Strange robot, go away!

This only applies to music that I turn on for Recreational Music-Listening Purposes. If there’s an old song in a movie, or on the radio in a store, or playing in someone else’s car; that’s all fine. But whenever I choose to listen to music, the date restriction applies.

If a single was released in 2025 and then comes out in 2026 on an album, it’s a 2026 track - but only after the album comes out. For example, the Format released Holy Roller in 2025, and Right Where I Belong in 2026. I can listen to Right Where I Belong right now, but Holy Roller is off-limits until the entire Boycott Heaven album releases in a week. This rule is mostly for logistics reasons - I’m not going to spend my year checking every song on every album to make sure it wasn’t released as a single two days before the cutoff.

Live music is always allowed; if I go see a Green Day concert that’s a fresh & fun music experience.

Live recordings are not allowed; if Green Day has a 2026 concert and puts it out as an album, that’s just new recordings of old music and listening to them is cheating.

Covers are allowed; if some other band puts out a cover of (or performs!) American Idiot this year, that’s a transformative new work and is totally fine for me to listen to.