Listening: June 2026

No huge surprises this month. I enjoyed all five of these. Another I’ve liked is American Football, which I’ve listened to off and on since its April release, so it doesn’t show up strongly in any given week or month.

I manage my listening in an iOS app called Albums, which adds a different front end and some extra features on top of Apple Music. As you might guess from the name, it focuses on albums rather than songs or playlists, which suits how I listen. One feature I get decent mileage from is tagging: a Backlog tag, a Rotation tag, some year-based Best of tags, a handful of tags for the albums I return to most, all with some light automation within and between them.

And I’ve fallen into the familiar trap: build a good system, then overfill it. The system has let me listen to more music, so I keep saving more albums that look like they might be worth a spin. The top of the funnel is full to bursting. I need to get better at giving up on albums. Does that Olivia Rodrigo record I quite liked warrant another go? What about the slightly confusing remaster-cum-re-recording of Placebo’s self-titled, which I used to adore in '96—worth a surgical listen to work out what’s changed? Same problem I have with Readwise Reader: a brilliant way to organise and read things, so everything ends up in there.

The tagging was supposed to be the filter. It works, but on some days I fear I’ve just built a very well-organised to-do list. More discipline required!