2 tips:
choose an artist and listen to all of their albums (or their best ones). i did this with pj harvey last month and it gave me lots of new music to listen to while deepening my love and appreciation for her! also finished elliott smith’s discography recently as well, and had the same effect.
try to listen to a new album every day. i’ve been doing this as a challenge for 2024, but it’s never too late to start. if you need to find albums to listen to, a good place to start is personalized playlists your music streaming app of choice makes for you, and listen to the albums the songs come from.
Feb 9, 2024
Related Recs
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I work alone on the computer all day and try to discover different music because it stimulates me while I mindlessly code. I think I have posted on it here before but since August, when I was in a similar headspace, I've tried to listen to 2-4 albums a day, no repeats, while I work and keep track of it in a RateYourMusic List.
I get the albums I listen to from a variety of sources. RYM has a pretty cool list of the highest rated albums on the site and you can play with the filters to change the genre or timeframe, for example "the best cloud rap album from 2016", and pick out something from that. I also did a challenge a few years ago where I made a spreadsheet the "Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of All Time" and picked a few at random everyday for a couple months. Theres other good sources with lists like Pitchfork, the Quietus, Stereogum, Small Albums, Aquarium Drunkard, and so on that you could work through too.
I also really like checking out the "Artist Playlists" on Spotify for people I like because they turn me on to cool stuff that inspired their music. Here are some good ones from Hania Rani, Wednesday, and Caroline Polachek.
Finally, there are a number of folks on twitter and instagram with good taste like margeaux, yellow button, and people from the podcast Endless scroll who all have good playlists as well as podcasts and/or videos you can check out.
Feb 29, 2024
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These aren't curated playlists, they're just a collection of any new songs I discover and really like, or old songs I re-fall in love with. I then give each playlist a name that references how I feel or an event that happened that month. I was in a similar place to you a couple of years ago, but I've found doing this really helps me track my tastes and experiences every month, which I find is quite helpful in our streaming-dominated musicscape.
When I used to actually download songs, it was easy to scroll through my library and be reminded of artists I'd forgotten about or had only listened to a couple of times. I've found that with streaming its really easy to lose track of who you listen to and enjoy, so it really flattens everything and causes you to either rely on the algorithm or your go-to past artists.
As far as discovering new artists goes, there are still a few reliable sites and publications that review new albums (paste, gorilla vs. bear, pitchfork (sort of), etc.). I also like following or signing up for email newsletters (gasp!) from specific indie record labels that I enjoy. If you like several artists on the label, then chances are you'll like more, and they always notify you when something new is being released. Same goes for local venues. Check out the small stage acts coming through or various openers, even if you don't actually make it to the show. This is also a great way to get plugged into the local scene and it keeps you young, sort of.
Feb 29, 2024
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my spotify got so bad and repetitive i had to start seeking out opportunities of discovery (listening to my discover weekly, new release genre playlists on friday)
once you find a song you like start digging into that artist and similar artists on their page and just starting saving, following, and building a discovery playlist
eventually your daylist and other for you playlists will start picking up the new vibe you just have to put in the work
Jan 25, 2025
Top Recs from @lowercaserockstar
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i have noticed occasionally that some recs are turning into, dare i say, tweet-esque things…i think it’s easy to slip into acting like this is any old social media platform when it is not that; it is a special little place to tell people things you love ❣️🌀
Feb 26, 2024
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get into bed WARM, COZY, and most importantly, CLEAN!
Mar 1, 2024
Mar 1, 2024