albums i listened to all the way through
posted this week and every week (42)
Good day, dear readers, and Happy New Year!
I am going to try my best to remain positive about the new year, in spite of the current world circumstances. After all—we have to focus on what we can control. Here’s what I can control:
Physical & Mental Space
Out of necessity, I spent the last few days of my holiday break cleaning my room and the apartment. I fell into a fugue OCD burnout space late last year where I couldn’t clean up to save my life. Unfortunately, I am one of those unlucky souls where mess just overwhelms me to the point where I can’t even begin to start. Sure, I can make plans and plans and more plans but can’t follow through on the execution unless I have some external force literally forcing my hand.
Even then—it doesn’t always happen. Cue negative self-talk thought spiral, 200 repeat plays of the same song, and compulsive typing, retyping, and more retyping. But I digress! I got a ton of cleaning done in the little energy pockets I could manage before taking several much needed naps. Cleaning my physical space is an essential part of keeping my mental space clear and functional, so finding some sort of consistent rhythm to follow in this realm is a major 2026 goal of mine. (Routine, as a word, makes me feel trapped, so I’m choosing musical terms like rhythm and harmony instead.)
Writing & Reflections
I wrote a yearly reflective essay whilst taking the Amtrak back and forth to North Carolina. It’s disjointed and not worth posting here in full but you know what? Sometimes—your writing should just be for you. It doesn’t always have to be posted on ye ole Substack or Threads or Insta or wherever. I’m trying to take this mantra with me into 2026 by keeping a daily memo journal, graciously gifted me to my mom at Christmas. It’s really a stunner and works well for my daily reflective needs.
Substack
Beyond that, I’m hopeful about my various newsletters in the new year, particularly In The Trenches. I spent 2025 creating and honing the albums I listened to newsletter with daily and weekly practice. It’s become a real place with its own identity to share my thoughts about music, listening, and the ins and outs of our shared world. Having this outlet means the world to me. It will continue into the new year with some slight adjustments.
Going forward, I’d also like to focus more on writing at least one issue of In The Trenches per month. I’ve written about shows and concerts on Substack but haven’t honed the skill in the ways I’d like to. For one, I know most of this stems from my show anxiety, so that’s something I plan to work on in the coming year.
Poetry
As for poetry, I’m looking to incorporate more consistent writing practice into my daily life. Having completed the Paint Chip Poetry Project back in April of 2025, I discovered that writing a poem every single day helped me grow as a poet, particularly with regard to creating and arranging figurative language.
With this in mind, I crafted a new challenge for myself. It goes like this:
I exported my MASSIVE Liked Songs playlist from Spotify into TIDAL. Each day, I plan to put the playlist on shuffle and find a single lyric in a random song that speaks to me. I will write a short one-to-five stanza poem inspired by the lyric and/or idea it represents. I’ve completed four of these daily lyric poems so far, and it’s been a cool exercise in writing poems with relatively little to go off of.
Do I plan to share them? Eh, no, probably not. I think these are just for me. However, I may share a few of my favorites at the end of 2026 just for shits and giggles. Rest assured, I will find some other poetry challenge for April though and post those here :)
Zines
The zine librarian part of my life is in flux at the moment, so I won’t dwell too much on the particulars of that. I will say that I am planning to sell my own zines this year for the first time ever. Having zinesters like Brigitte, Jen Mayer | Makeist, and Miquela Davis to talk to has contributed greatly to my decision to start this process.
I’m still in the wee early stages, but be on the look out for more information if you’re interested!
If anyone wants a copy of the albums newsletter annual zine, I have five left from the limited run of 25. The first five subscribers to DM me will receive one of those copies! Here is are pictures of it, courtesy of Kristin DeMarr and Kevin Alexander:
Finally, it wouldn’t be an albums newsletter without some belated 2025 music recommendations.
There is nothing I love more than an alternative music duo, especially those who have taken their respective music scenes by storm. After, Water From Your Eyes, and snuggle have all managed to achieve such success with their most recent 2025 releases, the latter two of whom scored opening spots with hayley on her sold-out solo tour. (Sending out hopeful vibes to the universe that someone resells me one of their tickets to one of her shows in New York.)
After—
I am so late to the After party and deeply ashamed of that.
A self-described “trip-pop” artist, After’s music makes TikTok’s characteristic blend of trap, dance, club, and synth pop look like child’s play. Similar to Neggy Gemmy’s latest release, the trip-hop and gen x soft club influences in this EP are crystal clear. We really are back in late 90s/early 2000s territory when it comes to pop culture: forever wars over oil and futuristic synthetic music you might hear in an airport. We always take the good with the really bad, I guess…
I really like how this EP features a totally out of nowhere Evanescence-like, alternative metal track smack dab in the middle of an early 2000s dance pop paradise. It works SO well. Please listen to this EP in order. It’s worth the price of admission. Also—as the kids would say, it’s giving Hilary Duff’s Metamorphosis and, more importantly, Madonna’s Ray of Light.
My favorite tracks from After are “Outbound” and “300 dreams.”
Water From Your Eyes—
Opening for hayley on portions of her sold out US tour, Water From Your Eyes is definitely a band Millennials and Zoomers can (and should) agree on. In fact, my older brother and I jammed to their music over the holiday break. Talk about your zillennial solidarity!
These two are experimental and alternative, yes, but groovy and approachable enough that even the most cynical listener has to shut up and dance as soon as a track like “Nights in Armor” reveals itself. There is no “one sound” for this duo. Rather, they fuse together a ton of different influences to craft a genre all their own. They remind me a lot of Frankie Cosmos, just louder and heavier and more concerned with the plight of humanity in a universe that could care less if the species survives. Good stuff!
My favorite tracks are “Nights in Armor” and “Playing Classics.”
snuggle—
I discovered snuggle in an article by The Guardian. (Embarrassingly late, I know.)
Their shoegazey, partially blended sound immediately appealed to me. Don’t let this boxed-in genre label fool you. Their music is as trippy sonically as it is melodically focused. There is shared grief and undeniable talent between bandmates Andrea Thuesen and Vilhelm Strange, both having been musicians in other bands. Like so many duos who came before them, they discovered the secret music sauce—playing chemistry, which makes for an incredible listening experience.
My favorite tracks are probably “Carsick” and “Dust.”
Thanks for joining me on this fine Sunday morning :) I hope you all have a good week and will see you next week to talk more about some new upcoming releases in 2016!
I LOVED getting your zines in the mail, thank you so much, and I'm so excited that you are going to sell your zines this year and will be getting your work out there in the world!
You did the export! The zine is great, I have a response ready to ship to you soon.