Look out for the new albumen...it's out now...

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I've had an idea for new poll-based japes on Poptimists (and possibly beyond) but before I try it out I would like to ask you a few quick questions, if you have the time...please answer via comments if you do.

1) Which album do you think you've listened to the most this decade?
2) What was your favourite album of all time ten years ago? (Just pick an album you liked a lot back then if not a clear favourite)
3) How often will you listen to a complete album in one go these days?
4) In your opinion what is the most POP album of all time (you don't have to explain why but I would prefer it if we do not include compilations, greatest hits etc. in answering this thanks)

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

1) I honestly don't think I've listened to anything more than 10 times - I fillet for tracks, put on shuffle, etc etc. I would say I know "Discovery" pretty well though.

2) My stock answer was "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back"

3) Recently I've been doing it a little more, cos my ipod broke, but I find it a chore really. Much more likely to make comp CDs or play greatest hits.

4) Thriller? ABBA's Arrival? Spice? I'm going to go for....RUMOURS BY FLEETWOOD MAC. Cos I've been playing it a lot.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Yes! Spice is an album I am enjoying very much indeed at the moment. I'll pick that for my 4), I think.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i. the term "pop album" is obscure to me
ii. the reason for droppin comps is possibly practical in respect of generating a poll but it skews the "listening epxeirence" way over in favour of a non-representative micro-percentile
iii. if song is yr basic unit you should maybe pursue the OTHER direction (viz what is yr fave NOTE ten years ago?)

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

all will become clearer in time!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

1) Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works II. I listened to it over and over again at uni, also it was just something to put on as background music.
2) The Elastica debut.
3) Fairly often esp if at work. This is because I do not have one of these young person's mp3 players. However these days I mostly listen to compilations rather than single artist albums.
4) Cor, dunno about this one. Will have a think.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I tried not to count the things I just put on as background music ,otherwise I would've come up with something ambient-ish, too.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Good call. I suppose SAWII is sort of a compilation anyway. OK, I shall change that to Surfer Rosa by the Pixies.

[wizzy-w.livejournal.com]

1) Crikey. Probably Morning Glory or Everything Must Go...although lately, it's been It's A Shame About Ray and the first Marion album. How cool am I?
2) Morning Glory.
3) Pretty much any time I listen to music. I tend to go through phases, but seeing as I managed to sit through London Calling in full for the first time in about 5 years, I feel this is the start of a concentrated phase...
4) Very.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

1) could be Avalanches 'Since I Left You', Basement Jaxx 'Rooty' or Broadcast's 'haha sound'

2) by this point it was probably 'music for the jilted generation' altho there was never ONE album i was completely happy with enough to think of as all time fave it seems

3) maybe only once every 6 weeks on average and usually just for a new album i've downloaded or bought

4) bit of a throwaway question really but will say 'Spice' for now

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

1 - either Yoda and Greenpeace's essential mix, or the princess superstar bootleg album
2 - Loveless was the stock answer (and perhaps still is, sadly), though 1996 was the year of listening to underworld and orbital all the time.
3 - A few times a week. I recently lost my iPod though, so it's recently dropped off a lot!
4 - Old: Pet Shop Boys, Please. New(ish): Girls Aloud's WWTNS

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

1. Probably Mountain Goats, The Coroner's Gambit. I was going through a very intense listening phase a few years back. I didn't listen to much 'pop', but lots of 'indie'.
2. Well, my tastes were pretty underdeveloped, so I'd probably have said Siamese Dream (after the fashion of mainstream magazine polls which usually name the year's most overrated album as the 'greatest of all time', cf. OK Computer in 1997, et al.).
3. Most of my listening is iPod on shuffle, but when I buy something new I usually listen to it as an album at least once.
4. I'd say maybe something by MJ (Thriller?), though of course I like GA's What Will the Neighbours Say? myself. Might have difficulty justifying the 'of all time' bit, but hey, it's not much different from aforementioned magazine polls I suppose.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

1. Speaking of since 2000, I should be able to answer this reasonably accurately, since I've been fairly exclusively digital since then. The list would definitely include:
- Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
- Saint Etienne, Finisterre
- Bloc Party, Silent Alarm
- The Go! Team, Thunder Lightning Strike
There are a few other groups (eg. Autour de Lucie, Sigur Ros) that suffer from vote-splitting among albums. And I'm only counting albums that I listen to all the way through (see Tom's comment above).

