Because I don't listen to much commercial radio anymore, I mostly hear new music through albums. There are lots of advantages to this approach, but the one downside is that I deprive myself of the opportunity to let a song blow my mind randomly on the radio. Take Kendrick Lamar's super-good Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. I totally was digging on the album for months before hearing "The Recipe" on the radio. I had always liked the song a lot, but I had liked it as part of a collection of great songs. Hearing "The Recipe" isolated on the radio, though, I was stunned by just how astoundingly fantastic it was -- and in a way I had never realized before. Now I love it in a whole different way. That's what the radio can do.
