What’s your favorite album? When was the last time you listened — actually listened — to it from start to finish? With intention, like you were watching a movie or reading a novel.
Clear your schedule for the next three hours. Choose three full albums, from your collection . Put them in an ordered queue as though you were programming a triple feature.
Because, listen:
Musicians spend years making their albums. They struggle over syllables, melodies, bridges and rhythms with the same intensity with which you compare notes on the “Forensic Files” reboot, loot corpses in “Fortnite” or pound the government during pandemics.
But most of us are half-hearted when it comes to listening to albums. We put on artists’ work while we’re scrolling through Twitter, disinfecting doorknobs, obsessively washing our hands or romancing lovers permitted within our COVID-free zones. We rip our favorite tracks from their natural long-player habitat, drop them into playlists and forget the other songs, despite their being sequenced to be heard in order.
Get comfortable on the couch, which, ideally, is centered in the sweet spot between the speakers. No stereo system? Put on your headphones or lock yourself in a closet with your best bluetooth speaker. Whatever works.
Give up. Let go. Things may be falling apart, but there’s still music.