2. My stock answers were usually XTC, Skylarking or Husker Du, Warehouse: Songs and Stories, although whether that's really what I would've said in 1996, I can't recall.

3. Six weeks ago I would've said never, although since I've been commuting to new job, I have increasingly found myself loading a couple of "neglected" albums onto my iPod each week so that I can start at track 1 when I feel liked. (Don't usually finish but I think it's the thought that counts.) I will also do it occasionally when there's something I'm particularly interested in (e.g., did it with the new Dylan, will probably do it with new Jarvis).

4. I really think it should be a greatest hits, but if you're going to make me work... (I'll have to come back to this)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

1) Which album do you think you've listened to the most this decade?

This decade? God, I don't know. At all. My default "favourite album ever" was made this deacde though so I'll go with that - Aaliyah by Aaliyah.

2) Boys For Pele by Tori Amos. It is still great!
3) Quite a lot but as I was saying to Gareth my listening habits aren't in step with the er ipod generation at all due to only having a discman - the choice is between shonkily compiled mixes of random mp3s, and albums. Plus I have to listen to albums quite a lot for review purposes.
4) Well the most POP album of all time is by DEFN a greatest hits package! The Immaculate Collection or Discography, say. There are several start-to-finish great pop albums (Britney by Britney Spears, One Touch by Sugababes, all Girls Aloud works ever) but is start-to-finish greatness really a POP hallmark? I am tempted to say something like Loose by Nelly Furtado: killer singles, but the rest is a curate's egg.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I asked myself that same question about whether the hallmark of pop would be a consistent album or not. That was pushing me a bit too close to Thriller or Janet Jackson territory (didn't she also release an albums with like 7 top 10 (US) singles?)

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'That was pushing me a bit too close to Thriller or Janet Jackson territory (didn't she also release an albums with like 7 top 10 (US) singles?)'

but why would this be bad? i now think i should've said 'Thriller' and not 'Spice'

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I don't know -- when you're doing this "pick only one" stuff, you always second guess what message you send, aside from whatever criteria you have. I love music too much to be quite so cynical as to say, "MJ turned into a spectacle, so in a sense he really IS the perfect pop star" (plus I probably only heard the non-singles from Thriller once, maybe). Janet, on the other hand, somehow never managed to sustain a profile that matched those sales figures. I think people will always go "Really?" if they looked back at how many albums she sold, or top ten hits, or whatever.

[juror8.livejournal.com]

1) Which album do you think you've listened to the most this decade?
That's probably mean an album released in 2000 that I still listen to, huh? Maybe Eels- Daisies of the Galaxy.


2) What was your favourite album of all time ten years ago? (Just pick an album you liked a lot back then if not a clear favourite)

Guns N Roses- Appetite for Destruction

3) How often will you listen to a complete album in one go these days?

Themed SoulJazzy compilations: probably once a week. "The Best X Ever" comps: probably four or five times a year.

4) In your opinion what is the most POP album of all time (you don't have to explain why but I would prefer it if we do not include compilations, greatest hits etc. in answering this thanks)

Spice.

[fathands.livejournal.com]

1) Which album do you think you've listened to the most this decade?
I would guess at If Yr Feeling Sinister.

2) What was your favourite album of all time ten years ago?
Very probably The Holy Bible, for my sins.

3) How often will you listen to a complete album in one go these days?
Fairly frequently, I am old fashioned in my listening habits. None of this shuffle function for me.

