Some albums are very deliberately structured to have a narrative, or otherwise stand as a whole, while some really are just a collection of individual songs. It

Some albums are very deliberately structured to have a narrative, or otherwise stand as a whole, while some really are just a collection of individual songs. It depends more on the particular album than anything, though. Also, there are other factors affecting the album format besides just the musicians' intent. I remember John Darnielle (of the Mountain Goats) mentioning during a show that in the UK, a single with more than three songs on it doesn't count toward single sales in the charts, so there are often several versions the same single with different B-sides rather than one EP with a few more songs. (Or something like that. Then again, he also said it was probably in the Magna Carta.) FWIW, I tend to listen to albums, but in many cases it's just because I get attached to the sequence of songs.