Day 40 Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - City of Gold Bluegrass is the order of the day here, with some sensational playing and beautiful clean vocals. A couple of the tunes here are great (opening track El Dorado, Next Rodeo, and Evergreen, OK) but every thing else is a bit corny, a bit flat ⭐⭐⭐

Day 39 American Football - American Football I understand I'm in the minority opinion on this one, but I just didn't get on with it much at all. There's a lot to like, beautiful riffs, melancholy vibes... But as a whole I was just a bit bored listening to it. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 38 Hällas - Panorama ⭐⭐⭐ Classic styled prog-rock, with fun synth stuff and some big bombastic sections nestled within calmer more ethereal sections. Did feel like it didn't quite pack the punch it could have, but decent nonetheless

Day 37 Robert Glasper - Keys to the City Volume One Wonderful jazz fusion featuring some of the most exciting artists track-to-track (Thundercat, Yebba, Norah Jones(!), Blackthought). A nice friday morning vibe, worth a spin if you're wanting to chill for a bit. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 36 Laufey - A Matter Of Time Another Grammy winner, this time for "Traditional Pop", but I feel that's doing a disservice! Laufey has a gorgeous, mid-century styled voice with beautiful range, and takes us through big band jazz, Bossa Nova, and thoroughly modern acoustic pop. Enchanting. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 35 I'm With Her - Wild And Clear And Blue Been enjoying working through some Grammy winners, and this was just really good folk stuff. Can't say if it was a rightful winner, but it was a very enjoyable record ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 34 Nate Smith - LIVE-ACTION Legendary drummer Nate Smith absolutely soars on this album, with technical prowess and jazz/funk genius. Makes the most of every collaboration, it's a fresh sound track-to-track-to-track. A joy from start to finish. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

CD WEEK REVIEW - Averaging out at 2.4/5 for the week, it's safe to say CD week was not a triumph in terms of quality. It was certainly varied, and forced me to listen to new and different stuff, which is the point of the whole endeavour. Unsurprisingly, CDs people gave away for free are mostly bad!

Day 33 Durand Bernarr - BLOOM This 2026 Grammy award winning Neo-Soul record was already on the back foot due to its 1hr 16min run time when I pressed play, and whilst the bloated run time wasn't used to its full, it's full of sexy, thoughtful tunes. Also has some bargain bin wishy pishy too. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 32 Various Artists - Guerrilla Grooves Vol. 1 Fun mix of late 80s/early 90s electronic and dance. I'm talking CLASSIC early 90s stuff. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 31 Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards - Turn The Beat Around (Live) The penultimate CD Week album is some live cuts from a show in Michigan by this stringed quartet, playing folky and country themed songs. A nice warm vibe. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 30 Beth Rowley - Little Dreamer Really safe pop-jazz, Beth has a nice voice but nothing that really makes me sit down and pay attention. Simple instrumentations, overall a bit of a snore. ⭐⭐

The Chieftains - The Long Black Veil Mick Jagger doing a terrible version of Long Black Veil, Sting singing with a horrific accent, Van Morrison doing his weird thing, Tom Jones being miscast, dreary tunes. A 1 star album saved by Sinéad O'Connor's beautiful voice and fun dancing tracks ⭐⭐

Day 28 The Bluetones - Luxembourg 3 stars is a weird rating for this, because my main takeaway is that this album just kind of... slipped over my mind? Slid around like butter melting in a pan. Pleasant, but left my mind as quickly as it arrived. I just remember tapping my toes? So, fine? ⭐⭐⭐

Day 27 Uthanda - Groove ⭐ The music of 90s hedonism, skinned from its body, and draped nightmarishly over American Christianity. Soulless tripe. Hated it.

Day 26 Brazilian Girls - Brazilian Girls Brazilian Girls is a melting pot of ideas and styles, that creates something pretty unique. Bass heavy dub, contemporary pop, jazz, funk, a little triphop, it's all here, baby! Some tracks veer off in some odd directions, but over all a pleasant listen! ⭐⭐⭐

Day 25 Dick Gaughan - Handful of Earth ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Celtic folk from the early 80s, dealing heavily in socialist themes. Absolutely gorgeous folk guitars, meandering vocal melodies, and stories that break hearts and engender pride. A wonderful piece of Scottish and Irish art.

Day 24 Bombfunk MCs - In Stereo With apologies to my friends from Finland, this is complete ass. Even having Freestyler, a decent piece of 90s nostalgia, can't save this. Terrible flows, aged-like-milk synths, just very very poor. And fucking LONG too! ⭐

Day 23 Fear Of Domination - Katharsis Finnish Melo-death with electronic elements. Really forgettable. Doesn't manage to do much with all the elements its borrowing from. Have you ever put an onion in your fridge and then everything tastes a bit like onion? That's what's happening here. ⭐⭐

Day 22 Willi Carlisle - Critterland Folk and American Country has a long tradition of telling stories, and Willi tells some heartbreaking, life affirming stories in this album. Like the best of this type of music, does a whole lot with very little. One track had me tear up in the gym! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Do you recognise any of these albums?

