Musical Resolutions for 2026

Welcome to the latest edition of All the Music of All the World, our weekly series where we aim to share music worth being passionate about. Consider us a guide who can help you get the most out of your Victrola by giving you new music to listen to, or new ways to think about music you already know. 

Welcome to 2026, Victrola email subscribers. I hope you made it through the holidays with minimal interference from your most annoying relative, and had some time to unwind, be with the ones you love, and doing something for yourself.

Since it’s January 2, let’s talk about New Year’s Resolutions. When you’re young, it’s easy to be cynical about resolutions. “Most resolutions are abandoned by January 2,” you’d say with a Cheshire cat grin, like being anti-self-improvement was an admirable stance. “I don’t need the calendar to change to make changes,” you’d say. “I refuse to be a cog in the self-improvement machine,” you’d think when a co-worker shares their resolution.

Well, I say pish-posh to all that. The job of being alive is tweaking what you’re doing, trying new routines, doing things that will make life marginally better (or worse!), marking time any way you want, and carving up the day-to-day march that is having a corporeal form. In some ways, life is like a train—it goes one direction, inexorably toward its final destination. But life is also like a glacier; slow-moving, with changes being logged in small ways, and in small crumbles, over time. So, even if your resolution is abandoned in 48 hours, at least you’ve thought critically about where your life is now, and how you want to live it in the next 365 days. Like the Greek guy said: A life unexamined is not a life worth living.

Which is to say: This is a column about musical resolutions. Think about how you want to interact with music in 2026. Any rabbit holes you’d like to spend more time in? Goals for your record collection? What about saving up for a new turntable? In hope of helping you come up with some of your own, here are mine:

1. Buy more from local record stores.

Because of spending a big chunk of 2025 on unemployment—thank god for Victrola, in more ways than one—my record purchasing last year had to be budget conscious. Which meant for that many of the records I wanted, I bought them as cheap as possible on online retailers. This year, I resolve to give more of my money to people in the Twin Cities than to monoliths.

2. Spend more time listening to records.

I didn’t spend as much of 2025 with a turntable as I wanted, so this year I bought a living room turntable—shout out the Victrola Eastwood—to make sure I have a space to spin records on every floor of my house.

3. Be able to credibly describe the difference between the bands Geese and Goose.

One day I’ll get it!

4. Be OK with now knowing what’s happening in rap music, I can accept that the kids like music that I don’t relate to.

Unlike about every rap pundit, I swear to accept I will not get what kids like in rap music. And that’s cool!

5. Finally watch the Billy Joel documentary.

As someone who has inherited something like 25 Billy Joel records, this has been recommended to me a bunch. I WILL finally watch it.

6. Spend more time with music from other countries and languages.

My favorite discovery in music in the last five years has been corridos tumbados, the modern version of Mexican corridos. This year, I want to explore more.

7. Clear out my vinyl queue before buying new records.

This year, I’ll actually listen to every new record I have before I buy new ones. I’ve been promising myself this since about 2015. Maybe this year it’ll take.

Let us know your musical resolutions.