The other day a friend of mine asked me if I liked being a music critic. “Music critic?” I asked. “I’m not a music critic.” And I really meant that. Yes, I write about music. Yes, I give you my opinion on certain things. Yes, I recommend songs that I enjoy. But I don’t think I’m a critic in the same way that or Jessica Hopper or or are critics. I don’t think I’m giving you deep insight into particular pieces of music. I mostly write about trends.

Nevertheless, I love music criticism. So, when I came across a huge database of reviews from the last two decades, I knew I had to start crunching some numbers. As always, this newsletter is also available as a podcast. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or click play at the top of this page.

As a reminder, this is the podcast version of the newsletter Can’t Get Much Higher. Click here to read the newsletter. It contains charts, graphs, and pictures that will color your listening. Click here to listen on Apple or Spotify. For a playlist of every new song that I’ve recommended, click here. For a playlist of every old song that I’ve recommended, click here. If you want to here songs and their answer songs, check out this playlist that I made on Spotify.

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