Circa Survive Band • Page 95

Of course I do this too! But still, probably 75% of my listening habits is listening to full albums. Not trying to diminish the pleasure of repeating a single for a whole day, or EPs (I'm actually in the middle of that new Gates EP for the 100th time ;d), just stating my preferences for the most part.

 

I have been blown away by singles in the past for sure but unless I am I'll mostly ignore single only releases or even EP's unless they really grab me. I almost exclusively listen to albums unless I'm making a playlist for the car with my wife and then I'll usually just pick songs I already know from albums.

Taking Circa as an example, I've been meaning to listen the Appendage EP and the OLG B-Sides for ages but just haven't got around to it even though I know I'll probably like the songs a lot just because that's not what I gravitate towards.

 

Is it not the same for albums though? You’ll mostly ignore them unless they really grab you right? You’re prone to listen to the music that grabs you regardless of the length of the release anyway so I fail to see a difference

 

I don't even know what's going on but we're clearly talking past each other. Of course there are good individual songs. But someone fired the first shots saying it was dumb to worry about your favorite bands not producing albums anymore at all. Sorry, can't get on board with that.

I'm sure this also comes down to actual differences in how we listen to shit. I listen to albums or sequential chunks of albums >80% of the time. I also never make custom playlists or use shuffle... like, at all.

 

Yeah but im much more likely to listen to an album I'm lukewarm on multiple times. A single song or small EP will likely get a single listen if I even get around to it unless it blows me away. Even singles I do really like I will listen to 2/3 times max usually and wait for the album.

Nothing against singles I'm just rarely in the mood for a single song.

 

Actually it is not the same, as stated by a few people already - and same for me - nothing wrong with singles, but I will eventually be more prone to listen to full albums even if they're lukewarm at first, thus giving a bunch of songs some further blow.

 

I have so much reverence for the album format that getting smaller chunks like singles or EPs just isn’t the same. Maybe that’s antiquated, but I don’t really care. The album experience is still my preferred medium of interacting with music, and I can’t see myself letting go of that anytime in the foreseeable future.

 

This is an odd topic. Music is music no matter the medium. I listen to albums and a playlist shuffle basically in equal parts. I will miss full length Circa albums, but the EP is dope and it’s length hasn’t deterred me from listening. And then of course there are songs on it that make my big shuffle playlist. I tend to find equal value in full lengths and shuffle. Sometimes it’s nice to sit down with a collection, but in general, there’s still always those 2-5 songs on a record that you really look forward to hearing then the rest that are still good, but you’re more just listening to because they’re part of the collection. I don’t listen to at least half the songs on each Circa record outside of playing a full record, and Circa is basically second only to Bowie in my eyes. So I get wanting to release songs in smaller batches. I don’t get the idea of skipping music entirely because it’s not a full length. If I like it, I’ll listen to it.

 

I think it's a bit reduntant to talk over preferences so much - all in all though - I understand this is exactly where Circa is coming from, lots of people listen to & enjoy probably like a half of each album at most. But how can a band decide beforehand, which songs exactly would that be? Would it be considered a waste of time to work on the other/lesser known songs (the ones that don't hit more people that way)?

 

so weird to not let an EP hold the same reverence as an album just because of the format. again, I guess none of you are Burial fans...

 

Another thing we have to specify if we're going to debate this is whether the songs are still written in the same way they were during the album era. Records like Juturna and OLG had a fairly consistent theme running through them musically and everything fit together. If you took those same tracks and trickled out one a month for a year, you end up with the same thing (Failure even did this by putting out their last record as a series of 4 EPs, and I loved it). But is that what we're talking about, or are we talking about the nature of the songs becoming more eclectic, jumping between styles every new batch, new producers, etc.? Something very significant is lost in that, imo.

 

Well again, it's not about holding the same reverence... it's about habits and routine etc... Nobody's saying the EP format is shite, some people will just give it less time.

 

Yeah I mean I would fire back and argue that it’s more weird to me to put EPs and loose singles on a level playing field with albums, haha. And again, I’m cool with that being an outdated stance at this point in time. If Circa Survive or anyone else wants to shift in that more modern direction, that’s a valid artistic decision. It’s just not what I personally want.

 

Yeah TTN is still my favourite work of Anthony's.

 

I’ll also add that there are plenty of killer EPs out there. Boygenius was top 10 in my AOTY list the year it came out because I considered it (and still do) better than most of the full length albums I heard. However, would I keep it in my rotation even more if it was a 10/11/12 song record? Yeah, I would. Maybe that’s weird, but I can’t just force myself to deny that preference and routine.

 

I love eps, but if it’s a single one off I’m not as likely to return to it no matter how good the song is. At my current stage in life I consume a majority of my music in the car for work(I drive for my job), and when I’m playing video games. Hence I just always prefer albums. Though I of course love this band, and will consume whatever they throw at me.

 

Appendage and A Dream About Love are my 2 favorite circa albums

 

there are no rules. nothing is sacred. everything is arbitrary.

 

It comes more down to habits and genres of music in my mind. Some of my favorite projects of the year were EPs (PinkPantheress, Lil Mariko, Rebecca Black). One of the main genres I listen to, K-Pop, basically uses mini-albums (that are pretty much akin to EPs in length) as its main type of release format. When I drive, I tend to listen to full-lengths more just so I'm sure it lasts for most of the trip time.

 

It's weird that people are seemingly upset about this either way. I use Spotify. The way I listen to music is to create a playlist with a new album when it comes out, so my Spotify playlists are basically just albums that I want to check out from newest to oldest. So when I go to choose what I want to listen to, that's where I go. I'll do the same for EPs, but I just don't gravitate to EPs as much as I do full albums. Never have. For singles, I have a big playlist called "New Releases" that includes newly released singles for upcoming albums or one offs. I listen to that far less frequently.

It stands in contrast with my wife, who hears a song she likes, puts it in her big "Songs I Like" playlist, and that's basically all she listens to. She just puts it on shuffle when she wants to listen to music.

Both ways are fine, but I'll defend what I said: I prefer full length albums because that's how I like to listen. I would be bummed if Circa went the singles/EP route from here on out. I'm happy for y'all that enjoy listening to music more that way.

 

im hoping they will put out releases more often like they said but im not holding my breath. well see.

 

I thought about it a bit more, and it's still undeniable that some EPs are my favorite material by given bands, and like boygenius was mentioned, which also somehow got to the top of my end-year list when it came to the number of streams (though I also listened to it on vinyl, so that's a lot). But in the end - I'll grow more respect for a full album, which will strike me as a full of collection of songs, seeing as it's much harder to sit down on a bunch of songs once and not have any fillers etc.

However, if any band starts following that path of releasing EPs once in a while, I don't care as much, it's just a choice that suits other people more then.

 

A good song is a good song is a good song, but the release of an album is a much more momentous occasion than that of an EP, and I'd miss the tits out of it if we never got another one. And I know this is ultimately just a weak kinda appeal to antiquity argument but who gives a shit. Reject modernity, embrace tradition.

 

the songs on this are good but I wish I liked the patches they were using here alot more

 

Nothing is sacred. Not that it ever was.