The album sequencing question is one of the things streaming has genuinely damaged and I want to talk about why.

Album sequencing is a compositional act. The order of tracks shapes how you hear each individual track — the contrast between a loud opener and a quiet second track, the way the album's energy rises and falls, the meaning that accrues when tracks are heard in relation to each other rather than in isolation.

Streaming and shuffle culture have made this compositional dimension largely invisible. If most people hear your tracks out of order on playlists, or skip past the slow track in the middle, the album as a composed arc never registers. Artists who are serious about sequencing are making something that most listeners will never fully experience.

I've been making a point of listening to new records in sequence, start to finish, on the first listen. This used to be the only way to hear an album. Now it feels like a deliberate act of critical attention.