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Notes from the room next door.
Short writing about the playlists — how they're chosen, what they're for, and the music I make alongside them. No schedule, no length, no comment section.
- 01
Notes on the sleep room
What I listen for when picking music for the sleep playlist, and what I leave off.
- 02
What stays on a playlist
Notes on curation — the simple test a track has to pass to earn its place on one of these playlists.
- 03
Notes on the focus room
Why the music has to be present enough to fill the room and quiet enough to lose to the screen.
- 04
Music for the first coffee
The first half hour after waking is more delicate than the rest of the day. Here's what survives it.
- 05
Notes on the wellness room
Past the spa clichés — what actually holds a treatment room or a slow evening.
- 06
Music for a long drive
A brief I haven't built a playlist for — because every drive is different in ways a playlist can't hold.
- 07
Notes on the lo-fi room
Why I'm looking for lossy, not 'lo-fi' the genre.
- 08
Music for the hour between work and dinner
The decompression hour most people don't soundtrack — and what to do about it.
- 09
Notes on the reading room
Why the music has to lose so the book can win.
- 10
Music for visitors
Music when there are people over has its own brief — fill the room without imposing taste.
- 11
On the track at the end of each page
Why every category page closes with a single track of my own — and what I try to do with it.
- 12
Music for cooking alone
Cooking is hands-busy. Music has to survive being unable to skip.
- 13
Music for the train
Trains are different from cars. Public, headphones on, more thinking time.
- 14
On the order of a playlist
Why the second track is the hardest one to pick.
- 15
Music for rain
What works in a darker room when the weather has changed the light.
- 16
On listening at low volume
Most curation gets done at normal volume. Most of the listening doesn't.
- 17
On removing tracks
Adding tracks is the easy half. Most playlists go wrong on the other half.
- 18
Music for a slow Sunday
Sundays have their own light. The room asks for music that matches.
- 19
Music for a hard day
Days that don't need a playlist so much as a room that doesn't ask anything of you.
- 20
Music for waking up
What works in the first minute of the day — and why it isn't an alarm.
- 21
Music for golden hour
The hour the room is briefly the most flattering version of itself.
- 22
Music for a walk
The brief depends on whether the walk has a destination.
- 23
Music for a walk at night
A different brief from a walk in daylight. The city sounds less, and you hear differently.
- 24
Music for waiting
Airports, lobbies, doctor's offices — a brief for short, low-control time.
- 25
Music for the first cold day of autumn
The day the air changes. The music for it changes too.
- 26
Music for snow
Snow muffles a city. Music has to either match the muffling or sit clearly above it.
- 27
Music for the last hour at the office
The work isn't going to get better and the day isn't going to get shorter.
- 28
Music for jet lag
When the body and the clock disagree, the music has to take a side.
- 29
Music for a long bath
Twenty minutes in warm water is a small ritual. Music has to match its scale.
- 30
On finding music
Where the playlists actually come from, when no algorithm is involved.
- 31
On listening on bad speakers
If a track only sounds good on the studio monitors, it isn't earning its place.
- 32
On the length of a playlist
Why most of these are under an hour and not three.
- 33
On the silence between tracks
What you don't hear is doing more work than people think.
- 34
On revisiting a playlist after six months
What the playlist tells you about yourself six months later.
- 35
On naming a playlist
The titles are weight-bearing. Most playlists give that away too cheaply.
- 36
On singles and album tracks
Where the music for these playlists actually lives, in record terms.
- 37
On keeping this small
Why there are five rooms and not fifty.
- 38
On not having a search box
The site is small enough that search would mostly slow you down.
- 39
On not having a comment section
What's gained, what's missed, why it's worth it.
- 40
Music for the dark
What plays when the lights are out on purpose — a different brief from sleep.
- 41
Music for housework
Vacuuming, putting away laundry, wiping down counters. The body is moving; the head shouldn't be.
- 42
Music for a long flight
Engine noise eats the bottom end and the cabin is bright. What survives the trip.
- 43
Music for a writing session
A special case of music for focus. The line of a sentence is more fragile than the line of a function.
- 44
Music for a quiet afternoon
Three in the afternoon on a Sunday — one of the most music-shaped hours of the week.
- 45
On the bio track
Why every room has a track of mine underneath the playlist.
- 46
On instrumental versions
Many tracks here are the version with the vocal removed. The instrumental often reveals what the vocal hid.
- 47
On the loudness of quiet music
Mastering, dynamic range, and what streaming does to music meant to be heard quietly.
- 48
On the description under each playlist
Five rooms, five sentences. Why the sentence comes after the playlist, not before.
- 49
On not having ads
No banners, no newsletter pop-up, no tracking pixel beyond basic analytics. Why the room stays empty.
- 50
Music for a hangover
A niche listening environment, but a common one. What the body can tolerate and what it can't.
- 51
Music for an empty house
An empty house has a sound of its own. The trick is to add to that sound without replacing it.
