Hey friends, it's Chef.
First things first, RIP Bobby Caldwell. Open Your Eyes soundtracked one of the best summers of my life so far.
Despite Spotify's relentless marketing pushes, I don't really engage with their playlists. When I'm listening to music, I'm usually either listening to the same song on repeat for days, playlists by friends or, most often, albums.
There's a lot to love about the album format, but for me, above everything else, they give music a narrative—there's an opener, a closer, and usually a windy journey in between—that you lose when you're listening to playlists on shuffle.
Of all the devices that artists use to hold their album narratives together, my favorite is the interlude. Whether they're a few seconds or a few minutes, interludes punctuate tracklists in a way that gives them more texture and ultimately makes them feel more cohesive.