(( all things audible ))

For the 2nd time so far, some friends and I have had a night of what we are calling The Listening Sessions, where we meet at my apartment with the sole purpose of listening to an album start to finish with no distractions.  The idea was that no one actually listens to music anymore for the sake of music.  It’s become something to workout to or something you have on in the background while you homework.  Also, with the advent of digital music and single song downloads, the album is becoming a foreign concept; listening to music, especially to entire albums as they were meant to be heard, is something of the past.  So we decided to devote a night to sitting and listening to a whole record with no visual distractions. Almost like watching a movie, but with music.

The first time we listened to Coldplay’s Parachutes on vinyl which was a lot of fun.  Listening to a real vinyl record makes music so much more tangible.  You have to carefully place the record on the turntable and place the needle down.  No skipping or rewinding, and you have to flip it over halfway through.  It’s a very hands-on and interactive experience.  It was also fun to pass the LP artwork around while we listened.

Then last night a lot more people showed up (Ben, Brentice, Jordan, Pri, and Tyler) and we listened to Abbey Road (on CD, the turntable wasn’t working..).  This was a good one too – we passed around the Beatles Anthology book while we listened and learned lots of random facts about the album.

It’s a great time and something I really look forward to.  Anyone’s welcome next time as long as they can sit still and listen for 45 minutes or so..