Creating an Environment Where You Have License to Try New Things

This post makes reference to this episode of the podcast Song Exploder.

One of my favorite albums of this year is “I’ll Be Your Girl” by the Decemberists. This week while I was driving in my car, I caught an episode of the podcast Song Exploder which features Colin Meloy breaking down how the song came to be. The album is a shift for the Decemberists into a kind of nostalgic, synth 80s pop. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but it’s since become something I listen to over...