Albums that Work: Write, Study, Focus + Flow
Why Albums?
Yes, Spotify can seem almost entirely built to curate focus playlists. But every time I listen to a Spotify official playlist I start to get this hard to describe dread that I am a Sim whose artistic pleasure is being curated by a machine.
I also find that even the best playlists eventually give me fatigue, distraction + disorientation from jumping around through so many artists. In contrast, albums create an arc that lends a unit of time to your writing.
When I want the variety of a playlist, I prefer mixes that are structured with an arc in mind and made as a defined sequence by a particular artist. That said, there are thoughtful playlist exceptions to the rule, and I've included two of them at the end of this post.
I do digital work, indoors on a laptop, so the overall tone of the music tends to skew electronic. I'd curate a very different set of albums for the trenching labour I did in the Yukon. To me, digital work naturally pairs with digital-sounding music.
Everything here has been thoroughly vetted by me. I've worked to each of these albums at minimum 4-6 times, most 10+ times and many 20+. This is not just a list of albums I like and sometimes play while working. It is albums specifically vetted as a reliable work music backdrop.
Some ppl can pop on a lo-fi beats playlist and go. Their music plays a background ASMR role, more about a general out-of-focus sense of rhythm + melody. I have the blessing/curse of synesthesia, with incredibly sensitive ears to the personality inflections of music. Whenever I control the sounds flowing into my mind, they are tailored to my objective in that precise moment.
I confess part of this post was a force function for some long-overdue Spotify organization. When I started my DO WORK playlist folder was at just under 200 albums/playlists. Through this piece, I distilled that sap into a syrup of 54 items:
47 albums
4 mixes
2 playlists
Newcomer Suggestions
Do a quick scroll and you'll see this is a long list. This is a resource to be enjoyed over time.
I say this as a guy who's savoured his way through Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of all time for years now.
I’ve embedded a Spotify mini-player for each album. You can use the little ‘next track arrow’ in the bottom right corner of each embed rectangle to skim through 30sec snippets of each song on any of the albums.
If this post is helpful or a particular album resonates, please let me know!
Wrangling my sprawl of taste into this semi-coherent system took many albums of time... Hearing where it successfully introduced you to new music you love is the greatest reply gift (critique on how to improve this post equally encouraged!)
I could do a similar thing with cardio playlists/albums + good music in general if ppl enjoy and find value here.
I love getting good music recommendations — if you have any fav album(s) as companion to your focus + flow, I'd love a link to listen!
Starter Pack
re:member — Ólafur Arnalds
Calm piano-driven music that gradually picks up momentum. This album has an excellent arc to wake up your mental faculties. (TLee most listened to focus albums 1/2.)
Migration — Bonobo
I'm full Pavlov with the 'dluu-duu-duu-duu-duu-duu-duu-doum' synth pattern on the first track — I hear it + instantly shift into GTD mindset. (TLee most listened to focus albums 2/2 )
This is my all-time favourite mix. The weird stilted voiceover introduction 33sec in ushers you onto a path that winds through a lush, idiosyncratic voyage. This is curation at its finest: equally welcoming + bizarre. It effortlessly flows between tracks you’d never think to pair.
Onism — Photay
Simultaneously one of the most organic + electronic-sounding albums I know.
Mosaik — Camo & Krooked
Melodic, hook + rhythm-driven drum'n'bass. Really catchy syncopations.
Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night — Cubicolor
This is a great album for editing your writing. Similar cool pensive clarity to Radiohead, but more melodic, calm + EDM-y.
I. Tracks of Momentum
These are albums that lean to the instrumental side of the lyrical spectrum. Some are fully instrumental, others have occasional guest vocalists + several are producer + vocalist collabs. What unites them is they’re more about momentum than a (verse → chorus → bridge) flow of songwriting.
I structured the following subcategories (Piano, Texture Poets, Writing, etc) into an overall tempo escalation from calm/clarity/melody to high voltage/chaotic dissonance. Most of them lean electronic, but nothing is what I’d classify as EDM.
Piano
When my ears begin writing at 8:25 am, they want a soft backdrop. We're starting off with piano, the most foundational, classic + time-honoured of focus music categories.
Presented on a spectrum of calm, starting with the most gentle.
Music for Silence — Nick Murphy
This is a perfect album title. When I'm trying to build productive momentum from a place of weary fatigue or scattered fragility, the delicate notes of this album are my go-to.
Solo Piano — Chilly Gonzales
There’s so much wit, charm + storytelling in this fully instrumental album. 10 fingers and the piano keys they dance across evoke the timeless style of a sharp tuxedo.
Trance Frendz — Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds
The first track on this is my all-time favourite song to work to. I often listen to it on repeat.
re:member — Ólafur Arnalds
Calm piano-driven music that gradually picks up momentum. This album has an excellent arc to wake up your mental faculties. (TLee most listened to focus albums 1/2.)
Texture Poets
To me, these are the next most calm albums after piano. They work particularly well on rainy days. But they are also the 3 most artsy albums on the list — so some of you may find the albums in the ‘Writing’ category calmer due to them being less idiosyncratic.
Presented in order of abstraction, from most ethereal (Jaar) to more conventional (Photay).
Space is Only Noise — Nicolaas Jaar
A sometimes eerie but always poetic alien world of electronic explorations. It’s the most arthouse album in this post - a foreign film sci-fi noir kind of ambiance. Song titles include ‘Too Many Kids Finding Rain In the Dust’ + ‘Space Is Only Noise if You Can See’.
Put hip-hop beats and the organic textures of folk music together on tumble dry. This album is the music you hear from outside the machine.
Onism — Photay
Simultaneously one of the most organic + electronic-sounding albums I know.
Writing
When I seek a warm tone in my writing I particularly like to use DJ Koze’s music. His soundscape matches the voice I aim to embody through text. I love artists that feel like their own genre + DJ Koze is a prime example. The world-building of his albums creates a metaverse I'd happily live inside.
Cubicolor’s music has a cooler tone. It’s powerful and beautiful, but more cerebral + objectivist. I tend to use their music during editing when my primary focus is clarity.
Presented on a flow from starting to write (Bonobo) to editing (Cubicolor)
I'm full Pavlov with the 'dluu-duu-duu-duu-duu-duu-duu-doum' synth pattern on the first track — I hear it + instantly shift into GTD mindset. (Most listened to focus albums 2/2)
This album reminds me of the atmosphere from twilight to 4am at a hostel in Greece. Lanterns come out + the breeze of night carries travellers in all directions. Some strum guitars, some chat, some go to the local club - you hear it all here, sometimes on a single track. Music on My Teeth is one of my all-time favourite songs.
This is my all-time favourite mix. The weird stilted voiceover introduction 33sec in ushers you onto a path that winds through a lush, idiosyncratic voyage. This is curation at its finest: equally welcoming + bizarre. It effortlessly flows between tracks you’d never think to pair.
DJ Koze Presents Pampa, Vol. 1
This album exemplifies how the music I listen to while working is different than music in the rest of my life. Many tracks here are like the highway landscape as you drive towards a horizon. Long stretches of forward-focus open into new patterns over a gradual timescale.
This album is the current of air that rushes through, past and around you, as you drive alone on a warm, clear summer night.
Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night — Cubicolor
This is a great album for editing your writing. Similar cool pensive clarity to Radiohead, but more melodic, calm + EDM-y.
Groove
I like these albums for catching up on planning, scheduling + email. They’re great for keeping energy up when you want the texture of Hip-Hop/R&B but without the added stimulus of lyrics. From jazzy/soulful, to beats + loops, across these albums, the groove reigns supreme.
Presented on a spectrum from more accessible pop sounds (Marr+Faker) to more jazzy/underground tone (Dayes).
Work — Marcus Marr, Chet Faker
An EP of 4 excellent electronic-infused indie-pop jams. The algorithm sends out lifeless imitations of this sort of musical terrain in droves. This is that mimicry’s heartbeat source.
Silver Linings — Catching Flies
If you like lo-fi, this album is for you. Pulls together samples into a brilliant kaleidoscope of beats, soulful call-outs + snappy licorice loops.
What Kinda Music — Tom Misch, Yussef Dayes
The kind of modern jazz drenched in joy + exploration that steers young fans of hip-hop + R&B to their precursors. An evocative firework show at a festival.
One of Nicolaas Jaar's many aliases, this set of tracks feels like dusting off a hologram disco VR app misplaced from the future. Familiar soul beats with flourishes of the otherworld.
