For 1,049 straight days I listened to one album per day, spanning genres from flamenco prog rock to 60’s bossa nova to funky alt-country to skate punk to hardcore hip hop. It was an incredible experience that taught me a lot about humanity—our hopes, our dreams, our heartbreak, our fears, our insecurities, our pride. Most importantly, our collective and insatiable drive to create. Some days it felt like a chore; other days it felt like the easiest thing in the world. But through it all, it was clear that this was something I was meant to be doing. I’ve been writing on the internet for over half my life now (which is an incredible thing to say), and whether that was about the San Jose Sharks, a life in tech sales, or my love of music, the journey of writing has given me a sense of ownership over my own belief system. The more I’ve shared myself with the world the more I’ve learned about my place in it.
As many friends and readers have noticed, my output on this site has slowed considerably over the past two months. There are a myriad of factors associated with that: the demands of work, the joy of spending more time with my family, the burnout associated with spending nearly three years writing daily, and the desire to do other new and interesting things with my free time, to name just a few. But most importantly, at some point in 2025 I realized that I was rehashing many of the same themes when writing about albums I was listening to. It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything new to say about music in general—it was that I was turning into more of a historical academic summarizing an artist’s work instead of celebrating the nuances and uniqueness of their specific artistry. When I began this project with a nuclear New Year’s Day hangover in 2023 I was excited and motivated. At that point in my life the herculean task of writing about an album per day was inspiring and pushed me to become a better writer. The consistency of that output helped me accomplish those goals. But at some point the daily streak became a vanity metric I was chasing. And when it became that, it was time to reassess what I needed this site to become.
So what does that mean moving forward? I will certainly continue to write about music (forever my first love)—that much is certain. But from now on, the focus will be on writing when I am inspired and feel like I have something meaningful to say. It doesn’t necessarily mean 1,500-word treatises or reliving nostalgic memories of albums of yore (although I’m sure I’ll have a few of those this year), but it does mean that each album I write about will have moved me in some way—even if that is simply to say, “I listened to this while running this morning and really liked it; I think you will too.” I plan to refocus on the albums that moved me, rather than chronicling the daily movement of my Spotify streams. I’m excited for this new and improved version of the sonic diary I’ve created.
Thank you to everyone who has stuck around for the past 1,049 albums.
Here’s to 1,049 more.
