Absolutely not, most albums have a bunch of skippable junk between the interesting stuff, and exist best as a few tracks on a mixtape. There are a small number of albums that are best experienced as a single piece - e.g Pink Flag, In The Court Of The Crimson King, Woof. - but they're exceptions rather than the norm.

Oh, hey, I just had this thought while listening to Rammstein yesterday

Listening to album is a way to listen to a full story. While I listen to some Bollywood movie album, it feels like watching the movie again and going through that story

This is how I listen to music, but also this isn't a shower thought, it's just your opinion.

Mixtapes predate cds by a bit there, kid.

Maybe back in the day when bands would spend months and months assembling an album that had a generally cohesive style. Now it seems a lot of bands throw a bunch of stuff at the wall hoping something will stick. A good album today is the exception, not the expectation.

Not all art belongs in the Louvre.

Yes and no. You gotta listen to the whole thing all the way through at least once. Some albums require repeat listening. Some, you just take the good, toss the bad.

This you?

As are songs. I have a playlist with about 3000 songs I like in one folder, and it'll jump through genres from song to song. I like all the songs, so I don't care about mood changes.

I also find there are album songs on most albums that I like that I don't particularly enjoy or feel like filler.

I think both types of listening have their place. Especially when listening to music from the era when music was made with the intention of it being heard as an album in its entirety. Like literal albums is a method of playback where you are typically listening to at least a whole side of the album, you wouldnt be skipping around. CD players even you were likely to listen to more than one song of the album, just because it would require changing the CD vs letting it play.

Most music made after the proliferation of MP3s isnt really made in that same vein. Usually at most you get the “concept album” or something where an artist delves into a particular type of music. Those are still cohesive albums, but it’s also very different from something that is literally more or less one piece of music a la Dark Side of the Moon or something like that.

Most modern albums are more of a collection of songs at best, and they may not have much similarity or relevance to each other. Take the Black Keys for instance. They mostly do albums by genre that they want to try making. So the songs have a related sound, but listening to them is more like picking out whatever you like and would want to hear again. I wouldnt listen to the album straight through other than the first time I hear it. They songs aren’t connected in an important way other than being the same genre

Why I wrote a somewhat bad shuffle utility so sometimes it doesn't select a random song from my music library but sometimes picks the next neighboring song file for those album-specific messages from the artist.

For many, absolutely! That's how they were intended, and they deserve it.

Others, it's just ten songs randomly arranged.

Pretty good litmus test on whether they're good musicians or just corporate karaoke.

Yes, but also no.

There was a time when albums were created by artists with the intent that they should be listened to start to finish.

But at some point albums changes to being a collection of songs trying to be “hits”

Albums for entire listening (at least for the first time). Playlists for shuffling non stop.