How do you guys handle musical indecision (or do you)?

I try to surprise myself instead of going into a usual pattern, and then I find that maybe what I was looking for wasn't what I initially thought.

This can be an absolute pain to bypass, but I tend to start by throwing in one cd - it could be a new one, an old favorite, etc. Usually, by the end of it, I find myself wanting to hear something else.

I think in the modern era - what Steven Wilson calls "jukebox culture" - it's so easy to just bounce from song to song and there's something to be said for just going, "Damn it, I'm just listening to this ALBUM." Usually, it's impatience more than actual dislike that makes me want to bounce to something, but following that impulse would have me listening to a playlist of 30 second ringtones made from the best riffs in every song I owned.

That's like full musical inception at that point.

If we're talking CDs I've owned for 15-20 years, I don't necessarily listen to full albums. Depending on what it is, I pop in the disc and play maybe 3-4 tracks off it. Usually it's deep cuts I haven't heard in awhile, or if I haven't heard the album in a long time I could just play the personal favourites off it.

Oh, so it's said - iTunes and shuffle are awesome for pulling up stuff you haven't heard in a long time (big ups if you have a huge collection and stuff just falls between the cracks). I just don't dig it as the norm for music.

Allot of times for me, a discussion here about a certain band or album will remind me that I need to break out an album again to give it a fresh listen. Other than that, I just try and vary up my choices at the beginning of the week, depending on my mood. Or the weather. Some bands just sound better in the warm weather with the windows down and the volume UP!! Doom usually gets relegated to the fall and winter months.