Reconnecting with music

I find myself forgetting I have a music streaming subscription, or end up using it to listen to the same things.

This is my fault. The recommendations are good, and the depth of content is incredible. For me, though, it had become like an unused gym membership: you know it’s good for you, but you don’t use it.

I’ve ditched that, and I’m trying curated albums.

I’ve subscribed to Cantilever. It’s ten albums to stream each month. The oldest one drops off, and a new one is added every few days. (Ten albums is a lot, BTW.)

Perhaps I’m trying to recreate an experience from a different time, of listening to one album then putting on another. An old constraint, but constraints can liberate.

It's great having permission to slip on headphones and sit and listen to one good chunk of an artist’s skills, reading the notes that go along with each album.

It feels wholesome.

* * *

I know I need help finding something new, and for some reason Cantilever is working better for me than playlists or algorithmic recommendations from streamers. I don’t think it has to be, but I find it is.

I would not have known, for example, that I’ve got a fondness for the “sixth album from Copenhagen-based punk five-piece”.