- 52
Music for the last day of a holiday
You're not fully there anymore and not yet on the way back. Music for the tail of something.
- 53
Music for the kitchen on a weeknight
Cooking for yourself on a Tuesday is a different brief from cooking on a Saturday. Less time, less love for the process.
- 54
Music for the slow climb out of a cold
The first day you can think again, but not really. Music tuned for sixty-percent attention.
- 55
On covers
A cover version is an X-ray of the song. Sometimes it fits a room the original never could.
- 56
On the playlist as a gift
A playlist for one person is a different object from a playlist for a room.
- 57
On algorithmic recommendations
The algorithm knows what you usually listen to. It doesn't know what you're doing.
- 58
On the playlist cover image
Most playlist covers are stock photos doing work the music may not deliver. The blocks of colour here are deliberate.
- 59
On the song you skip every time
If you reach for the next button at the same point every time, the track doesn't belong — however good it is in the abstract.
- 60
Music for the in-between week
The days between Christmas and New Year have their own posture — slow, soft, mostly indoors.
- 61
Music for the morning before anyone wakes
The half hour where one person is up and the rest of the house isn't. The room is the same; it sounds different.
- 62
Music for an unfamiliar city
Present enough to keep the walk steady, light enough not to compete with the signs.
- 63
Music for a thunderstorm
The sound outside is already music. The trick is to play with it, not against it.
- 64
Music for someone else asleep
You're awake. They aren't. The room belongs to the person who isn't listening.
- 65
On the first track of a playlist
It does more work than any other track. It signs the room within ten seconds.
- 66
On listening alone versus together
Two different activities, even when the music is the same. The rooms here are mostly built for alone.
- 67
On gapless tracks
Albums mixed with no gap break in subtle ways on streaming services. What that means for the playlists.
- 68
On reissues and remasters
Most older albums exist in several versions on streaming. Which one ends up in the room.
- 69
On the artist with one good track
The playlist takes one track and leaves the rest. From the artist's side this can sting; from the room's side, it's honest.
- 70
Music for a Saturday morning without a plan
Alert without urgency. The morning that hasn't decided yet what it wants to be.
- 71
Music for opening windows
The first warm morning of the year. The music has to share the space with the street outside.
- 72
Music for sitting on the floor
The body has agreed to be in the room longer than it usually does. The music can match.
- 73
Music for a Sunday evening before Monday
The weekend is finishing; the week is announcing itself. The music can't decide which mood you're having.
- 74
Music for the room you've just cleaned
The closest a room you live in gets to feeling like a hotel. The right music makes it last twenty minutes longer.
- 75
Music for the day after a difficult conversation
The conversation isn't happening anymore, but the room remembers it. The accurate music is patient and uncommitted.
- 76
Music for the room you're packing up
You stop every few minutes to look at something. The music has to handle the stops, the restarts, and the dust.
- 77
Music for an evening alone after a busy day
The phone stops, the door closes, whatever the day was, it isn't anymore. The music can give some of the day back.
- 78
Music for the first night in a new place
The walls make different sounds. The music does most of its work by not adding to the strangeness.
- 79
Music for the morning of a deadline
The standard focus rules bend slightly. The brief is narrow and steep.
- 80
Music for the first day back from holiday
Re-entry. The first hour wants lo-fi; the rest of the day wants the focus room turned down two notches.
- 81
Music for a power cut
The speakers are out, the phone is on its last bar. Half the time the right answer is no music at all.
- 82
On the room I haven't built yet
Every few months I think about a sixth room. The brief is real; the music doesn't separate cleanly from the existing five.
- 83
On the playlist someone shared with me
A playlist from a friend tells you, before you press play, that someone thought of you for the length of forty tracks.
- 84
On the playlist that didn't work
A morning room I tried for three months and took down. What the failure revealed about the existing five.
- 85
On hidden tracks
Eight minutes of silence and a bonus piece. Streaming services unhid the joke and broke it; the bonus survived.
- 86
On the role of repetition
Most music gets less interesting the more you hear it. Some gets more. The rooms here select for the second kind.
- 87
On track length within a playlist
Long tracks let the listener forget the playlist is there. The pacing of a room is partly an arithmetic of seconds.
- 88
On the trust between curator and listener
A playlist is a small contract. The listener gives the curator forty minutes; the curator promises not to break the day.
- 89
On the playlist as a self-portrait
A playlist tells the listener a lot about the curator, even when the curator wishes it didn't.
- 90
On the music that won't sit in any room
Some music I love isn't on any of the playlists. The rooms are filtered, twice — once for taste, once for use.
- 91
On film soundtracks as a source
Scores are written for a specific kind of inattention. That brief is closer to what the rooms want than most albums are.
- 92
On classical music on a streaming service
Wrong metadata, inverted priorities, and volumes from different decades. The rooms borrow carefully, one track at a time.
