OK yes, hello again, let me just gather up all my things so I can greet you properly, here we go, ramping up: I LISTEN TO A FUCK TON OF MUSIC AND IT RUINED MY LIFE UNTIL I GOT A HANDLE ON IT. Sorry, the many tools I describe in this column only keep the anxiety at bay, they do not get rid of it. It still bubbles in the background, whispering things like "you will never listen to enough music", "you're lazy", and "we need chocolate". It's of course wrong about two out of three of these things, but that doesn't mean that it whispers any less incessantly. Luckily, it does it in the background these days. That wasn't always the case, to say the least.
Listen, I don't think I've ever told the full story on the blog but I kind of stumbled into running Heavy Blog by accident and coincidence. Details aside (it's not that mysterious or secret, I just can't be bothered to type it out), I suddenly found myself faced with so much fucking music. I was a guy who listened to a fair bit of music before that: I'd trawl CD stores (remember those?) and pick shit at random, by cover art, or by getting it recommended to me by the people who worked at said stores. Then, I would spend weeks with most new albums, learning their lyrics, diving into their music, getting intimately familiar with them (partial list: Wishbone Ash's Argus, Devin Townsend's Ki, Porcupine Tree's Lightbulb Sun, and many more).
Suddenly, I didn't have time for all of that. For every album there were fifty more and it wasn't like those albums were thrust on me against my will; I wanted to listen to them. I burned to listen to them. I couldn't get enough. And because of that longing, I got overwhelmed. I got flooded by the whispers, by the idea that there was an amazing, life altering album just around the corner and that I wasn't getting to it because I wasn't listening to enough. The problem is that it was also true; I was discovering (and still am, to be honest) at least four or five brain-augmenting albums a year. So how can I say with confidence that there aren't more of those out there that I've missed? I can't because there are. By definition, with all of the music that's being released, there are.
You can probably see the problem coming from a mile away; it's not exactly a rare one. In order to find what amazing albums I was missing, I needed to pay attention to them. I needed to listen to them for long enough to find out that they're great. Sure, some of them are like the lightning strikes I've often described on the blog, sheer bolts of brilliance with which I connected immediately and fell in love with instantly. But a lot of them, more of them, only became loved by erudition, by studying them, and connecting with them, and understanding them over time. But I also couldn't go back to how I was listening to music before, because I had a blog to run and lots of new friends who were bombarding me with recommendations I wanted to get to, and trends that were going on and were interesting, and so on and so on.
Which is where we, finally, get to the point: to listen to music Eden Style®, we need a window. We need the ability to capture what we are listening to now, what we'll be listening to next, and what we should be listening to after that. This window needs to move with us - as music is consumed (ugh), it leaves now and enters the general library, next moves up to now and at least some of after that moves into next. A window! A sliding window. It should also be easy to keep up with - we do not want endless spreadsheets or lists to maintain. Remember - the number one principle that will walk with us throughout this entire column is that our tools work for us and not the other way around. Also, if we could share this list to show off, and if it has cool color coding for ease of use, and if it also shows us albums we haven't heard in a while and should, and...you get it. Pretty big task!
Luckily for you, I've already done it. What a massive surprise, I bet. The engine at the heart of this solution is a type of software which, alas, is dubbed "productivity software" (there will be a reckoning one day, do not worry). There are many sub-sets of this type, a list of which sounds like some Dying Earth spell: Notion, ClickUp, Monday, Asana, Trello, etc. I use ClickUp after having used Notion for a long time because I prefer its UX/UI slightly. Most of these, just like music players, are terrible and awful. They force you to think about things and act about things in their own way instead of your own or their UX/UI is truly awful or...you get it. ALL of them also come with """AI""" built in, which is just a sad fact of our current reality that we'll have to ignore. And ignore it we shall; in fact, we are going to ignore 98% of everything these ancient curses masquerading as software do. All we want is a kanban board.
Ah, the kanban board! I am not going to get into the history of the kanban board here but I swear that it's super interesting (and, of course, has to do with capitalism and oppression of workers). Regardless of that rather sordid history, it's a great tool for our needs. Kanban, the methodology behind the board, looks at work as a process, one with multiple stages through which items transition, "falling" off the end as they are completed and landing at the first stage of the process as they are added. Sounds familiar? That is exactly how we're thinking of listening to music here. The first step of our kanban is a very common one when using the tool - a pool, intake, shortlist, etc. It's a category which will contain all the things we want to, one day, listen to. It has no priority, no discrimination, no discerning principle. It's simply where we throw everything we want to one day, eventually, process. I call this step Spin List because it's, well, a list of what to spin.
The second step is optional. It's a slimmer version of the previous one, where not everything we want to listen to goes. Call this your "priority" listening queue. That one friend who is always recommending hot shit? Put their stuff there. Or if you follow a particularly great music blog run by a dashing and charismatic guy. You get the idea. I don't use this step these days; it's more useful if you have less time and you know you'll never get through your entire pool. In that case, you want to save that pool for some brighter, freer future (it's coming comrade) but "salvage" the really important stuff for more likely, and timely, listening. If you have time to regularly go through your pool, just skip this step.
OK, now there's a "great barrier" in our flow where you actually listen to music. How do you do that? How do you tell that you like an album? How do you actively listen to so much music and remain engaged with it? That will be the topic for a future post in this column. But this is where you do that, this is where you listen to your pool and decide which ones you like and want to sink deeper into. And this is also where the third step (or second, if you skipped the previous one) comes in. I call it "On Deck", albums that I want to listen to a few more times and then probably buy to add to my collection. I've heard a few tracks, I like what I'm hearing, and I want to see if the album holds up or, more likely, if I have "room" for it in my current mood and listening habits.
