Before, when I was still using Spotify, I used their weekly mixes (Discovery, New Releases) and per-song “radio” as my primary method of discovering new music. However, despite buying my favorite artists’ albums on Bandcamp & iTunes every year, I didn’t feel great about contributing to Spotify’s stranglehold/low payouts, so I switched to a different service1.
In doing so, I discovered why Spotify keeps its spot as the biggest game in town: it’s not just the playlist non-portability, it’s the fact that it’s algorithmic recommendation system is leagues ahead of the competition2.
So! I’m listen to albums now. Here are some of my favorites:
Madeon - Good Faith
Man. What an album. My current favorites are “Hold Me Just Because” and “Heavy With Hoping”, but yeah pretty much top-to-bottom bangers really. “Miracle” and “No Fear No More” were on an older playlist of mine, so it’s also a bit nostalgic. Good album.
Laufey - Everything I Know About Love
I heard “Fragile” as part of an animated YouTube Short and immediately had to listen to the full thing. As expected, I cried hard.
After that catharsis, the rest of the album didn’t hit quite as much. But still enough to tug at the yearning lovesickness living inside most every 20-odd-year-old. Good album.
ShibayanRecords - TOHO BOSSA NOVA 2
Like seeing an old friend after so long, this album welcomes me back in with open arms and a warm embrace. Yes it has the (at this point quite old) meme song on it but who cares it’s my favorites TOHO BOSSA NOVA entry. Yes I’ve listened to all 13.
#14 is coming out in May of this year, like it always does, and I’ll listen to that one too, but even if it usurps this, #2 will always have a special place in my heart. Good album.
Footnotes
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Deezer, though I’ve also just switched to Apple Music3 because it pays artists even more per stream. Still a pitiful amount mind you, but better than nothing. ↩
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I take this back: Apple Music seems to have roughly equivalent quality, at least for my niche tastes. At least it doesn’t go into 2-track shuffle mode like Deezer does lol. ↩
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While cancelling Deezer, they showed a special promotion for 6 months at $9.99 instead of my current $11.99 rate 😉 ↩