How do I choose what albums I listen to and when?

(I apologize in advance for any possible repetition. I wrote this post on a whim and didn't plan it beforehand or do that much editing afterwards. I just needed to talk. :D)

I've made it my goal to listen to at least 5 albums a week. I started with 2-3 metal albums and 2-3 rap albums, now I do one album from the 1001 Albums to Listen Before You Die, two metal albums and 2 rap albums. I'll listen to albums from other genres if I have time to do so.

I have two notes on my phone: One is titled Albums to Listen, and the other is Album Backup Lists. Every Sunday, I make a new 5-album list on Albums to Listen. I start from the next album in the 1001 book, and then move on to albums that come out that week or came out the past week, which I keep track of on the calendar of my phone. I only write rap and metal albums there, and major pop releases. If there's less than 4 albums coming out that week (plus the past week, since they drop on Friday), I fill the remaining spots with albums from the Album Backup Lists, prioritizing the underlined ones. There are three lists: Metal, Non-Finnish Rap, and Other. I fill the spots with Metal and Non-Finnish Rap, so that the ratio between the two is about 50-50. 
When my vacation is over and I go back to work, I'll probably listen to one 1001 album, one Can't Stop Won't Stop (old hiphop) album, plus at least five new albums a week, consisting of 2-3 hiphop and 2-3 metal albums.

I'm sure this raises a lot of questions:
- Where do you find albums to put on the calendar?
- Where do you find albums to put on the backup lists?
- Why are some of the album titles underlined?
- Why metal and non-Finnish rap in particular, why are they prioritized like that?
- When do you listen to the other genres then?

I'll answer all of these below.

I've been a metalhead since ~2003 and a hiphop head since 2022-2023. I want to stay on top of metal that other metalheads are talking about and discover new bands I like personally. That's why metal is a priority, why I make time for it in my schedule. I'm still learning about hiphop and I feel like currently, I learn the best by listening to as much of it as possible. Finnish rap is easier for me to listen, so I separated English-speaking rap, which I find more challenging because of the language, accents and cultural differences, from Finnish rap. Finnish rap I can listen to casually in the background whenever and get the gist of it, while foreign hiphop demands more concentration.

I find albums from Soundi, a Finnish music magazine, and several online sources (which I check about once in two weeks):
- Soundi: if the album got 4 or 5 stars in the magazine, I'll add it to whichever backup list it belongs to. I reserve the physical copy of the magazine from my local library.
- Imperiumi, a digital Finnish metal music magazine I recently re-discovered. I went through the reviews of the newest 10 pages, I believe, and added to my metal backup list all the albums that got at least 8.5/10 from them. Imperiumi.net / Levyarvostelut
- Inferno, another Finnish metal music magazine that just recently released it's last physical copy and now solely exists digitally. If the album got 4/5 or 5/5 axes from them, it goes on my metal backup list. Arviot - Inferno.fi
- Suomen Virallinen Lista --> Albumit. The official list of Finland, to stay on top of what's going on in my home country, without listening to the radio. Everything in the Top 5 of the Albumit (Albums) list go on my backup lists. Listat - Musiikkituottajat
- Metacritic's Upcoming Album Release Calendar. I browse through the list and write the interesting metal, hiphop and pop releases in my phone's calendar and the rest in my Other backup list, with a date attached to them. (Pop, because I follow the pop culture and pop is the biggest genre in it.) I usually read the list about a month ahead from the current date. Upcoming Album Releases - Metacritic
- Album of the Year. Music Reviews, Ratings, Charts, News | Album of The Year
    * The Highest Rated Albums of 2025, top 10 goes on backup lists. We'll see how long I'll do this weekly/bi-weekly, or if I'll move on to reading the list only at the end of the year.
    * The Best Hip Hop Albums of 2025, everything that's got over 70/100.
    * The Best Metal Albums of 2025, everything that's got over 70/100.
    * Must Hear Albums, 2020-2025.
- 2020-2024 in hip-hop, Wikipedia articles: 2020 in hip-hop - Wikipedia etc. All critically reviewed albums ranked, all albums that got a score of at least 80/100. Obviously I only went through these lists once and stocked up my hiphop album backup list with them.
- Loudwire's 2025 hard rock + metal album release calendar. I browse through the list and write interesting metal releases in my phone's calendar and rock in the Other backup list. I just eyeball it, like with the Metacritic list, and scout names I recognize and am interested in. The New Rock + Metal Albums Out Today
- Spotify's bell icon thingy (in Finnish the section is called Uutuudet). Albums and EPs go on the backup lists.
- Random other sources like YouTubers or people I know. I'm picky, because there's so many sources already, but sometimes someone just manages to "sell" you something, you know? Something piques your interest personally, or you keep hearing about the same artist or band or album over and over again.

