albums i listened to all the way through
posted this week and every week (48)
Hello, lovely listeners!
I hope you all felt and gave some love yesterday, be it from a partner, a loved one, a friend, or even just yourself. In these weird and difficult times, we need to maintain every ounce of joy and care we can.
Check in with people. Listen actively. Be present when you can.
As for me, I honestly love Valentine’s Day. It hasn’t always been a positive holiday for me, but these days, I find love everywhere. I am extraordinarily blessed to have friends, family, and art. Despite all I’ve lost, my gratitude expands tenfold every time I see my friends for a Galentine’s/Saturn Return party or listen to a new album I end up loving. Flowers make me happy, as does any day where the sun peaks out from the endless February cloud cover. Optimism is resistance.
Recently, I’ve been taking more time for healing. The albums for this week are no accident. They found me when I needed them. I am fascinated by the ideas of obsession, love, aging, and death. I always have been, but it’s come full circle lately. How do we represent these deeply human things? Can we manage to do it without controversy? It doesn’t seem possible in this hot take society, nor should it be in some ways.There is no shortage of expression these days, even if most of it reads like complaining.
I have a pathological fear of pissing people off. I know that’s a crazy thing to say in this economy, but as one of the featured artists from this past week so accurately wrote, “Claim that I’ve grown a thick skin, but it rubs off twice a day.”
I have this problem with expressing my needs, wants and opinions openly. It may not seem like it, considering I blather on and on here every Sunday, but that’s different. Writing has always been my preferred mode of expression. It allows me to say the things I could never say to someone’s face without falling flat on mine.
I want to get better at expressing myself openly in-person, with the people I see every day. After all, to love at all is to be vulnerable. (Yeah, I’m a C.S. Lewis. reader. Sue me.)
Here are the albums I listened to all the way through this past week:
Charli xcx—Wuthering Heights (2026)X
Overall Vibe: You’re crushing on someone for the first time in a long time, like it’s high school again. It’s painful. It’s forbidden and deeply unattainable, but that’s what makes it so irresistible. You know it will never work. It’s not safe. It’s not healthy. Yet, you embrace it with open arms anyway.
Why I like it and you might too: This album is Charli at her most dangerous and desirable. Broody, moody, and desperate, this work captures the essence of the cold, West Yorkshire Moors in a way I’m not even sure the new film can. I have yet to see it, so I can’t say for sure. But still—it’s familiar a tale of infatuation, obsession, and need. “Push my cheek into the stone,” indeed. It’s undeniably sexy in a socially unacceptable way, depending on who you ask. I personally appreciate it for its refusal to look away from the cliff. Rather, it revels in the mystery before jumping headfirst into oblivion.
Favorite Tracks: ”Wall Of Sound,” “Always Everywhere,” “Out of Myself,” and “Eyes of the World”
I love the production on this album. It’s still quintessential Charli in its use of night club heavy bass but yearns towards something deep and earthy without losing an ounce of breath or clarity. The use of strings is masterful. As a classics reader and listener, I adore how easily they are integrated into the sonic landscape. It’s like if they plucked up classic film soundtrack and nestled it deep between the grooves of a well-mixed house music album. It starts to border on chamber pop with some of the harmonies but doesn’t lean too far into that trodden genre.
This is an album best listened to from start to finish without interruptions. It’s a story you need to chew on, maybe even several times over, to let it fully sink in. Lyrically, it captures something I’ve missed in other Charli albums. It will be a repeat listen for sure, even if the film doesn’t end up appealing to the diehard Wuthering Heights book fan I am.
I recommend at least one listen to one track. You won’t regret it.
Tessa Rose Jackson—The Lighthouse (2026)X
Overall Vibe: You’re walking through the woods, maybe a hiking trail far from where you live and love. The trees are in their Winter costumes. They crowd the sky with their bare branches. You can’t help but look up at the grey sky, wondering how anyone can manage this thing we call life without writing poetry or singing songs or telling jokes.
Why I like it and you might too: One word—Genre-defying. It progresses between alt-folk, new age jazz, and classical compositions with ease, blurring the boundaries between them in ways I had to pause and listen to again and again. This is a long album—almost a full hour—but it’s worth the time it takes to sit with it in the dark. Jackson spends her sweet time lingering on the acoustic tracks before carrying on with the fully produced tracks at a faster pace that makes you want to tap your foot in time with her.
Favorite Tracks: “The Lighthouse,” “When Your Time Comes,” “Fear Bangs The Drum,” and “Grace Notes”
There is no singular theme. Jackson covers a lot of ground here—death, loneliness, love, and the strangeness of growing old without any direction. I especially adore the cover in its hand-collaged mess. Hands and figures collide, yet there is no mistaking what’s happening within its canvas-backed frame.
Ending this all-expansive album with the single line “I wanna let my guard down” is ironic, considering how introspective and bold its proceeding tracks are. It’s cyclical, just as the Moon’s phases are, which Jackson rightly asserts. “What if I told you the Moon above is your master?”
There is a lingering appreciation too for the power music holds, especially for those who write it for a living. References to chords, six-string guitars, drums, and conductors allude to Jackson’s long musical history. She’s been featured as a songwriter and composer on countless film and video game soundtracks, including Life Is Strange: Double Exposure (2024). Her scoring career has served her well in creating and releasing her own work. I honestly need to do a deep dive into her entire discography, dating back to 2013.
I hope you all will take a moment with this album and let it fold and crash over you like the tide.
What I admire most here is the honesty of the emotional ground you’re standing on.
This isn’t just a list of albums—it’s a map of where you are, and how music keeps you company while you figure out what openness actually costs.
The movement from obsession to quiet reflection feels especially true. Some records burn; others hold the light steady long enough for you to see yourself more clearly. Both are necessary, and you capture that balance with real tenderness.
There’s also something powerful in your admission about vulnerability and expression. Writing often becomes the place where truth can exist safely before it learns how to speak out loud. Posts like this remind me that listening—really listening—is its own form of courage.
A deeply felt piece, and one that makes the act of listening feel meaningful again.
I’m so glad you’re giving yourself time to mend. As you said, optimism is resistance and a way to conjure light in a darkened world. It’s the shard that I keep tucked in my pocket and has been instrumental in keeping depression at bay.
Charli’s Wuthering Heights OST has also been a comfort this weekend. I couldn’t agree more with your notes on the production. It’s a masterful use of string arrangements. Depending on the track, they can be rich and aching, or fretting and ominous.
“Wall of Sound” is a fave, but I also enjoy “Dying for You,” which sounds like a marriage of Brontë and Brat aesthetics. It’s pulsing and infectious, and I love when these upbeat sounds are juxtaposed with lyrics like “You're my favorite jewelry, worn just like a noose 'round my neck.”
The Lighthouse is also a fantastic and eclectic listen! “Built To Collide” and “Fear Bangs The Drum” are early faves. —Matt