I was listening to Slanted and Enchanted on the train (which won't make you pay $15 to check a bag) a few weeks ago, and realized that my favorite albums fall into two groups: those that continue to surprise me and reveal something new every time I listen to them, and those that I’ve internalized so thoroughly that I just don’t need to hear them anymore. Lamentably, I found that S&E falls into the latter category. As it played, I don’t think I registered for even a moment what I was hearing, but the music did seem to calm me and make me feel at peace with myself. Perhaps this is the greatest compliment I can give an album: that it is a part of me now, that listening to it is like looking at my hand, totally mundane but totally comforting.

But for every S&E, there’s an album like Bee Thousand, which I’ve loved forever and which still blows my mind in unexpected ways. Last time around, I realized that it’s the most beautifully produced album I’ve ever heard, so that its fragile melodies are even more precious (and something about the aesthetic of lo-fi being philosophically sound). And so on. I’m not sure what makes an album fall into one category or the other, but I find the division curious. There are other pairs like this: Up on the Sun (internalized), Double Nickels on the Dime (external wow); Rubber Soul (dusted treasure), Pet Sounds (eternal gee whiz). What are yours? Bonus question: Am I making sense?