song is more appropriate when it's preceded by the songs that come before it? I do. But a good song also needs to be good on its own, not part of a bigger work.

Still, the discussion won't be really necessary since most people merely "prefer" to listen to a full album at a time. If they fall asleep during Providence I guess they simply start from Starless the next day.

uduwudu wrote: Imagine listening to A Passion Play, TAAB and Tales in the wrong order. Or Lamb? MDK. They just would not make any sense at all...

I am curious ,how the folks ,who insists on the whole album at a time play,do under certain situations.

Imagine listening to A Passion Play, TAAB and Tales in the wrong order. Or Lamb? MDK.

They just would not make any sense at all...


Edited by uduwudu - April 07 2017 at 00:53

TheGazzardian wrote: I dDefinitely shuffle when I'm in the mood for it, and I mix my prog with classical, metal, hip hop, country, folk, and pop in the same playlist. Used to be against this but really all that actually matters is that you enjoy the music in the moment you are listening to it. And besides, hearing the same song in the same context all the time gets boring. Hearing some Leprous followed by some Sia followed by some Philip Glass followed by some Sturgill Simpson gives each song greater contrast, and may make them sound better than they might have surrounded by more similar sounding songs. In this sense, it can be easier to listen for details because they sound 'fresher' compared to if you were listening to only one thing. I feel like I might be on my own in this one...

I dDefinitely shuffle when I'm in the mood for it, and I mix my prog with classical, metal, hip hop, country, folk, and pop in the same playlist.

Dean wrote: No, never, and I don't skip tracks either. No one ever says that a greatest-hits album or a various artists compilation is better than an original studio album and there is a very good reason why. On a well produced album track order is not random, it's carefully chosen by the artist and their producer to create a unified whole that is more than just a collection of songs. Shuffle is second only to "gaps between tracks" as the reason I dislike listening to music on media-players of any kind.

I fully agree. No shuffling and no skipping! Shuffle off, shufflers!

Typically I'll go for full albums, I like to search my library until something sticks out at me. Most of the albums in my library are best listened to this way. However, if I don't know what mood I'm in I hit shuffle all. I enjoy doing this for two reasons really: