The unoptimizable metric

I've been discovering a lot of new music lately. Like a lot. There's a new Slayyyter album out, then my YT Music recommended Middle Kids. When I scrolled down to the recommended albums, I noticed the cover of Surf's Up by The Beach Boys. It's way darker than I would've expected from the Kokomo guys, so I wanted to see what that was about But then scrolling through Instagram, I found this post of artists I should check out if I liked Dijon and Mk.Gee. As it so happens, I do like Dijon and Mk.Gee. So now I've gotta keep track of this new batch of artists. Exploration felt super fun at first. Every artist is a new sound to get in to, with backstories I'd like to read and vibes to enjoy. I listen to an album once then go along to the next one. Now I've began asking myself the weird question: When can you say that you've really "listened" to an album? There's the regular duration of it, which can be 30-45 mins. or so. It's an episode of Widow's Bay, really. But watching an episode once…