A song can become more personal when you stop listening for other people’s approval.

Taste gets shaped by an audience you may not have chosen. You hear a song and part of you is already checking whether it is respectable to like, what it says about you, whether anybody would mock it, and that layer sits between you and the music. Taking it away does not make the song better, only more yours. Private enjoyment is the only kind that never needs defending.

Play the thing you like but would not put on in company, alone and loud. Notice what you actually hear once nobody is scoring it.