Malenien

Excellent points, all. I agree with the sentiment that it would be nice to just be able to listen to music sometimes - just the song and only that with no distractions. I sometimes am able to do that, but like I mentioned originally, it's usually right when I'm falling asleep. Of course, this usually makes for some crazy images right during the just-about-to-fall-asleep-not-sure-if-this-is-a-dream-or-real phase. Not sure how that would influence a review for me though. Since I have some pretty crazy half-asleep dreams, though - I would say pretty positively.

As I was going for a run, I was listening to an OCR song that I had previously thought was "so-so," but as I kept running I realized the beat really mixed in with my rhythm, and I could hear and appreciate more and more the background drums and synths and how it all mixed together. Now, because of that, it's a song that I really like. This is not the first time this has happened with a song - and not just while running, but also working, cooking, and even just chilling there, almost falling asleep. At least for me, the environment and my mindset really affect my enjoyment of a song. So my question is, to reviewers, do you have a ritual or set environment in which you like to listen to entries? This is not to make any reviews appear trite, or more subjective, at all; I understand there are numerous technical aspects to remixing and music composition that I cannot comprehend. I was just curious what kinds of things people like to do when they first listen to an OCR song. So, share your rituals!