Lose the earbuds. Ditch the phone. How to get the most out of your music
(WorldNews Music)

At some point during the pandemic, we`ve all sighed some variation on Willie Nelson`s timeless lyric: “Hello walls. How`d things go for you today?” Some moments were better than others, Willie. Battling fear, anxiety, rage, mourning and another furious wildfire season, during the most harrowing moments many of us desperately lurched into recorded music`s ever-loving arms. A few months into Our Year of Horribleness, a thing I wrote on the value of “deep listening”— making time to experience, with no distractions and at ample volume, great albums from start to finish — went viral. The pitch was simple, a variation on a term that the late composer Pauline Oliveros coined. Hearing and listening...