Music

You could tell how good the album was by where they placed the banger. If it was the last song on Side A, then you knew the album was going to be solid. If they put the hit song on A1, that meant it was probably going to be trash because they don't trust you to make it through 3-4 more songs before getting to the one you bought the album for. There are always notable exceptions -- they put the hit song on the end of Record 2 side B and then it wasn't even credited on the album (Train in Vain). But that album is 2 records of excellent songs with the possible exception of Jimmy Jazz.

Yeah I almost exclusively listen to full albums. Definitely helps give context to the music and understand the artist better. I also agree that you should give it a few listens. Some great albums need you to dial in before you really fall in love with them. It's a more active process than just listening to an unending algorithmic recommendation stream, but the effort is rewarded!

This was how it worked until about 15 years ago. I got far more deeply into music and artists back then than now. I always feel I'm skating the surface with streaming, and the suggestions bore me.