My CD Collection
When I got older, with the format's obsolescence looming, I'd still purchase physical copies of albums I loved from my favorite artists to collect as memorabilia and support my faves (my faves being major record labels because you know I stan the pop girlies of the 2000s), but I'd usually just buy and listen to the albums on iTunes. But a few years ago when I finally got a vehicle, I discovered the joy of the car CD and began actively listening to CDs again. I actually even fell for the classic marketing tactic of buying a CD just based on the radio singles, which would play on repeat at my retail job and — unlike my coworkers with better taste — I actually enjoyed.
I ended up selling my car before a recent move, but I couldn't let go of my CDs. I work from home and have no commute, so there's no longer a natural space for CD listening in my current life. But that's exactly why I've not only held onto my CDs, but also continued collecting new ones. In the streaming era, it's so easy to just shuffle a random playlist for background music without really paying attention to it, or to become so overwhelmed with choices, you skip around too much without actually sitting through an entire album or even song — even as many current pop tracks have been reduced to glorified ringtones.
And so building a CD collection in the year of our Lord 2022 serves as a way to challenge this attention-economy-hyper-consumption moment and replace it with more mindful intention.
As with my fragrance collection, I now strive to curate a collection that spans my past and current tastes, but hangs onto the passion and intent that used to bring me such joy when I was a kid. And it's not just nostalgia — selecting a CD, removing it from it's jewel case, enjoying the sound of my CD player closing and the disc starting to spin before the first track plays and begins a journey through an entire body of work — it now serves as a sort of grounding exercise that has even more significance in this era.
On this page, you can find a catalog of my current CD collection. I'll be sharing details, rankings, reviews and wish lists — but for now, enjoy this visual representation of my current collection. It's not only all-time faves — a few were purchased out of curiosity and I haven't even listened to some of them yet! — but overall this does a pretty good job of reflecting my music taste.
I hope exploring my collection inspires you to indulge in your favorite music or pastimes more mindfully — and maybe check out some artists and albums that spark your interest.
Latest additions
An event at a local record store scored me three classic albums with some of my favorite songs!
Madonna - Madonna The blueprint. One of the strongest debuts of all time. No skips. And a couple of my all-time faves from the queen of pop are on here ("Lucky Star," "Burning Up", "Physical Attraction").
Mariah Carey - Emotions The title track is iconic and one of my favorite summer songs. I've never heard most of the other songs on the album, so I'm excited to check them out!
Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey Another strong debut from an iconic artist. This album has one of my all-time faves from ~the elusive chanteuse~ ("Someday") as well as her breakout hit, "Vision of Love," so I'm hopeful for the rest of the album, even though I know there were some creative tensions in the creation of this one!
Studio albums, CD singles and single-artist compilations
Compilations by various artists
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