albums i listened to all the way through

posted this week and every week (27)

Aug 17, 2025

Admittedly, I spent the bulk of this week listening to two different audiobooks, so my more typical feverish album listening fell to the back burner:

The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Light In August by William Faulker

Ultimately, I was glad for it. I haven’t been a big reader in some time. Despite once hoarding books like my life depended on it, I no longer feel much desire to read long books, particularly fiction.

I used to devour fiction books. As a third grader, I read three-four Magic Treehouse books over the course of a single afternoon. In middle school, I checked out the Percy Jackson books and the Hunger Games series from my school library and read them all more than a few times each. In high school, I developed a strong attachment to classic dystopian fiction, Shakespeare plays, and Jane Austen novels. In college, I took my classes very seriously and always did the readings. I felt so proud of my abilities to read throughly and discuss entire books in class with prowess, even if my anxiety sometimes prevented me from raising my hand.

In grad school, I hit a wall. Between the pandemic and the year 2022, I let the piles of unread books haunt my shelves. It wasn’t till I moved to New York that my my mom finally helped me downsize my collection of well-over a thousand books.

These days, when the reading frenzy strikes, I prefer to borrow books from the library or listen to audiobooks. The only books I buy now are about music—journalism, memoirs, and oral histories.

As my life-long obsession with physical books has waned, so has my genuine desire to read, which is why listening to The Wedding People and Light In August has been such a surprising pleasure. For instance, having only read Faulkner in print (in high school, for that matter), hearing the narrator’s soft Southern lilt describe the rich contents of the novel has endeared me further to the non-linear, stream of consciousness prose.

There are moments I’ll be siting on the train or doing chores, listening to this book, and the most stunning string of words, phrases, and sounds will make my mouth drop in complete awe. I wish I could give that 16-year-old girl who struggled endlessly through Intruder In The Dust an audiobook version to read alongside the print.

The Wedding People too is great. I loved the dark humor combined with the hopeful spirit. As a disillusioned academic, I felt deeply tied to Phoebe as a character—her motivations, her desires, and her faults. Also, I would love to visit Newport some day. All the descriptions made me want to move there too.

All in all, I am glad to have spent the week reading.

In music news, this past week was a whirlwind. There were more new album announcements than I can count, including the now infamous T-Swizzle New Heights podcast appearance and her long-awaited reveal of The Life Of A Showgirl.

I’ve followed Swifties long enough to know this album and its glittering orange aesthetic was a long time coming. She’s been teasing it for years through easter eggs and random photo dumps on Instagram.

For one, I was glad to see Jack Antonoff left off of the producer list for this album. I’ve never loved his style and think Swift could benefit from other collaborations.

As for album aesthetics, which is arguably Taylor Swift’s enduring strength as an artist, performer, and business woman, I appreciate the cut and collaged look of all the cover variations. Regardless of whether the music will be innovative, her talent for visualizing eras and moments in her career is honestly impressive. Her continued existence in the popular imagination is, yes, tiresome at times, but also? It’s so remarkably curated and undeniable that you cannot help but think she really was born to do this.

Even going back so far as 2009, I remember watching her perform “Crazier” in the Hannah Montana movie. (Yes, I'm an infant. You don’t need to remind me.) She was magnetic. To this day, “Crazier” is easily in my Top 10 list of Taylor-penned songs, even if it is from her Debut, yeehaw era.

Undeniable? Sure, but also business savvy in a way that screams “I love capitalism!” Despite being a fan, I have grown tired of the relentlessness of it.

I will be forever of mixed opinion on her.

Here are the albums I listened to all the way through this past week: