Which albums have you purchased recently?

[Quintillus]

We have a "what have you been listening to lately?" thread, but it's pretty singles-focused. I'd like to look at the other main format of music sales in the 20th century - the album.

Although it has fallen far from its heydey, thanks to the advent of the mp3 and being able to purchase individual tracks more easily (and this newfangled "streaming" concept that seems to have caught on a bit), I think there's still value in the concept of the album. It's a compilation of work by a band from a specific period of time, usually stylistically consistent to a decent extent, and sometimes thematically focused as well. You can toss an album in your car's CD player and have the better part of an hour of music by one band. Hopefully, it's consistently good enough that the "next song" button isn't tempting - and all the more so if you're listening to vinyl.

Which, improbably, seems to be making a comeback. Maybe I'm not the only one who thinks there's something to the album.

So, which albums have you bought recently? I've been to the local record store often enough this year to know albums are still being bought, if not as many as in the Tower Records days. Surely there are a few CivFanatics who are also enough of music fanatics to be buying albums from their favorite bands.

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I've bought several lately, but the most recent one I started listening to is "M. U. - The Best of Jethro Tull", from 1975. I'm generally a fan of 70s English progressive rock, but didn't have any Tull, so it was an easy sell. Not surprisingly, the music is quite good, somewhat surprisingly, the cassette condition is also very good.

 

[Kyriakos]

Ever since youtube became a thing, I never had to listen to music elsewhere.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Haven't bought any in a year or so.
A couple may go on my Xmas list for my children to get me.

I Inside the Old Year Dying, PJ Harvey's latest. That would be CD.
Paris Paloma is only available in new-fangled mp3 so I'll have to think about that.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

"Recently" is a relative term.

The most recent album (CD) I bought was years ago. Actually, there were several CDs of filk music (science fiction/fantasy/science-themed/history-themed folksongs). If I had to name one specifically, it would be "The Horse-Tamer's Daughter."

Prior to that, I bought "The Keeper" by Will Millar and some mad Irishmen (that's really the name of the band Will Millar started after he quit the Irish Rovers).

I also (recently if you count 'recent' within the last decade and a half) bought "Celtic Reverie"; flute by Will Millar, various other musicians.

Most of my CD collection includes The Irish Rovers, other Celtic music by Will Millar, filk music, Yanni, Enya, Roger Whittaker, a few soundtracks for movies, some classical, ABBA, Gordon Lightfoot, and so on.

LPs? I still have the children's records I listened to when I was 5. I don't remember the last time I bought an LP; it would probably have been The Music of Cosmos. I've got two LPs that were autographed: "In the Blue Canadian Rockies" by The Mom & Dads, and "The Irish Rovers Greatest Hits" by The Irish Rovers (after having had a crush on Will Millar for over 20 years, I'm rather proud that I didn't get hopelessly tongue-tied when I had the opportunity to meet and chat with him for a few minutes).

Cassettes... More filk music, Enya, mood music, medieval/Renaissance music, some classical stuff... not sure at this point as some of it's still packed away.

The poll doesn't mention 8-track tapes - I have one. It's an audio recording that includes one of William Shatner's appearances at a Star Trek convention in the early '70s, when ST conventions were a new thing.

 

[PhroX]

I don't use physical albums any more, but I still like listening to music as albums rather than just stand alone songs, so I do still buy them in mp3 form.

The most recent one I've gotten is Gunship's latest, Unicorn. And it's pretty darn good.

 

[tjs282]

I pretty much stopped buying new music for myself in my mid-20s, while I was doing the barefoot dive-instructor thang. But even then, I very rarely bought singles, preferring albums. Started with cassette-versions in my early teens, but switched over to CDs once I got a stereo for my 16th(?) birthday -- which I then used to make mixtapes, because I still owned a Walkman.

The last couple of CDs I remember buying were at least 10 years back, and gifts for my wife: a David Bowie greatest hits double-album, and Peter Fox's Stadtaffe ("Urban Monkey"), because she liked the single Haus am See ("Lake House"), which was getting a lot of airplay at the time (and, as it turned out, was a completely different style from the rest of the album).

 

[Hygro]

Listening to music in album format is my preferred personal listening experience. But I definitely just stream the album.

