This is an interesting concept - a group of people come together to listen to a particular album, in its entirety from start to finish, on a state of the art PA, with no talking or phones allowed. It’s pure appreciation of an album - its track list and running order, listened to in the format the artist intended. No skipping, shuffling or fast-forwarding. This kind of thing doesn’t really have a name yet, but “record club” (like “book club”) is probably a good place to start.

Classic Album Sundays is just such a group, put together by the well known DJ Cosmo, aka Colleen Murphy, who cut her teeth at David Mancuso’s legendary Loft parties in New York. From the BBC:

This monthly club in north London is run by Colleen Murphy and for her it is a strike against “‘download culture”, the sense that music has just become an endless compilation of random songs used as background noise.

“Everyone, stop multi-tasking, sit down, open your ears and do some heavy listening.”

The set album this month was Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. We sat in silence even as David Bowie’s record was turned over to side two. The seats were soft, someone had lit some incense. Some people closed their eyes, others nodded in rhythmic appreciation. There was a sense of being collectively submerged in Bowie’s music.

“You’re not even allowed to use the bathroom here, it’s too noisy,” says Ms Murphy.

This raises some interesting issues. Personally, I like having the freedom to skip and choose tracks to listen to, as I see fit. For me there are very few albums that are worth gluing your ears to from start to finish. That’s not to say they don’t exist, but the “album” is a superficial format imposed on music only in the last half-century. I find individual songs to be more important, something I guess I have picked up from dance and dj culture. Or maybe I just have a low boredom threshold.

Listen to an audio report from BBC News on Classic Album Sundays.