Day 21 Witch Fever - Fevereaten Lots of descriptors fit Manchester’s Witch Fever; Punk, Doom, Sludge, Grunge. I think the most all encapsulating is "Goth", as this album can move through genres with ease but maintains an aesthetic throughout. Some fun tracks, some forgettable ones. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 20 Stornoway - Bonxie Don't think I can put it better than submitter Ness put it in her submission: "Because it gives me the feeling you get from a gentle hug, but also the feeling you get from a windy walk through a muddy field." ⭐⭐⭐

Day 19 Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra 70s Ambient Krautrock today, and unfortunately I didn't really like it. It sets a nice vibe, and would be great for putting on to set a type of mood, but as an active listening experience I didn't enjoy it at all. Some quite rudimentary. Pleasant vocals though ⭐⭐

Day 18 Fonda 500 - 8 Track Sound System I respect the DIY feel of this album, but that's the start and end of my enjoyment here. Lifeless songs that feel like a first draft/demo. Some difficult to listen to instrumentation at points. Bumped up from a 1 due to a handful of decent moments ⭐⭐

Day 17 Chairlift - Moth Really pretty synth Pop, soars and sways with surprising soul. Beautifully minimalistic when it needs to be, but not afraid to be quite bold when needed. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 16 Jean-Michel Blais - aubades Modern Classical album with some absolutely gorgeous pianos, beautifully arranged chamber orchestra pieces. Rarely predictable, hand crafted warmth. Suffers occasionally of feeling a bit background, despite every effort to give it my full attention ⭐⭐⭐

Day 15 Zombina & The Skeletones - Taste The Blood Of... A fun punky record with lots of 50s-60s Pulp/Horror/Americana vibes. I could see myself absolutely loving it if I'd heard it at the time, but some very rough recording/mixing amongst some weaker tracks keeps this from being higher rated ⭐⭐⭐

Day 14 Sugar Pie DeSanto - Sugar Pie Classic 60s RnB, a balm this morning for a sad brain ⭐⭐⭐

Day 13 BackxWash - God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It An unbelievable mix of Trap and Black Metal, with production that is unlike anything I've ever heard. BackXwash is raw as fuck, she writes with her whole heart on her sleeve, I felt her pain, anger, and love. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Day 12 Public Service Broadcasting - The Race For Space Well this was cool! Electronic/Rock/Prog outfit that uses radio and tv recordings from the space race to retell the stories therein. Enjoyed the incorporation of the beeps and squeals produced by the spacecrafts into the music. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 11 The Staves - Dead & Born & Gone This 2012 folk album manages to avoid the Stomp-Clap-Hey trend of the time and delivers beautiful songs with gorgeous 3-part harmonies. Whilst a perfect choice for a quiet, wet Sunday, it did feel too clean at times, a touch sterile at points. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 10 Whitechapel - Hymns Of Dissonance Deathcore with utterly stupid lyrics Musically a really heavy barrage which I enjoyed but I just can't get past how edgelord the lyrics are. They have bits that are written backwards to satan! Please don't point out that I love Power Metal, thanks. ⭐⭐

This is one of mine! Joy Formidable were featured in Hi-Fi Rush but I've been jamming to this album for over a decade. Kami's right though the first half the album goes harder than the latter, could have done with some fat trimmed

Day 9 The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar Indie shoegaze by way of slightly heavier rock territory. I've had quite a few indie albums so far but this one stuck out by being a touch heavier, a bit riffier at points. Some energising stuff on here, and some deep beauty too. A touch long, though ⭐⭐⭐

Day 8 Castle Rat - The Bestiary Fuzzy, DIY-sounding doom-and-roll. A fun modern take on Black Sabbath's style, by ways of sword and sorcery pulp novels. leans slightly on style over substance, but with style like this who can be upset about that? A fun, dark, head swinging album. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 7 Brian Eno - Another Green World Hard to nail down my thoughts on this one. At times beautiful and ethereal, often absurd, occasionally dull. It flows between these states pleasingly, but I did feel a lack of connection to a large amount of it unfortunately When good though? Outstanding ⭐⭐⭐

Day 6 Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum Smokey, sad, grungy blues/alt-rock. Like dipping your head into a sad, dark dive-bar for the ambience. Some real depressing stuff on this record (complimentary). A glimpse into a troubled mind. Odd bits of electronic production feel unnecessary ⭐⭐⭐

Day 5 Donner Party - Donner Party (1988) This indie/post punk album is so rare that the person who submitted it (thanks again @jessefuchs.bsky.social) sent me a dropbox with all the tracks on it. And what a treat! Wonderfully ahead of its time, jangly, funny, dark. Loved it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Planning out some day-specific albums for the year (Gorky's on St David's Day, some Scottish Folk for Burns' Night etc) If you have any specific days you think I should listen to a certain album on, please let me know! Or even specific things I should try to plan around (Music fests, big events..)

Day 4 Now, Now - Threads Wow this one was great! Indie with a shoegaze glaze, beautiful vocals and simple, powerful riffs. Top stuff, best so far actually! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 3 Big Special - Postindustrial Hometown Blues Well, I got lyrics.... I enjoyed the production on this, I'll say that. But this Post-Punk record did less than nothing for me. Found the lyrics and delivery quite annoying and weirdly inauthentic. Constantly rolling my eyes at it. ⭐⭐

Day 2 Cloudkicker - Subsume Surprisingly ambient at points, a prog record with hypnotic metal rhythms, incorporating Djent and Sludge and Ambient. You can feel the fact this is a one man act in a charming and impressive way. Two instrumental albums in a row, think I'll have lyrics tomorrow ⭐⭐⭐

Day 1 Sola Rosa - Haunted Out-Takes Trip-hoppy, downtempo beats with a touch of plunderphonics, I was impressed with how this album was focusing and funky in equal measure. Had my shoulders popping like crazy. Some tracks felt naked though, and needed dressed with some late 90s rap flow ⭐⭐⭐

In 2026, I have endeavoured to listen to a new album every day for the whole year. By new, I mean new to me, not necessarily new this year. I want to explore genres I'm unfamiliar with, back catalogues I've never investigated, and artists who I've only really heard the odd song or two of.

Please suggest albums for me here! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...