Welcome to the Hills — Yussef Dayes
I discovered Yussef Dayes on his collab track Strange Habits with Maribou State + had to get more of his euphoria rush of rhythm. This album delivers on a mood well summarized by the album art.
Intergalactic Vibes
If I’m doing strategic work, or anything with broad outlines + bullet points I might gravitate to one of these to channel my inner Atreides. Each of albums glide with the cool metallic glint of space crafts + gleam with the open starry space of distant galaxies.
Presented on a spectrum of friendliness from grinning (M83) to ghost (DJ Shadow)
The neon pink drop shadow text + claymation burger critters are a good indicator M83 has charged the explosive synths lines up to 11. If you want to stop taking yourself so seriously and hyperspace accelerate towards a wide-eyed sense of wonder this the backdrop for you.
No Geography — The Chemical Brothers
Dance through destruction with the wider lens view that earth is just one location on a much bigger map. This album has the playful retro-future energy from 80s/90s sci-fi movies where the stunts were real + special effects were done with animatronics rather than CGI.
As the title alludes, Vessel is a sleek shuttle powered by space bass, synth beams + percussive flares. The passenger journey is so smooth that if it weren’t for the star streaks visible outside, you’d have no idea you were travelling lightyears.
This is album seats you as a pilot of a space flight simulator. In contrast to OVERWERKs effortless space tourism, here you’ll feel the rumbles as you navigate asteroid fields. The starry vistas are profound + the gravity races against black holes are tense.
This album sounds like dusty ghosts in a first-generation digital alarm clock radio. Left abandoned in a thrift shop basement this alarm clock flickers between its radio channels, possessed by a morse code outreach from our distant future.
Wind + Waves
When you’re doing a bit of everything (jumping from social media to updating your website) I find these albums carry across contexts with good range. These albums are like the elements. Their tempos surge + then go still. Sometimes they hold space for your reflection, sometimes they urge you forward on the swell of their waves.
Presented on a spectrum of intensity from calmer (Caribou) to way too intense for most people (Against All Logic).
The mastery version of when you were a kid playing around in photoshop or garage band, delighting in stitching new sounds + visuals together. A cornucopia of ideas collaged into striking songs that shoot in all directions like sonic laser tag.
A stunning exploration of the downsides of early success and the needless weight of expectations. A life affirmation to create art as a beacon for others to follow. Sonically, it’s a masterclass in conveying what’s uniquely human through raw contrast against digital.
This music feels like viewing a thunderstorm from a simulator that allows you to jump between vantage points. Sometimes you’re right beneath the weight of clouds, sometimes you’re far away + it’s a play of light. Brightness pokes through for stretches, but there’s always a static buzz in the air.
Mosaik — Camo & Krooked
Melodic, hook + rhythm-driven drum'n'bass. Really catchy syncopations.
If you splice-extracted a stem cell from Yeezus and cultivated that stab of bristle-distortion DNA into a techno album, it might sound like this. When you churn with an erratic itch to move a project forward ASAP, the crunch of this album will match your brash energy.
Fuse is Lit
When you’re already fired up, this music will keep you burning forward. I wouldn’t recommend them as a cold start. Unless you’re internally hyped to begin with I’d start with one of the prior categories, then move into one of these once you’re sizzling.
Presented on a spectrum of dissonance from melodic (Caribou) to jarring (Chemical Brothers)
There’s an infinite escalation sound illusion called a shepard tone that is used to create anticipation in movie trailers. This album is the warm, Brian Wilson vibes version of that. Each track is a perpetual upward spiral.
Surrender — The Chemical Brothers
Analog synths + rock psychedelia collide + sputter + exchange DNA in a race through consciousness. This is hot summer haze at a music festival - from bustling frenzy to daydreams on a blanket of grass.
Play the song Krack first, and then if you want more of this battery buzz go back to play from the start. An early HTML side-scroll of circuit board assembly lines that snap, crackle + pop.
Born in the Echoes — The Chemical Brothers
This music suits the action movie scene where they open an airlock and all the air is getting sucked out along with every untethered object as Tom Cruise fights the techno-villain. Also 1:18 on Taste of Honey is a great way to test the stereo sound of your speakers + headphones.
