Club Notes: A Year of Listening

Remember CDs? I used to buy them all the time. When I got my hands on a new one, I'd listen to it over and over until I'd memorized every word of every song. Yep, I can still recite Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water in its entirety.

And then streaming became a thing. For me, it all started with Rdio. While having all the music you could ever want at your fingertips is amazing, it kind of ruined the relationship I had with music. Always chasing the next thing, rather than really enjoying the music for what it is.

That's why I started Daily Groove Club. I wanted a reason to discover new music, and while I was at it, share it with all of you.

How It Went

I'd be lying if I said it was easy. I'd also be lying if I said I didn't have a blast doing it.

You wouldn't believe it, but listening to whole albums and discovering new ones takes time. Quite a bit of time, actually. The last three or so months were by far the most difficult. Work got busier, leaving me with less time to listen to music during business hours, which is when I usually listen the most. That caused me to fall behind once my backlog of albums dried up.

Still, I discovered so much great music — and that was the goal.

Would I Do It Again?

Hell no. Does that mean this is the end for Daily Groove Club? Also, hell no.

This little project of mine ain't dead yet! Or anytime soon for that matter. My plan is to continue discovering new tunes and sharing them with you. Just on a less frequent basis.

In no particular order, these are the nine albums that stuck with me throughout the year:

• Jaubi's A Sound Heart. Shared on 10 March 2025.
• Baby Rose, BADBADNOTGOOD's Slow Burn. Shared on 5 February 2025.
• Remi Wolf's Big Ideas. Shared on 30 January 2025.
• Tony Allen's Film Of Life. Shared on 21 March 2025.
• Adrianne Lenker's Bright Future. Shared on 22 April 2025.
• Sons Of Kemet's Your Queen Is A Reptile. Shared on 6 June 2025.
• Ibrahim Ferrer's Buenos Hermanos. Shared on 21 August 2025.
• Raul Seixas' "Krig-Ha, Bandolo". Shared on 5 September 2025.
• Townes Van Zandt's The Nashville Sessions. Shared on 11 June 2025.

Over the course of 2025, I shared 253 albums, spanning 20 different genres.

These are the top five.

Thank you so, so much for being here and following along over the last year! Daily Groove Club was my first new project in a while, and I'm proud to call it a success.

Keep up with what's next on Mastodon or Bluesky, or via RSS if you haven't already.

✌🏼