- 93
On the playlist that grew too long
The focus playlist was nine hours. I cut it back over a weekend and total listening hours went up.
- 94
On not adding genre tags
The room name is the only categorisation. The looser frame buys the curator real freedom and costs some discoverability.
- 95
Music for the night before a flight
Falling asleep is harder than usual; waking through the night is more likely. Music sits between the sleep and wellness rooms.
- 96
Music for arriving home late
The first music you put on tells the room you're back. Whatever was playing in the car is the wrong temperature for indoors.
- 97
Music for an apartment with thin walls
You can hear the neighbours; they can hear you. The constraint turns out to be a teacher.
- 98
Music for sitting in a parked car
The car isn't moving, so there's no road to support; but you're also not anywhere. A specific kind of company.
- 99
Music for someone working in the next room
One person is in focus mode; the other isn't. The right pick is, frustratingly, neither.
- 100
Music for the desk you don't usually work at
A café, a hotel room, a friend's spare room. The music has to do more work than at your own desk.
- 101
Music for the journey home
Different from the trip out, different from the last day. The journey itself is just transit, and the music can be patient about it.
- 102
Music for housesitting
The room isn't yours, but you have to live in it like it is. The music shouldn't leave marks.
- 103
On the album as a unit versus the track
The track is the same; the contract isn't. The playlist is a doorway, not a destination.
- 104
On background music versus music in the background
Two different products that look the same on the surface. The rooms here are the first; most playlists are the second.
- 105
On the song that worked the first time
Most tracks earn their slot through testing. A few don't — the brain registers them as already belonging.
- 106
On the listener who only has headphones
The room around the listener is replaced by the head. The reverb tail of an ambient piece fills the skull at the same volume.
- 107
On a track that earned its slot back
A track I've taken off the sleep playlist twice and put back three times. The room drifts as much as the music settles into it.
- 108
On the songs that work in any room
A small handful of tracks fit almost everywhere. They reveal what makes a song room-shaped in general.
- 109
On the album you keep meaning to write about
Some albums work on you at a level that doesn't translate easily into prose. The honest move is to let the track speak for itself.
- 110
Music for the post-lunch slump
The blood is somewhere other than the brain. The music doesn't fake the energy — it keeps the body in the chair.
- 111
Music for debugging
Writing is forward motion; debugging is search. The music for it has very little event.
- 112
Music for the long meeting you're listening to
A meeting where your turn is at the end. The music sits underneath the speaking voice without competing.
- 113
Music for the first week at a new job
Very little of what you do is the work you were hired for. The music shouldn't pretend otherwise.
- 114
Music for prep work and admin
The slow tilling of small tasks. The music can be slightly more present than focus-room music, because the work isn't asking for the full mind.
- 115
On the role of silence at work
Some tasks go better in silence than with even the most patient ambient backing. The trick is knowing which.
- 116
On the music that helps you start versus finish
Starting wants energising but not loud. Finishing wants slow, patient, almost ceremonial.
- 117
On the office playlist
An office playlist has to survive being heard by ten people none of whom chose it. The constraint turns out to be a teacher.
- 118
Music for a Friday afternoon at work
The real productivity has happened earlier. The job is to clear small things and leave the desk in a state that Monday will thank you for.
- 119
Music for a Monday morning
The body remembers the weekend more than it remembers the work. A slow ramp, not an immediate plunge.
- 120
Music for a sleepless night
Different from the sleep playlist, even though they share most of the music. The job changes when sleep won't come.
- 121
Music for someone else driving
The road isn't your responsibility; the playlist often is. The negotiation is part of the brief.
- 122
Music for arriving early
Fifteen minutes between being in the venue and being in the event. Familiar but disposable is the right pick.
- 123
Music for the empty office
The building is yours for the hour. Music has more room than usual, in every sense.
- 124
Music for letter writing
A particular album played while writing to a particular person will, for years, carry that person in it.
- 125
On the playlist's update cadence
A playlist updated weekly stops being a room and starts being a feed. A playlist unchanged in three years is a different object too.
- 126
On the artist who deleted their music
A track disappears. The hole is information. Backfilling within an hour pretends the previous track wasn't important.
- 127
On a track that arrived through Shazam
Borrowing-with-attribution is most of how curation works. The chain is part of what makes a playlist trustworthy.
- 128
On audio quality
The cheapest reliable way to improve a quiet playlist is the room you're in. The lossless argument is mostly a distraction.
- 129
On listening to a playlist on shuffle
Most listeners hit shuffle. Most playlists are made assuming an order. The rooms here are tested both ways.
- 130
On the playlist as a calendar
The room shifts with the seasons even when the listener doesn't notice. The autumn tracks were probably added in October.
- 131
On the listener I never expected
A long-haul trucker, a hospice nurse, a retired professor. The actual brief is in whoever's listening.
- 132
On music recommendations from friends
Three or four people, narrowly calibrated. The size of the network doesn't matter; the calibration does.