Parenthood makes it as difficult for me to write reviews as it makes it for you to read them. But I think I’ve got the solution.

Pre-parenthood, writing album reviews was my shit. It helped me articulate the reasons why new music moved (or failed to move) me. As a writer, I got better at stringing cohesive thoughts together, storytelling and researching. It also took up a lot of my time – which I absolutely had tons of. So, about that.

Since the launch of this blog, I’ve struggled to keep up any kind of content schedule. Writing longform pieces is a commitment, with a pretty heavy process attached. With reviews,  I’d give the album repeated listens, ruminate over how it made me feel, write notes, then drafts and then finally piece it all together in about 300-500 words. When time’s on my side, there’s nothing like it. When it isn’t, it unsustainable. It’s not the same and pretending it is makes the mission of this blog – refusing to abandon my love for new music – impossible to uphold. It’s supposed to adapt to my life as a parent; not the other way around.

If you’re a parent or a busy-ass adult, you probably don’t have time to read meandering reviews either. So with that in mind, I created “Keep it 100”, a new format that distills a review down to the following:

1. What the album’s called
2. Who it’s by
3. Short background info
4. What it sounds like
5. Is it any good?
6. Key tracks

And all of that inside 100 words. It’s a hell of a challenge, but writing should be a challenge. I’ll be reviewing new work by Frank Ocean, De La Soul, K. Flay, July Talk ad infinitum. My goal is to release one nearly every day of the week, and to bombard you with as much new music as is humanly possible.

P.S. I realize the irony of writing several paragraphs about how difficult it is