JCProbably made a post with screenshots of her phone, and I wanted to do the same. My phone is extremely minimal. The current layout is a few months old. As it turns out, my phone is mostly music. I’ve listed every album on my phone at the bottom of this post.
This is what I see when I open my phone.
Just one folder with all nine of the apps on my phone. I was able to make the icons grayscale by long pressing the homescreen>edit>customize>tint>then moving the bottom slider all the way to the left.
When I click on the folder, there are 9 apps to choose from.
Photos: I can’t delete this app. I tried. But that’s okay. I use it for notes when I don’t want to take my journal with me.
Calculator: I can’t tell you the last time I used the calculator app. I’ve actually deleted it before—might do it again.
Clock: Another app that’s been deleted before. I’ll delete it again whenever I remember to buy an alarm clock. The app doesn’t even wake me up. I have a Casio style watch that has a stop watch and timer.
Camera: This one can’t be deleted, but it can be turned off in screen time settings. It may as well be a keeper if I have to keep Photos.
Voice Memos: The app that records all the crazy little songs I come up with randomly. Every few months I’ll go through and listen to them. Back when I had an MP3 player with a built-in voice recorder, I didn’t need this app. I lost that MP3 player, and I’m still upset about it.
Phone & Messages: I just do the regular things on these.
Settings: I’ve got my phone locked down in settings with a screen time password that I can’t remember. So, no more apps can be downloaded. I could reset it, but it takes some effort. The best use for settings is the grayscale filter that lets me choose the intensity. I keep it at about 50%, but you can’t see that from the screenshots.
Foobar2000: Now this is a great app. It’s my music app, and it lets me upload my music files via FTP server. I love that because I never have to use iTunes again. (BTW foobar2000 is also available on Windows for free. It’s not just a music player. It converts file types, reorganizes folders, and edits meta tags.)
Now, on to my music.
It may look like I only have 28 albums, but there are 1,335 songs on my phone. I just finished removing and combining albums to get them all on one page. I’ll go through all the albums and tell you what each one is. Starting in the upper left and to the right. I don’t like to have albums unless I would listen to the whole thing without skipping. So, the playlist style albums are basically my favorite songs from an artist in a particular genre. Making my own albums from other people’s music and uploading them to my phone is what I do in the place of mix tapes.
1. Adult Contemporary (32 tracks – 2:00:38) This is basically a playlist of the Adult Contemporary genre. It’s got Norah Jones, Jack Johnson, James Blunt—stuff like that.
2. Alt Singles (191 tracks – 11:17:01) Another playlist album. This has anything Alternative or Alt adjacent. All the way from—any rock music between Adult Contemporary and Metal and as old as the 90s or younger.
3. The Beths (20 tracks – 1:17:28) This one is two albums in one, Future Me Hates Me and Jump Rope Gazers. No songs were left out. I simply have them like this for a more compact collection.
4. Jeff Rosenstock and his previous project Bomb the Music Industry! (134 tracks – 7:12:20) Jeff Rosenstock is a musical genius. The vibe is unpolished ska-influenced punk. Jeff created Quote Unquote Records—the first donation based record label. A friend introduced me to the label 15 years ago, and it has stayed with me since. There are a lot of bands on there I love. Others can be hard to listen to, but most are very artistic in a rough-around-the-edges sort of way.
5. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (9 tracks – 42:45) A fantastic album. What’s crazy is I’ve just found it in the last few months. I cut my teeth on rock from the 70s and 80s—and though I knew of this album—I wasn’t ready to enjoy it yet. This is the kind of album you listen to and do nothing else. Most albums are, but this one especially is.
6. Beach Bunny’s Emotional Creature (12 tracks – 36:00) A great band that sounds like it got a lot of inspiration from the late 90s.
7. Explosions in the Sky (49 tracks – 4:14:09) All the relaxing songs I like from Explosions in the Sky. I love instrumental music, and it’s hard to find any with as much character as this band.