Movie Soundtracks
I generally don’t listen to movie soundtracks. They’re symbiotically designed as a countermelody to a visual experience. Their visual half isn’t being experienced when listening to them while doing something else. That said, these two are so good that they’re exceptions to the rule.
Beasts of the Southern Wild — Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin
My favourite movie soundtrack. The film is a beautiful, fantastical journey — the music embodies that.
Tron Legacy is in my top 3 in-theatre movie experiences. The soundtrack is a huge part of that. It's such a powerful work of world-building.
II. Lyrical
Instrumental music provides a fertile open space for the mind to grow. But sometimes you want the opposite. You're labelling files. You’ve batched a bunch of technical but fairly mindless repetitive tasks. In this context, I’m keen for some more narrative inputs to accompany me. Lyrics add a human element to something that’s otherwise a sterile machine engagement of ‘cut, paste, new folder’ tasks.
I tend to discover new music of all kinds in these circumstances when I’m more open with bandwidth for novelty. Once I’ve listened to a focus-compatible album enough times to reach familiarity it can serve as a backdrop regardless of the type of work I’m doing.
Guitars, Drummers + Choruses
Most of the albums to this point have centred on piano/keyboard/synthesizers + programmed drums. Here is the counterbalance for when your ears need something less digital.
Presented on a spectrum of the time of day the music evokes, from morning (Colter Wall) to night (The National)
Imaginary Appalachia — Colter Wall
Next-gen Johnny Cash hollerin’ out of Saskatchewan with a mighty bellow. This album is the grandest pattern break from everything else on this list.
Whitney — Light Upon the Lake
This album sounds like chai tea with jam on toast.
If you like falsetto, piano, jaunty drums, catchy hooks + earworm choruses this is for you. Bright pastel indie music you could butter a croissant with.
They Might've Even Loved Me — NoMBe
Indie rock undercurrent with electronic, hip-hop, + R&B sizzles, this album strums, struts + smiles with youthful confidence. Incredibly catchy tracks fueled by dark chocolate with sea salt + self-assured sex positivity.
Origin — Jordan Rakei
A whirlpool of alternative R&B pop with bubbles of experimental electronic flourishes. The atmosphere would work well in a sci-fi romance movie where a man exits a sci-fi dystopia and uncovers an Atlantis utopia. Groovy futurist mermaid cavern water vibes.
The first track Octopus opens with the diamond glint guitar tone I love about Island’s music. This album summons a hazy VR mirage atmosphere.
Your Hero Is Not Dead — Westerman
Very spacious melodic music — lots of room for your thoughts between the notes. Think millennial Phil Collins.
This album is a vulnerable, intimate conversation with yourself during a night out. The muffled ebb of the club is just outside of your inner dialogue. There are euphoric bursts when friends pull you out onto the dance floor + you embrace the beat of the present moment.
Resistance Radio — Various Artists (prod. Sam Cohen & Danger Mouse)
A nostalgia breeze of Pre-Beatles pop hits covered by modern artists. Lush + grandiose cinema widescreen production. You can feel the velvet curtains rustle.
An end-of-night french fries conversation with your best friend before a taxi home. A faux fur coat Gen-Z Gatsby journey into grandeur, glory, masculine insecurity + introspection.
Sleep Well Beast — The National
A great album for evening/end-of-day journaling.
Hip-Hop
These are best when you want to maintain a repetitive flow of tasks with steady momentum (photoshop detail work, simple file organization etc). Ideally tasks where the goal is speed over precision.
Presented in order of lyrical density from a fair amount of groove space for thoughts (A Tribe Called Quest) to dense wordplay (Madvillainy)
We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service — A Tribe Called Quest
The grooves on this are just so good. Tribe Called Quest are masters of finding that one endlessly curious part of a track to loop + each finding their own pocket in the beat.
Eternal Sunshine — Jay Electronica
A short film for your ears. Who knew Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka dialogue + the soundtrack to a Charlie Kaufman film would pair so well with hip-hop? Jay Electronica, that’s who.
A Written Testimony — Jay Electronica
Jay Electronica journeys pyramids, prophecy, UFOs + ancient mathematics with Jay-Z as his co-star. It’s an alien mp3 player unearthed in a new archeological dig.