If I'm adding an album on a backup list and it's already there, because I've seen it on another source (=it got good reviews in two different sources), I underline it and that means it has priority over the other albums on the list.

(If anyone knows any great sources on hiphop album reviews that has a clear numerical system such as 0-100 points or 0-5 stars, I do take suggestions. I want people who actually know the genre, much better than I do. I'm open to whatever, I like many different styles of rap and hiphop, but some things I can name that I love are deep, personal, introspective lyrics, conscious hiphop, unconventional song topics such as fantasy, storytelling; but also dark trap and alternative/progressive rap, I love those darker and more peculiar vibes - must be the metalhead in me; but also very complex rhyme schemes and technical rap skills, as long as they announce their words very clearly. So if you know people or websites or digital magazines or YouTube channels that like these things as well and do album reviews, hit me up. Thank you. 🙏)

Where do I find all the time to listen to these albums: Well, first of all, I will never clear the backup list. I know that. But that's not the point of the list. The point is to always have something interesting to listen.

The bus ride to my work place is one hour. That's 10 hours a week, going there and back five days a week. Release Radar takes 1-2 hours, depending on how much new music is out that week and how much I feel like skipping that week. I've been trying to find the time to browse through it at home, on the computer. It's much easier.
I walk, for exercise purposes, and the route I have is about 1h 10min. 
Sometimes I have a lot of errands to run (I try to group them together) or I go shopping.
Cleaning is more fun with music.
I often listen to music when I'm in the sauna (I have a portable speaker playing in the bathroom), but I generally listen to my existing playlists, because I usually go to sauna with my fiancé and I know what to expect from those lists. Plus kiuas makes sounds that may disturb the listening and it's impossible to like songs or write notes if I'm in the sauna.
I have tasks at work, such as shelving or repairing books, curation (choosing which books to remove from the collection) or writing social media posts which I can often combine with an album marathon.

If I was an emotionless, perfect robot, I could easily listen to at least 15 albums a week. 8 to 10 on bus rides to work and back, and five albums on walks, 0-2 cleaning the house and running errands. But sometimes I'm physically tired from work, emotionally tired because of socializing or my mental health problems, my earphones run out of battery, it's raining or I'm sick or lazy so I skip my walk, there's a super interesting YouTube video I'm aware of existing and want to watch instead, etc.

Typically, I try to listen to one album a day on five different days, on my way to or from work, or on a walk. That's five albums. I've usually listened to that week's Can't Stop Won't Stop album in the morning of a day when I have an evening shift and will probably continue doing that, or the 1001 book's album... Maybe I can squeeze in 7 albums in that possible 13-15h bracket... And then if the opportunity arises and I feel like it, I listen to more.
Sometimes plans fail as well, but that's fine. This is a hobby, not an obligation of any sorts. If I can't fit in 5 albums, I can't fit in 5 albums. Then they are moved over to the next week or the backup lists.

Books mentioned:

- 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by several authors. The one I'm reading is the 2010 Finnish edition with about 80 Finnish albums squeezed in. There are several online versions of the book and websites to track your progress, if you're more a digital media kind of person. I prefer physical books. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery | Goodreads
- Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hiphop Generation by Jeff Chang, which I've been reading for several months now. Each chapter has book, documentary/movie and music recommendations listed in the back of the book. I read the chapter, and then I watch all the docs and movies I can find and listen to all the music recommendations I can find, and then read a new chapter of the book itself. I currently try to watch one movie a day, so these movies go on that pile/list. I browse the book recommendations list for the chapter and if I have access to the book, I put it on my reading list.
It works similarly to the backup lists - if I have nothing to read, I pull out the list. "Unfortunately", I always have something to read :D I'm a librarian, it's part of my job to follow new releases. I can't help it, I constantly have piles and piles of books to read and I never get to my backup list... I try to read at least one classic a year, but that's it. Otherwise I'm constantly reading something brand new or something people on my YouTube feed won't stop talking about (mainly they're nonfiction about psychology or the society).