The first in a series of monthly lists of albums I love and you should love, too. Let’s get into a few January records, shall we?
This is actually the culmination of over a year’s worth of work on my end. I have a 2012 MacBook Pro with iTunes that I use to organize my music library of over 25,000 songs (and growing). Last year, I spent countless hours listening to albums I hadn’t touched in ages, sorting through the songs, deciding which ones I wanted to keep in my personal rotation and which ones I wanted to let go.
What I ended up with was a series of curated playlists. For instance, I have a pretty self-explanatory playlist called “Best Albums;” it’s all my favorite albums, at the ready for whenever I want them. I also have a playlist called “Radio 12,” with all my favorite songs. I throw that sucker on shuffle and there’s never a skip. “But Adam 12, why don’t you just use Spotify?” Because Spotify sucks, that’s why.
January Records: 6 Albums for the Coldest Month
Besides, I’m a big proponent of owning my music, not renting it. Even though Bandcamp is in flux, I still use it to discover new music, track down old releases I might have missed, and give my money directly to artists and labels instead of some creepy billionaire who refuses to pay the artists that power his app fairly. Check out my Bandcamp page and library here if you’re curious.
But I digress. Pivoting back to playlists, I have one for each month of the year, chock full of albums that I like to revisit during that month every year. Maybe it’s because that’s when the album dropped or when I discovered it, maybe it just captures the vibe of that month. As it’s January, I’m sharing a half-dozen of my first month selections below. Enjoy.
