Album of the Year: Cathedral Building
A 2025 Retrospective in 12 Tracks
Liner Notes
I’ve been thinking about Drake’s “Tuscan Leather” a lot this year. Not because I’m trying to be Drake (this would be the worst year to admit that), but because of that feeling after the third beat change in this first track, where you can almost hear the room getting impatient.
You know the energy. The beat stays in the loop, the vocals haven’t dropped, and everyone is looking at the speakers asking: “How much time is this [guy] spendin’ on the intro?”
That question followed me through 2025, usually dressed up in professional language. Anytime people hear what I’m building with Stresswood, someone eventually asks: “Why not just raise now?”
They’re asking why I won’t skip the slow part. Why not fast-forward through the reps, the market listening, and the uncomfortable season where it looks like nothing is happening?
This is my last Monday Groundwork of the year. I wanted to mark it the way I experienced it. Not as a highlight reel, but as a well-thought-out album.
Twelve tracks. Two skits. One theme.
Cathedral Building.
Track 1: HOW MUCH TIME IS HE SPENDING ON THE INTRO?
Some intros are vanity. This one was a construction. I’m building in a way that matches my wiring and my current season of life. It’s a mix of the strategic and the human. The short version is this: I’m not interested in building something that only works when the weather is perfect. I’m building a firm that lasts. That has meant resisting the pressure to perform the finished product before the foundation is poured. It’s the discipline of the “extended mix.”
That has meant choosing patience, even when speed is available.
That has meant embracing the long intro as part of the work.
