Albums or songs?
kleevr: When I'm (attempting) a critical listening of music.  I prefer to explore it in it's larger context (typically as an album).  Some 'albums', definitely not all CDs, have a greater architecture than any one song can completely embody, and thus the work is more meaningful in the larger context.   (Think conceptual albums, etc.)But I would definitely consider my casual day-to-day listening as song based.