On the other hand, maybe the band only really liked 5 of their songs, and put in the rest because an album can't only have 5 songs on it.

Oh, come now, I doubt that. Most artists write tens of songs and then the best ones get put on an album. I severely doubt that artists put music on their own albums that they don't like just to be filler, at least not as often as you make it sound. Of course, some artists put songs on the album that I don't like and consider to be filler, but that's my opinion.

I, personally, really enjoy the album experience. I'm the type of person who does listen to a whole album all the way through several times repeatedly to get the best feel of the music. It's gotten to the point where I find it wierd to shuffle my Led Zeppelin playlist because it's wierd to me to hear something from Physical Graffiti after something from II, and moreso the other way around. Much of the time, I'll listen to a song and as it nears its close I'll already be singing the next song on the album in my head.

A lot of the time, you can hear the artist's intent much better by listening to the whole album straight through. Other times, like anyone else, I like to put the whole player on random.