8. Fall Out Boy (28 tracks – 1:30:01) My favorite Fall Out Boy albums and songs in one place. The only two full-length albums in this one are From Under the Cork Tree and My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue—an acoustic album that makes me wish Fall Out Boy had done an acoustic version of every album.
9. Family Playlists (179 tracks – 11:05:48) I’ve got three playlists that my family and I listen to around the house and on road trips. It’s great music, but none of it is full album worthy.
10. Gordon Maroon Maybe You Should Stunt Drive (12 tracks – 48:10) The best Barenaked Ladies songs in one album. I came up with the name and album art by combining parts from each album they are from.
11. Green Day (69 tracks – 3:43:57) Green Day used to be my favorite band. Back in the day, all of their albums were on my MP3 player. The only full album in this collection is International Superhits!—and that one is a compilation. It was also the first album I owned by them.
12. Horizon Zero Dawn & Forbidden West Soundtracks (181 tracks – 11:23:09) I’m obsessed with this game and its music. I only keep the relaxing songs. The intense ones are great in game, but they stress me out on their own.
13. Instrumentals (190 tracks – 33:39:49) Soundscapes, relaxing music, and any other instrumental music.
14. The Killers (21 tracks – 1:29:14) Two albums, Hot Fuss and Imploding the Mirage.
15. Laura Stevenson’s Live at Vera Club (15 tracks – 53:22) This is a beautiful live album. Laura Stevenson is part of Quote Unquote Records. She has been part of many of Jeff Rosenstock’s projects.
16. The All-American Rejects’ Move Along (12 tracks – 42:37) A great rock album—one of my favorites growing up.
17. Motion City Soundtrack’s My Dinosaur Life (12 tracks – 39:57) Another great rock album from my early years. What drew me to this one was the amazing production quality.
18. Nacho Libre Soundtrack (18 tracks – 49:24) Everybody has this soundtrack, right? This one was pieced together—with some of the songs cut and glued to match the movie more. It’s got Jack Black singing his songs as well.
19. All Time Low’s Nothing Personal (13 tracks – 44:24) A great pop punk album.
20. Gladie Orange Peels/Thank You Card (6 tracks – 24:04) Found on Quote Unquote Records. I think this is two EPs rolled into one. It’s not long, but it has a lot of emotion. I once cried listening to the track titled Orange Peels. One of those good healing cries.
21. Yard Act’s The Overload (11 tracks – 37:10) This was a recent find when I was in a musical rut. I can’t even describe the sound, except the vocals are a bit like Cake. It’s a very political album.
22. Remy Zero’s Debut, Villa Elaine, and the Golden Hum (33 tracks – 2:16:08) Remy Zero did the theme song for Smallville—a show I was totally in love with. When I looked them up, the theme song was my least favorite song by them. Naturally, they’ve become a lifetime band for me. I can only describe them as Art Rock.
23. Sean Eldon’s The Sausage Factory (12 tracks – 34:59) A Quote Unquote find. Sean Eldon is groovy and strange. Just my thing.
24. Small Crush Debut Album (13 tracks – 30:50) A nice Indie Rock album.
25. Sweet Fault Divide (34 tracks – 1:58:12) I once put three albums together into the perfect mixes. They were: Fault Line Ghosts, Sweet Indie Rock, and Great Divide. This is all three of those mixes in one. Together they are a collection of Indie Rock and 90s Alternative Rock.
26. Alt-J – This is All Yours (11 tracks – 40:45) The best of Alt-J according to me. You might know their song Left Hand Free. If you don’t, check it out. It’s awesome. Alt-J is another band I’d classify as Art Rock.
27. Pearl Jam’s Vs. (12 tracks – 46:35) Fell in love with this one recently, even though it’s old as dirt. I’d say it falls under Grunge.
28. Tiny Empires’ Weird Headspace (6 tracks – 26:18) A Post Punk album I found on Quote Unquote Records.