On Deck, get it? I hate myself
How long does an album stay in On Deck? It varies. Some albums are only there as a reminder to purchase them; I already know I love them and I just want to get them. Some albums I'm not so sure about and I need a lot more time with. Albums can be On Deck for a while and then disappear, either back into the Spin List if I want to revisit them "some day" or they might go all the way to Done (the last step) where they shall wilt under my disfavor for an eternity. This is where we could go overboard - we could split On Deck into two and have another vetting phase from which albums are actually purchased, making On Deck more accurate and blah blah blah. They work for us, remember? There's no need to overcomplicate things here - you listen to albums you liked on first listen, you decide whether to get them or not and you move on.
OK how do we buy albums? Later post. Why buy and not stream? Later post. Holy fuck I hate Bandcamp how can I make it better? Later post! For now, we buy everything on the On Deck list, or yeah, you could stream them instead loser, every few weeks. How often? You decide. That depends on your finances of course but also on how long it takes you to go through your Spin List and how often you feel the need for new albums. To be honest, it varies - sometimes I do it every week and sometimes I go a month or more without. It really depends on my mood, how quickly I go through the new music I have to listen to, etc. Don't stress about it, there really is no rush. Remember, this is all for you.
Cool, we're getting there! Next up we have what is perhaps the most important, or useful, step: Dig In. This is music we've bought from the last step and is now available for us to listen to on our set up (how do we listen on the go? Later post!) This makes it very easy for us to finally make those voices go a bit quieter. What should I be listening to? What am I missing? Where do I focus in this endless stream of sound and words? Dig In! There should be multiple albums on there at this point so that's plenty to keep you going for at least a few weeks. Here too, we don't want to overcomplicate things. Don't prioritize Dig In. Don't make complex rules for what you listen to from there - albums are built different. You might put a funereal doom album in Dig In and then listen to it twice before it rotates out (more on that rotation below) while the bouncy hardcore album gets listened to every day (Polaris - The Death of Me). It's OK - you checked it out, you went deeper, you spent some with it. Some albums require or make possible more time, some don't.
Before moving on to the next (and last) two stages, we first must discuss a rule. This rule is what pushes albums from Dig In and into the next two steps. It goes like this: whenever you add an album from On Deck to Dig In, an album from Dig In must be removed, into either of the next two stages. This prevents Dig In from just becoming an endless list of albums you need to listen to and maintains its focus. Whenever you decide an album can graduate from On Deck and become a part of your daily rotation, another album has to drop off of it. This is also how we make sure that we don't just wallow in five or ten releases a year, clinging to the albums we first loved, and that we keep things fresh as the year goes on and more albums are released. It's a tough rule but it's an important one; without it, the entire process fails and just becomes a pointless way to document what you liked rather than listening to what you like.
But wait, I like these albums, you might say! I don't want to stop listening to them just because a new one has come along. Don't worry, says I, your benevolent teacher! This is why we have two final steps. The first one is easier so let's get it out of the way - it's called Done and it's where stuff you are, well, done with goes. This phase actually welcomes entries from all phases before it - stuff from Spin List you never really liked goes into Done. And also stuff from Dig In that you liked, listened to a bunch of time, but it's now time to make way for newer stuff. This is not exceptional or maybe it's so exceptional you don't need a reminder to relisten to it - it has become a staple of your habit. Either option goes into Done, to make way for more incoming music from On Deck.
But what about that funereal doom album? You really like it but you need to be in a certain mood to listen to it. If you just send it to Done, you'll never remember it when the mood comes or you'll never be prompted to be in that mood for it. You need a way that won't interfere with your flow but which will keep the album top of mind, at least sometimes. That's where Fridge comes in. Fridge is a phase that's not on the flow (though I place it next to Dig In, since it needs to be in front of you to work) which holds albums you're not actively listening to but want to revisit. Rare gems. Complex and challenging works. Underrated albums no one really talks about but which you love. And so on. This is your place to put them so they're not forgotten, so that every once in a while you look at the Fridge and go "oh damn, right! This absolutely slaps, I'll put it on".
Here, again, we must be loose. When do you check Fridge? Whenever. When do you remove albums from it? When you're done with them. Sometimes I'll remove an album from Fridge after listening to it once, sometimes it will stay on there for years. It's up to you and how you feel. Do you want the album close to hand? Then keep it there. Did you listen to it a year after you first did and now you're good? Remove it. It's really up to you.
Jesus, this is a lot of words, huh? Let's wrap it up. You now have a functioning and self-maintaining kanban flow for staying up to date with new music, collecting the stuff you want to check out, diving deeper into it, and then either keeping it in your back pocket or removing it from your sight. It's a powerful tool - I use it every single day. But! You know what I'm going to say here. Do NOT, I repeat do NOT, become enslaved to this tool! It does not matter if you maintain it fanatically. It doesn't have to be clean or up to date or accurate. It needs to vibe. It needs to work around you, to fit into your flow. Like a good jacket, it's simply there, ready to be put on, to be used, but never insisting upon its use. If you treat it like that, instead of worshipping it and slaving yourself to it, it will help you get a grip on the voices that are always pushing your forwards, sacrificing your peace of mind at the altar of the new.
Now stop reading this post and go listen to some music!