Diving Into Music: 184 Albums in 1 Year

WZLY DJ Laila Brustin ‘25 looks back on another year of music discovery

by Laila Brustin ‘25

In December of 2020, I began a project where I would review and rate albums using albumoftheyear.org. This began as a way to engage with a close friend, but evolved into a personal passion and new way of listening to music. I have found great joy in exploring new music, forcing myself outside of my comfort zone, and getting to engage with others. I end my second year having listened to 184 albums, with 581 albums total over the course of the past two years.

During my second year of this project I faced two major challenges. The first is that the kinds of classes I had during the semester impacted how much music I listened to. If I wanted to do Spanish homework or write an essay, then I would need to find quiter music with no lyrics in order to focus. Because of this I ended up listening to Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports so often that the entire album is in my Top Songs of 2022. The second challenge is that it can feel hard to find new music. I have tried tackling this by using Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist and clicking on what my friends are listening to, but sometimes I’m not even motivated to do that. In 2023, I plan to place greater emphasis on listening to new releases and utilize WZLY’s Heavy Rotation playlists more frequently.

I’m looking forward to this next year and hopefully logging over 200 albums. I am especially excited that I’ll be able to listen to more music because I invested in wireless headphones! If you’re looking to learn more about artists you love, to pick up a new hobby, or to also entirely change how you listen to music, I would really recommend listening to an album start to finish.

For my sophomore year of listening to music, here are the superlatives:

Favorite Albums of 2022:

1. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar

2. Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road

3. Laurel Hell by Mitski

4. IMPERA by Ghost

Personal Favorite Albums:

1. ‘Em Are I by Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard

2. Meddle by Pink Floyd

3. A Crow Looked at Me by Mount Eerie

Weirdest Albums:

1. Chocolate and Cheese by Ween

2. I Wanna Meet Richard Dreyfus by Gabriel Gundacker

3. David Bowie by David Bowie

Prettiest Albums:

1. Songs for Pierre Chuvin by The Mountain Goats

2. Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens

3. A Different Kind of Human (Step II) by Aurora

Most Surprising Albums: 

1. Life’s Too Good by The Sugar Cubes

2. Metropolis Suite I: The Chase by Janelle Monáe

3. MM..FOOD by MF DOOM