a year in music, or why play counts are a time capsule
what a year! and what a way to kick off 2026-posting. i just saw how abysmal my recent listening chart looked (little listening history means a semblance of a grid... barely a rectangle... yikes), and decided to get this collage post going so i can get back to it.
lots of familiar and unfamiliar artists this past year. i listened to a lot more new music than i care to admit. i did a lot more than i care to admit, and music was there, a silent partner--or, well, i'll give credit where credit is due.
my listening history framed the architecture of a year of shifts. beginnings, endings, losses, wins, fails, falls, scar tissue. soundtracks to groggy 3 a.m. ubers, long haul flights that bookend timezones, choppy relationship breakthroughs, ourobouric walks of shame, pensive drives home, grocery store aisle strafes, public transit soliloquies, pokémon go hikes into parts unknown. a collection of memories past.
some of these songs i've listened to are songs i've listened to before, as a tween, a teen, as a fresh twenty-something, as a fresh thirty-something. the collection is nuanced, brick by brick. if i ever accuse myself of letting days pass me by, well, i can just look at my streaming history at any given point in the past few years.
i can do so without such data, too. music can measure time in this way. it's compelling how a song can take me back to a moment in time, and how it can bend time in this way when remembering. these days, i look at memories as a guide forward rather than a nostalgia loop that goes nowhere.
a 10x10 album collage of the year puts a lot into perspective. and for the eager eyes that wanted to skim down to the visual first--much like trying to get recipe off of a food blog--i'll include my top 10 favorite tracks as a bonus, as some razzle-dazzle, a cherry on top. (oh, and here is the chart for zooming-in purposes. desktop/mobile optimization can only do so much, ya know.)
