Not a monthly roundup, just a long-overdue return. Sorry for the silence. More pressings are coming because, spoiler: there are already 30+ CDs piling up in the corner of my living room lol.
LUX, Rosalía. 2025.
Complex, demanding and audacious. I love that Rosalía challenges the conventions of mainstream pop, taking us into conversations about Yves Tumor, chamber pop, symphonies and classical music. An album that demands attention rather than immediate understanding. Listen closely to “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti”, “Memória” and “Sexo, Violencia y Llantas”.
22 A Million, Bon Iver. 2016.
Bon Iver at their best. No amount of millennial nostalgia can overshadow the audacity of this record. A carefully constructed chaos of friction, distortion and texture, rewarding repeated listens and an ear for detail. A buried instrument, a voice in the background, something you hadn’t noticed before. My favourite: _45_.
¿Dónde están los ladrones?, Shakira. 1998.
A rediscovery. I own two physical copies: one relatively new, the other unmistakably vintage. Both are staying. A complete album, remarkable for its narrative sensibility and emotional range. “Octavo Día” might still be my favourite Shakira song to date. I miss old times. I miss old Shakira.
Mechanical Animals, Marilyn Manson. 1998.
Never quite my cup of tea, yet Mechanical Animals remains one of Manson’s most compelling works. Released in 1998, the album explores fame, consumerism and the disintegration of identity through the dual personas of Alpha and Omega. An uncomfortable critique of Hollywood and the culture that turns celebrities into idols before consuming them. Joseph Cultice’s photography completes the picture: some of Manson’s most striking and iconic visuals.
HOW IT WORKS
1
Discovery
I navigate the algorithm as both tool and terrain; scrolling, searching, obsessing. What begins as noise becomes signal. What stays, stays for a reason.
2
Physical Trace
If it matters, it exists beyond the screen. I look for it in its physical form; record stores, second-hand bins, private sellers. Logged, archived, hunted down. Often added to Discogs before it’s even in my hands.
3
Listening
The record is played as intended. No shortcuts. A proper sound system, full attention, no skips. The listening is part of the process, not background to it.
4
Review
Each album is reduced to a few lines: subjective, immediate, personal.
No authority claimed, no objectivity promised. This is not criticism; it’s proximity. A score follows: 1–10.
A collection shaped as much by taste as by encounter.
See you soon, for sure!