4) In your opinion what is the most POP album of all time
I don't have an opinion on this, so Spice.

[damnspynovels.livejournal.com]

1. One of the Girls Aloud cds probably.
2. Something by Stereolab or Prolapse no doubt.
3. Rarely.
4. Spice or WWTNS - as others point out.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

1) The Stone Roses (on shuffle)

2) The best album in the world... ever (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Album-World-Ever-Vol-3/dp/B0000074U9)

3) Reasonably often, I still like the concept (though not the concept album)

4) The Moldy Peaches

I have never actually heard Spice.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I have only heard all of 'Spice' because my HoR neighbour at university played it a lot. I don't know it all off by heart though.

This is the big problem with my poll-plan/experiment proposal really. It relies on lots of people all knowing and having heard the same album which is clearly impossible!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

But if there's one great pop album, it's going to have been heard by enough people. It's a really interesting question anyway because it's not tended by MM/Mojo/etc.

But perhaps a poll, there seems to have been a ripple effect here :)

[giddyoldgoat.livejournal.com]

1) Murray Street by Sonic Youth
2) Live Evil by Miles Davis
3) All the time
4) Thriller by Michael Jackson (based on the number singles taken from it)

[koganbot]

Actually there were more from Bad.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

1) God, I dunno. Supreme Clientele?
2) The Holy Bible. IKNEWIBELIEVEDINNOTHINGBUTITWASMYNOTHING, etc.
3) I seem to be doing it more at the moment (e.g. the CSS album, although that's quite short), although the skip button is always waiting, waiting...
4) This question is some kind of contradiction in terms! I like Justified and Come and Get It a lot though.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

can i change my 4 to COme and Get it too plz

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Is it really a contradiction in terms? After all there have always been albums by pop stars. Why should the concept seem so strange/unworkable as opposed to the rock album concept/stereotype?

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

1) Which album do you think you've listened to the most this decade?
Probably Daphne & Celeste's We Didn't Say That.

2) What was your favourite album of all time ten years ago? (Just pick an album you liked a lot back then if not a clear favourite)
We just had a new entry at that spot - Pulp's Different Class.

3) How often will you listen to a complete album in one go these days?
Very often - I play at least 20 albums start to finish in an average week. I don't know how many strictly fit the 'in one go' criterion, in that there will often be pausing.

4) In your opinion what is the most POP album of all time (you don't have to explain why but I would prefer it if we do not include compilations, greatest hits etc. in answering this thanks)
I think I'll go back to Q1 - it's certainly my favourite teenpop album ever.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

1) Probably Underworld's 'Beaucoup Fish'
2) Spacehog - 'Resident Alien'
3) Often... perhaps 50% of my listening is complete albums
4) Most POP album of all time.... hmmm.... Britney's 'Baby One More Time'

Man, I feel like...

[epicharmus.livejournal.com]

1. If you're talkin' about stuff released this decade, probably the Avalanches. The real answer might be Astral Glamour, some old-timey comp., Charlemagne Palestine's Four Manifestations on Six Elements, or Music for Airports.

2. Gulp. Maybe Sebadoh's Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock at that point?

3. Actually, pretty often -- as often as ever. Anywhere from ten-fifteen times at work per week.

4. If you were counting comps, the Eagles' Greatest Hits, Vol. 1. (The most pop album of all time has to be somewhat rock -- it has to contain multitudes.) Otherwise, Shania's Come on Over, or maybe even Up! because of the different mixes.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

1. 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields.
2. Slanted And Enchanted by Pavement.
3. Once when I buy it, then it goes into iTunes, unless it's marvellous from beginning to end in which case quite a bit more.
4. Oh gosh, um, maybe Dare by the Human Leg.

[baddidodo.livejournal.com]

1) As in, since 2000? Um. Due at least partly to the fact that it was the only CD in my possession for about 2 months when I was abroad, I reckon The Strokes "Is This It", probably.

