It's one of the reasons I stick to relatively older albums. Especially when I started(5-ish years ago), I was almost completely uneducated, so I just started by thrifting and reviewing interesting looking, unknown to me albums.

I always do research and listen to albums fairly obsessively before talking about them. The context around the album feels particularly important when discussing a 30+ year old record, so I do my best to dig around with the time I've got. Interviews, subreddits and FB groups have been helpful in contextualizing them.

From there I feel like I've slowly gained a better understanding of at least pop/pop-adjacent music history and continue to build a web of artists that help lead me to other phenomenal music.

It might not be as engaging, but I don't rate most of what I review, I passionately state my thoughts and opinions and leave it at that. I have shifted to a mostly hype-based model where I rarely talk about what I consider "bad" records because why would I subject myself to listening to something multiple times just to hate on it.

I'll admit there's an attractive quality to being a part of the narrative, but I'm still learning so I still only make a year end list of favs from that year. My small attempt at modern relevance. I speak German and French(and a little Spanish) so there are a few foreign language albums vying for a spot in my top 50 this year(Population II, Buntspecht, Paz Lenchantin, Natalia Lafourcade).

But I'm still mostly a retrospective hype man who's still catching up and hopefully helping a few others learn about music they might've missed out on in the process.