Our Story

A small press of listeners, one album at a time

The Album Club is an editorial community built around the slow ritual of deep listening — album-of-the-month reviews, honest vinyl quality notes, and member-curated deep dives for people who still believe an album is meant to be heard start to finish.

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How we started

Six friends, one turntable, and an argument about side B

The Album Club began in 2019 in a converted print shop in Portland, where six friends gathered on the first Sunday of every month to play a record from start to finish — no phones, no skipping, no commentary until the needle lifted. We were archivists, bartenders, a jazz drummer, and a record store clerk. The argument that night, if you can call it one, was about the final track on side B of Joni Mitchell's Hejira, and whether the song broke the album open or quietly closed it.

That question — what a record actually does when you give it your full attention — turned into a newsletter, then a blog, then a print zine, and finally this site. Today our editors still gather around a turntable once a month to nominate the next Album of the Month, and our members still write in with their own deep listens. We've grown, but the ritual hasn't changed: an album is a single, intentional arc, and it deserves to be heard that way.

"An album is a place. You don't tour a place — you live in it for thirty-eight minutes and then you tell someone what you found."
Editorial Philosophy

What we mean by a great deep listen

A deep listen isn't background music appreciation. It's an act of attention. These are the four commitments our reviewers and members hold themselves to — on every record, every month.

Start to finish, no skipping

We review the album as an album. If a record is sequenced, the sequence is part of the art. Our reviewers listen the way the artist intended — in order, with the lights down, twice before the first note of a draft.

Honest about vinyl quality

Pressing matters. We grade every vinyl release we cover — surface noise, mastering, jacket construction, and whether it's worth the price of admission. A beautiful album on a noisy pressing is half a story.

Member voices, not just critics

Every Album of the Month is paired with a member-curated deep listen — a personal reading of a single track, side, or sequence. Our best work comes from listeners, not press releases.

Generous, never algorithmic

We don't rank records on a 1–10 scale and we never optimize for what's trending. A great deep listen is a record that earned the time we gave it. Our reviews read like long letters between friends, not like a feed.

By the numbers

Six years of slow listening

We're a small editorial team with an outsized reading habit. Here's a snapshot of what the club has been doing since that first Sunday in 2019.

72
Albums of the Month reviewed since 2019, with a deep listen on every single one.
1,400+
Member-curated deep listens submitted to the archive, indexed by side and sequence.
340
Vinyl pressings graded, with notes on mastering, surface noise, and jacket build.
38 min
The minimum listen time before a reviewer is allowed to open a single notes document.
The Editors

The people behind the needle

Our editorial team is small on purpose. Every Album of the Month passes through a real conversation, on a real couch, with a real record on the platter. Here's who's listening this season.

Mara Reyes

Editor in Chief

Former jazz drummer, current archivist. Mara founded the club in 2019 and still chairs the monthly nomination meeting. Her favorite deep listen this year was the B-side of Adrianne Lenker's songs.

Daniel Okafor

Vinyl Editor

Daniel has graded more pressings than anyone on the team and writes our quarterly vinyl quality reports. He insists on testing every record on at least three cartridges before it earns a verdict.

Sora Lindqvist

Reviews Editor

Sora leads our long-form reviews and edits every member-curated deep listen before publication. She came to the club from a decade of writing liner notes for a small Scandinavian label.

Jules Tanaka

Members Editor

Jules runs the deep listen archive and curates the monthly member roundtable. Their column Side Notes has become a quiet favorite of long-time subscribers.

Pull up a chair, drop the needle

Whether you've been collecting for thirty years or you're about to buy your first turntable, there's a place for you at the table. The Album of the Month goes out the first Sunday of every month, and the archive is open whenever you need it.

Meet the Members