 

[Birdjaguar]

IIRC the last time I "bought" music it was through LimeWire in about 2007.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I've been 100% streaming for years. I can't remember the last album I actually bought, but it must have been 10-12 years ago.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Listening to music in album format is my preferred personal listening experience. But I definitely just stream the album.

Some of what I like isn't available on any album I've ever been able to find. I'm beyond grateful to the people who uploaded some of the Irish Rovers' Ireland, Scotland, and Australia tour episodes to YT. Those are episodes of their show that were on TV in the 1970s. There's one bit of music that's been running through my mind for 47 YEARS, and it's frustrating because the episode was never rerun, and nobody has uploaded it to YT, at least not that I've found. There's not enough of it that I remember, to figure out which song it was so I could try to find it on other Irish music channels (sometimes if I can't find the Irish Rovers version I can find one by Makem & Clancy, though of course the sound is very different).

There are some filksongs I have on cassette that have never been in CD form. I would love it if "Songs of the Dorsai" could be on CD, as they are some of the best filksongs ever (based on Gordon Dickson's military SF/space opera Dorsai series).

I've had a look at Wuauquikuna's list of CDs on offer on their website. I had no idea there were so many. But they're well beyond my budget when exchange and shipping are factored in, so I make do with watching the videos and livestreams (a bonus that a CD doesn't offer ). I'd never seen much of anything of either Ecuador or Poland until I started watching these, as many of their livestreams are done outdoors.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I've been 100% streaming for years. I can't remember the last album I actually bought, but it must have been 10-12 years ago.

I still like having the physical possession.
Books, games, music - digital ownership doesn't have the same feeling of ownership for me.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I still like having the physical possession.
Books, games, music - digital ownership doesn't have the same feeling of ownership for me.

I used to be a collector, but lately I've found myself kind of resenting having all that stuff. If I ever get around to it, I'd love to sell most of it. Even that seems like a lot of work, though.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I used to be a collector, but lately I've found myself kind of resenting having all that stuff. If I ever get around to it, I'd love to sell most of it. Even that seems like a lot of work, though.

Every few years I have a spring clean, try and cull the books and games etc that are overrunning the house, but its hard.
Usually before they actually go to the charity shop I've gone and reclaimed half of them.

 

[Smellincoffee]

The last CD I bought was Sierra Ferrell's debut, to give as a Christmas gift last year. I did recently buy Subspace Rhapsody, but only as an mp3 album. That's the Star Trek SNW musical episode's soundtrack. Have gotten close to buying Morgan Wade's second album "Psychopath" several times. Most of my music comes from streaming, though there are some artists I buy from to support them.

 

[lymond]

I honestly can't remember the last time I bought an album, but it had to be on itunes. I buy a song or two now and then off itunes, but most of the stuff on my iphone is from all my old cds - have pretty much all my cds on my iphone. In fact, I may just get rid of them at some point. Don't really listen to new stuff anymore.

 

[Fippy]

Vinyl records are a bit popular here again..i can see why, there's something relaxing about watching them spin

Sadly i stopped buying CDs or vinyl..my first one was Metallica - Ride the Lightning, and my last one something from Running Wild.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Some of my cassettes are things like audio books, and Arthur C. Clarke reading his own stories.

Clarke's voice was so annoying monotone that it put me to sleep. So if nothing else, "The Nine Billion Names of God" as read by the original author is a cure for insomnia.

 

[Broken_Erika]

I bought Gary Numan Splinter (Songs from a broken mind) on Amazon several months ago, it came from France. Had really neat stamps on it, and it took like 3 months to get here, i thought it was coming from Japan.......

 

[Zardnaar]

I bought Gary Numan Splinter (Songs from a broken mind) on Amazon several months ago, it came from France. Had really neat stamps on it, and it took like 3 months to get here, i thought it was coming from Japan.......

Like his industrial stuff?

 

[Catharsis]

Listening to music in album format is my preferred personal listening experience. But I definitely just stream the album.

Yes, this thread's poll doesn't give enough credit to streaming as a way of discovering and enjoying albums. I have been able to expand my familiarity with the influential music of the 50s-70s by streaming albums which I would never have considered had I needed to go out and find them on CD etc.

That said I am also one of those pricks who still buy vinyl. Agree with @Fippy that half the fun is watching them spin, particularly if you get one in a funky colour Most recent one I got was "Everyone was a Bird" by the electronic folk (?) duo Grasscut.