Hiatus

In case you hadn't noticed, Andrew Listens has been pretty quiet for the past few months. I've decided to take a long break from writing reviews. Trying to keep up with them had reached a point where it wasn't really enjoyable for me anymore and felt more and more like work than anything else, and was impacting my enjoyment of music overall. This break has been good so far, though, and I'm slowly ramping my way back into listening more.

I don't know when I'll start writing reviews again (if I even will do so regularly anymore). I apologize to the small handful of artists who had requested a writeup but never got one. If I do start making more posts here, you'll be at the top of my list.

I apologize for going so long without saying why the blog has been quiet. Thank you for your readership over the last few years.

State of the Blog

You might have noticed that things have been a little slow around here lately. What was once a one-a-day thing has now been reduced to a miserable once-a-week-at-best crawl. The reason can basically be summed up in one word: podcasts. It actually started over a year ago—one site I follow started one, then another a few months later, then it just snowballed and now I have about twenty I feel like I need to keep up with. And when you listen to podcasts all day you don't really have time for music. It has gotten a little pathetic, to be honest.

Anyway. I'm trying to change all that; I've whittled down my backlog and am making a real effort to get back to music, which I usually enjoy more anyway. It helps that I've been getting quite a stream of recommendations lately—and yes, if you sent me a nice personal email I will get to your stuff! It might just be a little while still. But I have so far at least listened to everything I've received.

Thanks for sticking around!

Two years of listening

Today marks Andrew Listen's second anniversary! To celebrate this momentous occasion, I'd like to officially announce the Andrew Listens Twitter account: @andrew_listens!

I'll be using it for a few different things: (1) posting back links here when I make new reviews, (2) writing micro-reviews that aren't really worth putting up here, (3) sharing links to interesting and worthwhile releases on Bandcamp. Hopefully I'll be doing more stuff with it as I get used to it.

Nothing is going to change as far as this blog is concerned, although I hope I'll be motivated to actually post reviews more regularly. It should help that the concert train doesn't seem to be slowing down, and I have at least one more book review I can do at some point soon.

Thanks for reading, and keep on listening!

Mystery cassette

On my last haul post, I mentioned a mystery cassette tape with no decent indication of what the hell it is. I scanned all the inserts and finally got around to getting them online. If anyone has any idea what release this is, PLEASE let me know!

Front cover: "AP"

Inside cover: "Xenophobe" / "01"

Front of insert

Back of insert (cropped): "Adeste Fideles"

Numbered slip: "55/88"

Welcome

Welcome to Andrew Listens, my new music review blog!

Everyone has a music review blog nowadays it seems but I figure this would be a good way to practice writing and really get down to listening to and reviewing some releases I've been meaning to do for a long time. I have been reviewing music somewhat flippantly at Rate Your Music for a few years now and want to try stepping my game up. I'll be crossposting over there, but only my really good reviews will go here. I'll try to keep the subject matter to the obscure or the new, but not always.

I think I might post the first one tonight. Hooray!