How albumen works

A month in the club.

A club holds eight seats. Every month runs the same loop: everyone picks, everyone listens, everyone scores, and the month ends with a verdict. Here is the whole machine, in order.

Starting from scratch? Read how to start an album club with friends.

AAda 4.5BBram 3.5CCleo 4.0DDot 2.5

The needle sits at 3.6

One record each

Pick

Each member adds one album per round. Search Spotify and the tracklist fills itself in; manual entry works too. If your club runs a theme, it sits at the top of the page while you choose.

One pick per member per round. The round is the calendar month, unless your club finishes early and the owner starts a second one with its own theme.
Keep candidates in your private queue and promote one when it is your turn. The page warns you if the club already did that album.
Themes are set per month in club settings; repeat rounds never inherit the old theme.

July themean album from a show you were at

southpaw waltz

Southpaw WaltzThe Tallboys · 1997 · 11 tracksUse this

Or pick from your queue

Hotel Nowhere

Slow Fires

Meridian

Ines Quo

Club did this one

Pale Blue Static

Camera Shy

Front to back

Listen

Every album page has a Session button: a full-screen pass through the album, one track at a time, with playback controls and auto-advance when a track ends. Your queue has it too, for auditioning candidates before you spend a pick.

Set your streaming service on your account page. Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music each get an inline player; Tidal and Amazon link out with one tap.
Listen links on tracks honor the same preference, everywhere they appear.
On phones, tracks deep-link into your streaming app for full-length playback.

Night CurrentsListening session · track 5 of 10

4Low Tide Economics3:41

5Coda for a Landline4:07

6Salt Cathedral2:58

Plays in your streaming service

Every track, a number

Score

The moment an album lands, a blank scorecard lands on your sheet. Ratings run 0 to 5 in half stepsand your album score is the average of your rated tracks, unless you override it. The number is yours to defend.

Crown a top track on every card. It feeds the reveal.
Notes can land with a rating or before one; first impressions welcome.
Interludes are marked and optional; they never block a complete card.
The album page shows everyone’s card next to yours, track by track.

Night CurrentsYouAdaBramCleo

1Undertow4.03.54.53.0

2Paper Anchor3.03.02.54.0

sounds like a ferry leaving

3Wanderluster4.55.04.04.5

4Low Tide Economics2.52.03.53.0

5Coda for a Landline4.03.53.55.0

Album score3.63.43.63.9

Hot takes, attached

Talk

The Listening Room is the club’s chat, on the club home and on every album page. Tag an album so a hot take stays attached to its subject, and react to the takes you rate.

The room resets monthly; past months stay readable on History.
Chat never gates scoring. Lurking is a valid membership style.

The Listening Room

Ada Track 7 is the whole album. Argue with the wall.

Night Currents🔥 2

Dot This theme is going to end friendships.

Bram Scored it. No regrets. Some regrets.

😂 3

Say something...

The month's verdict

Reveal

Scores stay yours until the reveal. Each album reveals once nearly every card is in (the owner picks how many may still be missing), and the month gets its own verdict at the end: top album, top tracks, most divisive pick, and who marched to their own beat.

Finish early and the owner can open the month reveal ahead of schedule, or start the next round.
The recap email lands once per member, with the write-up.
History keeps every month; Wrapped rolls up the year.

Month reveal

Night CurrentsThe Marginals · picked by Ada3.9

1.Wanderluster - Night Currents4.6
2.Glass Teeth - Glasshouse4.4
3.Undertow - Night Currents4.1

Participation: 4 of 4 scorecards finishedMost divisive: Copper SeasonMarched to their own beat: Dot

Taste travels

Beyond your club

The club is the engine, but taste travels. Your public profile carries your library, your activity, and a song of the month your followers can rate.

Follow clubmates (or anyone who shares their profile link); your feed collects what they pick, rate, and crown, with a marker for what is new since your last visit.
Set a display name and avatar on your account page; your clubs see them everywhere.
Member sheets show your taste overlap: where you agree, and where you clash.

Your feed

Cleo picked Glasshouse for July, Round 2

Bram crowned a top track Wanderluster, from Night Currents

Ada set a song of the month Undertow

4.5 from 3 followers

People you may know from your clubsFollow

House rules

You have an entire month to listen.
The round is the calendar month. Late scoring is tolerated, barely.
Everyone fills in a scorecard.
Your pick and everyone else’s. Blank cards land on your sheet the moment an album is added.
Name a favorite song.
Every scorecard crowns a Top Track.
Nothing shall be taken personally.
Ratings are personal. A 1.0 is a statement about the song, mostly.
Your listening device(s) must be of high quality.
The club cannot legislate taste, but it can legislate speakers.
Agree to the rules? Start your club

That is the whole loop.

Pick, listen, score, talk, reveal - every month.

Start a club See the pitch

House rules

You have an entire month to listen.

The round is the calendar month. Late scoring is tolerated, barely.

Everyone fills in a scorecard.

Your pick and everyone else’s. Blank cards land on your sheet the moment an album is added.

Name a favorite song.

Every scorecard crowns a Top Track.

Nothing shall be taken personally.

Ratings are personal. A 1.0 is a statement about the song, mostly.

Your listening device(s) must be of high quality.

The club cannot legislate taste, but it can legislate speakers.

Agree to the rules? Start your club