Until 11:59 pm December 31st, I’m exclusively listening to music released in the calendar year 2026. I’m starting my music library 100%… 99% from scratch.
For one thing, that means I would LOVE music recommendations. If your fave drops a new album, single, or 30-hour ambient noise epic, please hop in my ask box and tell me!
Also, throughout the year I'll post round-ups of songs I've found that I like or hate or think everyone should listen to. Tag for that will be #music journey 2k26
So below the cut, here are the rules as I’m following them:
This only applies to music that I turn on for Recreational Music-Listening Purposes. If there’s an old song in a movie, or on the radio in a store, or playing in someone else’s car; that’s all fine. But whenever I choose to listen to music, the date restriction applies.
If a single was released in 2025 and then comes out in 2026 on an album, it’s a 2026 track - but only after the album comes out. For example, the Format released Holy Roller in 2025, and Right Where I Belong in 2026. I can listen to Right Where I Belong right now, but Holy Roller is off-limits until the entire Boycott Heaven album releases in a week. This rule is mostly for logistics reasons - I’m not going to spend my year checking every song on every album to make sure it wasn’t released as a single two days before the cutoff.
Live music is always allowed; if I go see a Green Day concert that’s a fresh & fun music experience.
Live recordings are not allowed; if Green Day has a 2026 concert and puts it out as an album, that’s just new recordings of old music and listening to them is cheating.
Covers are allowed; if some other band puts out a cover of (or performs!) American Idiot this year, that’s a transformative new work and is totally fine for me to listen to.
I get one cheat day per month, which I’ll chiefly use for logistics reasons. For example, my January cheat day was spent on a two-hour drive in a car with only a CD player, no aux or Bluetooth, and I don’t own any CDs from 2026 yet
If your lover lives in Hong Kong and cannot get to Chicago, it will be necessary for you to go to Hong Kong. Perhaps you will spend your life there, and never see Chicago again. And you will, I assure you, as long as space and time divide you from anyone you love, discover a great deal about shipping routes, airlines, earthquake, famine, disease, and war. And you will always know what time it is in Hong Kong, for you love someone who lives there. And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win.
