Five essential albums (for me)
This is my follow-up to an earlier post describing an experiment for appreciating music in 2026.
The five mainstay albums I'll start 2026 with are:
Halo 2: Original Soundtrack (2004/2006)
- duration: 1:09:27 / 1:10:04
From one of my favourite series, there are technically two volumes. While I'm fond of the second volume given its suite form which mirrors the game's campaign, I mean to revisit the first volume given Breaking Benjamin's track, as well as the Odyssey movement by Incubus. Overall, this selection provides ambient music for writing.
New York (1989) by Lou Reed
- duration: 56:54
There's something about this album I really dig. I haven't explored the Velvet Underground, nor am I familiar with Lou Reed's other work (besides Transformer), but I'm making this a mainstay because there's something gritty and poetic about the lyrics that provide some form of consolation during difficult times.
Substance (1987) by New Order
- duration: 74:09 / 72:37 / 73:58 / 70:15 (~4h + 52m)
With this one, I'm pulling the 2023 re-issue which contains four CDs. The first carries their early singles, the second holds the B-sides, the third offers alternative mixes (including my favourite rendition of my favourite song (not just by New Order), "Temptation"), while the fourth is a unique live recording of a concert in 1987, in which the setlist matches the tracklist of the first CD. The mix of dance, synth, and instrumentals makes this pick a given—I don't think I'll ever get tired of the early New Order sound.
Humanity: Chapter V (2023) by Thomas Bergersen
- duration: 1:03:38
A reflection of my fondness for epic orchestra. Thomas Bergersen is my favourite musician from the genre, and perhaps my favourite musician overall. I selected Chapter V from his Humanity series as the theme of adventure mirrors my intentions for the year ahead. I'll meet the trials and tribulations with the courage inspired by this album.
Loveless (1991) by My Bloody Valentine
- duration: 48:38
In honour of shoegaze being the genre I've come to love, this was a given. The version I'm drawing on is the 2012 re-master of the original tapes (yes, I've been down that rabbit hole). I plan to explore more works of the genre in the year ahead; it's intentional on my part to set up comparison between every entry with Loveless. It may well be my favourite album, period.
As a note to self: I've explicitly declared "Temptation" as my favourite song; Loveless as my favourite album; and Thomas Bergersen as my favourite musician. Let's see if/how this evolves.
I'd like to make an amendment for this exercise ahead. While I plan to explore three new albums each week, and retain the aforementioned five as my stable set, I am allowing myself five swaps. This is to account for those wonderful surprises in which an album blows me away and I wish to keep listening to it. Again, this sort of constraint is meant to cultivate appreciation—whether or not I use these swaps by the end of 2026 will say something about my music tastes, which is something for future me to reflect on.