Candid discussions of albums spanning a wide range of origins, genres and moods. Written by me, for everyone.

At the end of 2025, I decided to begin a project I’ve been circling for a while. For over five years, I’ve made it a habit to attentively listen to full-length albums, then log them in a database with personal ratings calculated by a series of self-defined parameters. From what’s trending today to little-known gems of yesterday, the database spans hundreds of albums, and serves as both a time capsule of my listening habits and a method to keep my ears sharp.

While composing for the concert hall or theatre has been my main focus recently, I’m increasingly interested in expanding the ways I engage with music on a broader scale. Composing will always be my first love, but this project engages in another one: active listening. I think being a good listener is crucial in maintaining and expanding one’s own musical practice, so I figured sharing my own process would be interesting.

That’s what I want to do with The Listening Room - provide some insight into my own listening routine and, along the way, maybe even introduce you to albums or artists you might not yet know. I plan to post updates periodically, with each post featuring a discussion of the albums I spent time with during that window of time - sometimes drawing connections between them, discussing them in isolation, and/or even providing some fun facts about their respective artists… who knows how it’ll end up. One thing is for sure, though: this is NOT meant to be academic writing in any way (I’ve had enough of that the past few years). I want this to be a more casual, informal discussion of the albums I’ve checked out.

I will be intentionally avoiding any pre-determined list of “must-listen-to” albums, or manually balancing out genres or styles on an album-to-album basis. I want to go with the flow entirely and see where my listening habits take me based on current curiosities, circumstances, and mental/emotional states (which are, as we all know, a crucial component to what music you listen to at a given moment). That said, if there’s an album you’d really like to see on here, let me know via the contact page or on Instagram @benhoppe722 and I’ll put it on my radar!

With that said, please reach out with any suggestions or comments regarding any components of this project. I’m still not sure what The Listening Room might turn into at the end of the day, so feedback is very much appreciated.

Onto the music!