Fun fact about me: I adore music. I’ve always loved intricate lyrics, production and storytelling musicians use to connect with listeners — especially when they’re detailing an exciting or tough time in their lives. There’s something so liberating about discovering a song that perfectly articulates a situation you’re in or a feeling you couldn’t put into words. But, while most people have curated monthly or genre playlists, I live by the law of listening to albums from top to bottom.
Why not shuffle it?
I see all albums as a narrative — a story the artist has carefully curated and is now guiding you through. Of course, this narrative can take different forms depending on what type of album it is: concept albums are traditionally meant to be played in full and revolve around one central idea, movie soundtracks follow the plot chronologically and some pop albums follow multiple relationships or themes.
Despite the structural differences, I still abide by the no-shuffle rule.
One of my favorite concept albums is Lorde’s Melodrama — a story that takes listeners through the ups and downs of a house party. Though it all takes place in one night, the album shifts moods constantly. One song might dive into heartbreak and loneliness, followed immediately by a track about the thrilling euphoria of being a teenager. Despite the mood changes, the transitions of thought and sound flow effortlessly. If you were to shuffle this album, the narration would be broken and there would be jarring jumps in tone. It would no longer be the story Lorde intended, but a fragmented counterpart.
Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter is another strong example of a concept album. The transitions are seamless and the “Smoke Hour” interludes introduce the succeeding sections brilliantly — all against the backdrop of Black artists’ legacy in country music. It’s a perfectly crafted body of work. And yes, it does have fun singles, but more importantly, it tells a larger story.
This logic applies to film or musical soundtracks too. There is a specific way the work is meant to be heard, so why go against the artists’ vision?
What about albums that don’t follow a story?
I’m a pop lover at heart, so a lot of the albums I listen to don’t exactly follow this chronological structure, but I think in some ways they still do. No matter the genre, artists put serious thought into the order of their tracks. Even if it’s not a linear storyline, there’s almost always a progression of tone that helps develop the overall story.
Harry Styles’ Harry’s House is a great example. It opens with fun and upbeat songs, slowly toning down the energy before the album takes a melancholy tone in track six. The two saddest songs from the album, “Little Freak” and “Matilda”, are placed directly next to each other in tone and order. After this brief dip, Styles picks it right back up with “Cinema” and carries throughout the next couple of tracks before ending with the reflective “Boyfriends” and “Love of My Life”. Despite the changing storylines, the album follows a natural flow that carries the songs into one another, creating a perfect narration.
What the artists have to say
I’m not the first to care about listening to albums all the way through. With the rise of digital music and singles, the term “death of the album” was coined to describe the decline of the artistry of full-length albums.
This hasn’t escaped the eyes of artists who advocate for a better streaming experience either. In 2021, Adele famously asked Spotify to remove the shuffle button on albums. With the release of her fourth studio album, 30, she took to Twitter, now X, to explain, “[w]e don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended.”
And Adele, I couldn’t agree more.