Having somehow resisted the impulse to buy a handful of these T-shirts for friends and loved ones while waiting for my flight from Salt Lake City, Utah to Berlin…*
…I boarded my plane, shirtless but not shirtless, committed to a screen-free air travel experience.
Reluctantly, I will confess that I'm a creature of habit. Mostly bad habits, I’m afraid.
One bad habit I’ve developed over the years is to allow myself carte blanche to watch Netflix when I travel…and then again for a few days while combatting jet lag. There are worse habits out there, I know. Trust me, I have those too.
But I reckon that glueing my eyes to the screen doesn’t make the travel experience less exhausting, nor does it help with jetlag.
So this week, while combating jet lag sans Netflix, I’ve been listening to music with frequency and enthusiasm.
Now, as you may know, this weekly newsletter is part of my rather recent commitment to deliberately, religiously creating rituals in my life. The premise is my sense that—especially in my secular world where worktime bleeds into freetime and nothing is sacred—daily and weekly practices can ground me by marking time.
So every Friday I write for an hour.
I have other rituals also. Here’s one. Every Friday afternoon, I tune into New Music Friday from NPR All Songs Considered. It used to be hosted by Bob Boilen and Robyn Hilton.
But Bob, age 70, a bona fide American treasure who is not a music critic but a music journalist and enthusiast who usually attends 500-600 concerts per year, has stepped away from New Music Friday. With Bob focusing other NPR Music projects, notably the charming Tiny Desk series of his creation, All Songs seized the opportunity to bring more and more diverse voices into the mix**. So the show is now hosted by Robin Hilton who is joined by a rotating cast of thoughtful NPR music journalists from affiliate stations around the country (among whom Tarik Moody and Ann Powers stand out, in my humble opinion).
In their own ritual to wrap up the week in music, they convene to discuss the new albums that dropped that Friday morning (they’ve listened to advance confidential copies from the labels). They decide on the top 4-5 albums to feature that week. They play and discuss snippets of 2-3 tracks from each album. They curate content, offer context, note collaborators and producers, and provide plenty of praise.
Then each NPR contributor selects one more new album in a “lightning round” where they play 20 seconds of a track. To wrap the show, they mention another 5-10 “notable” albums, though they don’t say why they are notable.
The show is about 40 minutes, the time it takes me to hop on the train and make it home from work. It’s the perfect way to end the work week.
Having noted the albums that piqued my interest, every Saturday morning, I hit the gym then the grocery store, all the while listening to the albums I bookmarked the day before. Every couple weeks an album SLAYS me.
When slayed I do three things:
Play that shit on repeat all week.
Listen to the album front to back with my kid while we paint or play or cook or color. We are rarely slayed by the same things. But pops gonna keep a tryin’.
Add it to my list…
And here, my friends, is THE playlist of my favorite albums of 2023 so far. I hope it brings you tremendous joy! In no particular order…
Daniel Caesar - NEVER ENOUGH
Adi Oasis - Lotus Glow
Jen Cloher - I Am the River, the River is Me
El Michels Affair & Black Thought - Glorious Game
The War and Treaty - Lover’s Game
…Notable mention: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - V
There it is. The Best of 2023. With love from me to you. Have a great weekend!
Yours,
D
* While I did resist the urge to buy the SL,UT shirt, I did not resist the urge to ask the person behind the counter if they sold SL,UT shirts in kid sizes. She did not see the humor in this. I did.
**Bob Boilen Fun Facts: He is my birthday twin, April 11. He played synths in the band Tiny Desk Unit; they were the first band to play DC’s famous 9:30 Club. Tiny Desk Unit to Tiny Desk Concert. What a career! Did I mention he is an American Treasure?
I’m learning how rituals that mark time matter to me. So this year, I am carving out an hour or so on Friday to sit quietly before my family wakes to write about what I obsessed about that week. If you enjoy this weekly reflection, please subscribe so I can send it to you every Friday.