Madvillainy — Madvillain
If you want the farthest thing from passive background listening music, this is probably it. Brilliant wordplay. RIP Doom.
Madvillain Four Tet Remixes
The album art shows it well — an 8-bit remix take on a hip-hop classic.
III. Mixes
Mixes curated by musicians I love are the ultimate gift in new music discovery. They venture into new territory, but through the guidance of a curator whose own music I love. My taste usually matches their selections in ways that surprise me. While algorithms look into the rearview mirror and draw a straight line into the future - a good mix takes you off the main roads on an adventure.
Mixes I’ve never heard before are best for work that’s a bit tedious — something that might not have a deadline but is important to get done. Curiosity of where the music will go next keeps me engaged on tasks that might otherwise be procrastinated.
New mixes also work for highly segmented work — situations where you’re focused on micro packets of focus. I tend towards chasing the long tail of references + quikbrowsing discographies when a track from a new artist blows my mind. You don’t want that when you’re in a flow-state. Especially something that requires keeping grip on the head + tails of a ton of threads.
Mixes I’m familiar with play a different role. They’re great for the cohesion stage of ideation. The jumps from artists, all united by a single tonal theme does wonders for fostering a flow of converging ideas.
Presented on a spectrum from more pop-centred mixes (Strawberry) to deep cut unerground outliers (Jaar).
Steve Jobs had a Strawberry Fields Forever tape. On it were a progression of takes that documented the song’s evolution from a catchy pop piano track to a collage of orchestral psychedelia. Jobs would listen to the tape as a reminder of the iterative nature of the creative process. To me, that quirk was the most charming + humanizing anecdote in Walter Isaacson's spectacular Steve Jobs biography. I made this playlist from the song’s available versions on Spotify. I concur with Steve, it’s a great musical arc for generating ideas.
This mix embodies everything I love about the Late Night Tales catalogue. It's a carefully curated flow of songs that reveals the diverse inspirations of its artist.
In this mix, Maribou State introduced me to Nick Hakim’s sensual groove Cuffed, Yussef Dawes euphoric drum exultation Strange Habits, + a remix of Reckoner, my favourite Radiohead song.
Nicolaas Jaar BBC Essential Mix (Click here for Soundcloud)
This is a work of high art. It's a narrative experience + best listened to while doing something artistic/intuitive (non-cerebral) so you can enjoy the mastery of his transitions
IV. Morning Playlists
My gripe with 94.27% of Spotify playlists is that 15 songs in I get the metallic aftertaste of the algorithm in my mouth. It becomes apparent what song references are the source + I can predict the patterns that will repeat.
New playlists are a more extreme example of the scatter + disorient aspects I describe above with new mixes. The added caveat of playlists for focus is unless you work 12h+ in a sitting (I don’t) most playlists never end in the duration of our time with them. I find this daunting.
Both of these playlists are extraordinarily eclectic in tempo + genre. They also each nail the type of music I want to hear in the morning. I use them as sources of new music discovery, guiding me to albums to explore from standout tracks.
Early Mornings — playlist by Catching Flies
Catching Flies’ playlist is like Sundance film festival curation (fresh but familiar).
Photay veers out into idiosyncratic ‘foreign film at the Cinematheque’ terrain.
Parting Thoughts
I grew up in the gift of a household where music was always playing.
I went from harmonica lessons, to percussion + then trombone in concert + jazz band, to chamber + vocal jazz choirs, to improvising piano + guitar.
Looking back, given all of that music playing I was peculiarly slow on seeking out my own taste in music listening. In a pattern I’ve repeated across many domains of my life, I was late bloomer who then went all-in with obsession.
In my last two years of highschool I got an iPod touch, iTunes and a harddrive treasure trove of music from a friend a couple years older than me who had great taste. That foundation of music sparked my own curiosity from where my taste diverged from his. I began to stumble across music blogs and have enjoyed exploring new genres, styles + artists since.
This collection of music is a living resource, and one I will continue to update. I hope that like the foundation of music I got in high school it can introduce your ears to new sounds + styles.
If you find value in this post I’d be thrilled for you to share it with others you think might enjoy the music.
I’d be thrilled if you sent me a message on Twitter with your own favourites, or tell me when one of these albums resonates with you — It always makes my day when my friends do that.
Enjoy!