Reflections of Sound(tracks)
28 posts & 10 months into this music-fuelled writing Adventure
REWIND
Every year, at this time, for as long as I can remember, I’ve reflected on my goals for the previous year and written new ones in a journal. The reflection part is sometimes painful – I am my loudest, harshest critic, so I get down on myself if I haven’t achieved at least half of my goals. To lessen this pain, a few years ago I started writing down the unexpectedly great things that happened, too. I’ve found it therapeutic to make this bonus list, to put a positive spin on the year that was. It’s amazing how unpredictable a whole year can be, and focusing on the highlights is so much more rewarding than objectively evaluating the 8 or 10 possibly-unrealistic goals I set in January. I end up feeling grateful about the best parts of the past 12 months instead of regretful about the goals I missed.
By far my biggest achievement of 2024 was launching this Substack on my birthday in late February. Of the 28 Substack posts I wrote in 2024, the most read was my introductory post; unsurprising since it appears first when you view my site. The three runner-up posts with the most views, in ascending order, were:
All of those were paid posts initially, and are now free, so if you didn't previously, have a read and listen. Most importantly, if you haven’t subscribed yet, please do.
PAUSE
As this is a music-focused newsletter, I’d be remiss to not share some favourites of 2024. To be honest, I didn’t listen to a ton of brand new music, as I am constantly discovering albums and artists from all eras across different genres. A highlight 2024 album for me was As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again by The Decemberists — I devoted a whole post to their brilliant songwriter and lead singer Colin Meloy, where I featured a couple songs from that album.
In a similar folk-rock style to The Decemberists, I enjoyed my brothers’ Elliott BROOD’s Country, a companion album to 2023’s Town. I wrote about the latter when musing on our shared place of origin.
Genre-wise, I was consistently captured by mellow, instrumental, noodle-y guitar jams. Honourable mentions go to A LA SALA by Khruangbin and Sonido Cosmico by Hermanos Gutierrez. Both lovely albums by cool bands, but neither were a high mark in their canons. In that style, my favourite album released in 2024 was Selected Jambient Works, Vol. 1 by Cowboy Sadness. (Bonus points for a great band name and clever album title!) Its sparse, atmospheric, country-twang guitar magic was a steady soundtrack to much writing in 2024. Have a listen on Spotify or purchase via Bandcamp:
FORWARD
My primary goal for 2025 is to embark on a major writing project, away from Substack. I still plan to post here every two weeks, but in an effort to not be too consumed by Substack-writing and playlist-making, I will alternate between regular posts and a new category called 2020 Letters.
In late 2019, I set a goal to undertake a letter-writing project in 2020. I chose 20 people I knew and sent them a letter in the post, without prior warning. The recipients weren’t planned in advance, I just wrote to whomever I felt like next — this ended up being close friends, a couple family members, and people from my past, some of whom I hadn’t connected with in decades. Each letter centred on a specific theme, relevant to the person I was writing to, and included lyrics from an inspirational song or two. Naturally, as the project progressed, a playlist was built.
I started writing and sending letters in January 2020 and it felt like a quaint, secret creative project. A few months later, the pandemic hit, so connecting with people became all the more necessary and desperate. I found myself less energised to write letters and more focused on maintaining my immediate social circles, so my progress stalled. I eventually wrote the final letter in early February 2021. I’ve barely looked at the letters in 5 years, so 2025 feels like a good time to release them publicly. Some of the letters were deeply personal for one or both parties, so I will remove the name of each recipient and some sensitive information.
Thanks to everyone who read Soundtracks to Adventure and listened to my playlists in 2024. I hope you’ll stick around for more. I’ve particularly loved getting feedback, so do comment below a post or send me a message. It means a lot to have readers. I shall continue writing and obsessing over music.
Happy New Year,
Josh
