How to listen to new music

I never do the "play it once a day." it'll all click in its own time, methinks.

Sometimes I won't like something much, but I'll like it enough to play it; so I'll play it a lot in hopes that I will get to like it more. This is what I've done with a timba compilation I bought a while back, but I seem to be getting to like it less as time goes by, so my initial impressions have been confirmed.

I listen to most CDs I receive twice; once on speakers, once on headphones (if I have to do a box set, however, even a second play is a luxury; 24 CDs of Throbbing Gristle live, anyone?). You have to decide there and then what you think of it, regardless of the possibility that you might feel completely the opposite six months hence.

I usually buy in a glut, so I put every record on once. The one that grabs me gets played over and over, while I job, while I work, whenever. If I have more CDs to listen to, I don't stay on one that doesn't click right away. Which means I've missed great albums that way, it's weird.

Which, of course, is why most reviews suck. The way reviewers listen to and judge records has nothing to do with the way any one else does.

...which, of course, is also why great reviews are.

yeah, this has happened over the last couple of months. but I've slowed down on the buying and am catching up.

It depends on what it is but mostly I give it one listen on the hi-fi. then i leave it and listen to other stuff and then there will come a stage where I'll pick it up again and listen to it day in, day out.

but I am always testing other ways of listening. so I'll listen to the whole thing once and then never again in the same way: so I'll program the tracks at random or I listen to things in sections (3-4 tracks at a time), etc.

Now I buy 6 or 7 in one session and skip through them. Then I listen to them once (or skip if I still don't like them) and finally burn the 1 - 3 best tracks from each onto a compilation I make for my friends, and then spend the next week continuously listening to the ocmpilation!

When it does become a chore to "get through", my solution is to go out and get more! Replace all those sad orphans I've grown tired of considering with a new, shinier pile. Thus, a few always keep sinking deeper, until they're completely forgotten.....at which point I might get interested all over again.

but i understand the second reason.

I am currently 12 months behind in my listening vs. purchasing. I'm catching up quite quickly though. I tend to only listen to stuff (albums included) after I've put it on a mix CD.

I didn't know Walter Benjamin met my grandmother.

Use your listening muscle https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/01/31/ear-muscle-wiggling-ears-activates-listening-frontiers-neuroscience

You can check John Peel radio program for discovering new music.