Album-pril conclusion: I reviewed albums every day for a month and this is what I learnt

Overall, I had fun. Some albums are a lot longer than others; the challenge had to stay at the front of my mind so I could keep relatively on top of it, which was difficult on busier days, but I didn’t find the process joyless. I’m surprised by how much my opinions on certain songs or even whole albums changed, either just over time or after repeated listens. I feel like I have a better chance of knowing what people are talking about when they describe music to me, and I have a better idea of myself and what genres I enjoy. Or at least what genre I think they are. Spotify knows the true genres, as seen by their Spotify Wrapped campaigns, yet is disinclined to provide that information at other times of the year, instead opting to recommend music via its refusal to just let you make and listen to a short playlist. Wouldn’t filtering by genre rather than just by playlist be cool? Imagine having the option to just say you like a song and then Spotify adds it to the appropriate genre playlist rather than you having to manually do it – a minor convenience, but the technology already exists. Imagine providing the bare minimum service for a not-insignificant monthly fee, thinking that’s fine, and then spending this revenue crushing indie podcast networks and promoting dangerous misinformation rather than actually innovating cool new features.

Spotify rants aside, this was a genuine challenge for me and I came away with at least half a dozen new artists to delve into, and an even longer list of artists I’ve completely written off without a second chance.

This may be hard to comprehend for someone who actually likes listening to music, but honestly, I would just have never listened to these albums if it wasn’t for this monthly challenge. I already feel more open to the idea of listening to music. I play it around the house sometimes in ways I just never used to, and I’ve already started compiling a list of other albums for future years. Sorry if I was rude about your favourite album, and yes, now taking recommendations for Albumpril 2023! And very open to any place I can still purchase individual digital songs rather than subscribing.

Green = I would put this album on and enjoy & notice nearly every track.

Yellow = I like a good number of songs from this album, or I would put the whole thing on in the background and not pay any attention.

Red = I dislike the majority of music on this album and will likely not listen to it again.

The Spotify playlist of my favourites is here. It’s about seven hours long. I listen to it sometimes. It reminds me of April 2021. It’s cool how music can do that.

Overall, I had fun. Some albums are a lot longer than others; the challenge had to stay at the front of my mind so I could keep relatively on top of it, which was difficult on busier days, but I didn’t find the process joyless. I’m surprised by how much my opinions on certain songs or even whole albums changed, either just over time or after repeated listens. I feel like I have a better chance of knowing what people are talking about when they describe music to me, and I have a better idea of myself and what genres I enjoy. Or at least what genre I think they are. Spotify knows the true genres, as seen by their Spotify Wrapped campaigns, yet is disinclined to provide that information at other times of the year, instead opting to recommend music via its refusal to just let you make and listen to a short playlist. Wouldn’t filtering by genre rather than just by playlist be cool? Imagine having the option to just say you like a song and then Spotify adding it to the appropriate genre playlist rather than you having to manually do it – a minor convenience, but the technology already exists. Imagine providing the bare minimum service for a not-insignificant monthly fee, thinking that’s fine, and then spending this revenue crushing indie podcast networks and promoting dangerous misinformation rather than actually innovating cool new features.

Spotify rants aside, this was a genuine challenge for me and I came away with at least half a dozen new artists to delve into, and an even longer list of artists I’ve completely written off without a second chance.

This may be hard to comprehend for someone who actually likes listening to music, but honestly, I would just have never listened to these albums if it wasn’t for this monthly challenge. I already feel more open to the idea of listening to music. I play it around the house sometimes in ways I just never used to, and I’ve already started compiling a list of other albums for future years. Sorry if I was rude about your favourite album, and yes, now taking recommendations for Albumpril 2023! And very open to any place I can still purchase individual digital songs rather than subscribing.