Work Music for Not Doing Work

Welcome to the latest installment of Five Albums, the weekly feature for paid Hearing Things subscribers in which we discuss a handful of new records catching our attention. As music journalists, the question we get most often from friends is how to stay on top of what’s happening now. This is our attempt to provide a practical answer.

The concept of “quiet quitting”—doing the absolute least amount of work to avoid getting fired from whatever job you hate—took hold sometime during the height of the pandemic. But it never occurred to me that quiet quitting needed a soundtrack until I read Ryan’s thoughtful review of his pick this week—an album that, ironically, is making him more productive. Read it below and vibe out while you’re on your slightly-too-long lunch break.