> Each week's album must be something you own in physical, "hard copy" form, because the experience must involve interaction with the object as a whole. You wil

> Each week's album must be something you own in physical, "hard copy" form, because the experience must involve interaction with the object as a whole. You will read liner notes and lyrics, and engage with the artwork. Become familiar with names of band members. Learn the producer's name. Where was the album recorded? What time of year? Can you hear this in the music? I absolutely hate this fetishization of the music creation process, and I think this might be the writer's real problem. These stories about the studio and the producer and the band members' favorite flavor ice cream sell records and give context for the music, but they aren't the music. To obsess over these details is to not see the forest for the trees.