2) I suspect it of being "Dog Man Star"... although there was a definite "Different Class" period there too...

3) Often. Daily, even. Cos the average length of an album coincides with the length of time between leaving the shower and leaving the house :)

4) Hmm. I'm going to controversially not jump on the Spice bandwagon here and say "Rio" by Duran Duran...

[koganbot]

1) Ashlee Simpson Autobiography
2) The Stooges Raw Power (in the original, flawed Bowie mix rather than Iggy's awful awful new mix). I didn't actually play it much a decade ago; it was just my standard answer to "Greatest Album Ever."
3) Very often, because I get paid to; but for fun listening I usually work the "memory" button quite a lot, turning most LPs into EPs. Or I'll listen to self-made comps, on CD or computer.
4) Boney M Nightflight to Venus.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

1) Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Though it's hard to say really, I've listened to the new Trivium album every day for the past week.
2) Poison - Flesh and Blood.
3) I listen to at least 3 full albums a day. I buy at least 5 albums per month.
4) Avril Lavigne - Let Go

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

1) I listened to Discovery nearly every day for a whole summer (half on each walk to work), probably a tie between that, Kylie - Fever and Arcade Fire - Funeral.

2) Metallica - Master of Puppets or something by Weird Al.

3) At least daily at dinner, sometimes another one or two during the day, but usually listen to half/skip around.

4) Maybe ABBA.

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

1) Monkey Kong by A. A very pop album in its own 'shouty men in visor caps' way.

2) Music For The Jilted Generation, probably.

3) Pretty much daily.

4) Being dull and saying Thriller here, so much of it has been overplayed now but it still sums up the word pop for me. Tho I really want to say Fantasma by Cornelius.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

1) I honestly don't know, but it may well be Pioneer Soundtracks - Jack.
2) Promenade - The Divine Comedy. My opinion has not changed.
3) Most of the time when I listen to music, it's whole albums.
4) Pop, like hip hop, tends not to suit albums very often. But probably the Spice Girls' second.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'Pop, like hip hop, tends not to suit albums very often.'

Others have echoed this so I'm tempted to post it as a separate question as I'm not sure I agree.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

That's about the only modern pop album where I don't skip anything - even Greatest Hits usually have a dud mawkish track or two. And hip hop, I can think of precisely two albums with no filler - the debuts by Nas and the Wu.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

1) Oh this is difficult. Comes and goes, you know. It could actually be Hips and Makers by K-hersh.
2) The Dreaming by K-bush.
3) About 4 times a week?
4) The thing that first popped into my mind when I read the question was Dare, so I'll say that.

Not a very helpful response probably

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

1. No idea! I wish I knew. Could be something by Stereolab e.g. Cobra and Phases... but I wouldn't swear to it. I don't like overplaying LPs - and I own so many and am always buying new things anyway. Constant rotation is my philosophy.

2. Either The Wall or The Dreaming or Fear of a Black Planet.

3. Nearly all of my home listening is of complete LPs. I average one a day. Some days I might get through 3 or 4.

4. My definition of pop is very very very broad - the LPs mentioned in my answers to 1 & 2 are all grebt pop records - so I doubt I can answer this question. I'd probably have to use rockist criteria to come up with anything, so I'd rather not.

do me wrong ...do me right

[stickismyfriend.livejournal.com]

1) Which album do you think you've listened to the most this decade?
probably Galactica Rush by Jhelisa
plus maybe Is A Woman - Lambchop

2) What was your favourite album of all time ten years ago? (Just pick an album you liked a lot back then if not a clear favourite)
Babes n Arms - MC5
my cobbling together of tracks from Smile - Brian Wilson circa 1966/67
Modern Lovers - the one Cale produced

3) How often will you listen to a complete album in one go these days?
had to put down my knitting for this one ...works out about 7 out of 10 are listened to end-to-end

4) In your opinion what is the most POP album of all time
3 + 3 - Isley Brothers