____twoism

Here's a philosophical/artistic question for you:

I wish I could dig up the interview - but I remember I was reading an interview with Stars of the Lid and they talked in there about how when they write their music, they write in terms of sides, ie the following three songs are Side A1, and are themselves a complete suite.

So, rather than (in my CD world) seeing something like "And Their Refinement of the Decline" as 2 discs to be consumed continuously - they see the album as sort of a number of little mini albums which can be explored at will and thus the album is not to be viewed as one continuous statement.

Which makes sense to me b/c listening to a Stars of the Lid double album can be a bit onerous - especially as far as me staying awake for it.

And then recently Joanna Newsom released an album divided into 3 discs, apparently for artistic reasons.

So all of this got me thinking about my listening and whether or not listening to an entire album end to end is always the ideal format - or if it's best digested in pieces - depending on what we're talking about.

Thoughts? Experiences? Vinyl slobbery?