Two College Students and Their Book Club For Music

The earliest book club reported was in 1634 when a woman by the name of Anne Hutchinson organized a women’s group to come read and discuss weekly sermons. Book clubs have only grown in popularity, with niche book clubs being created for all types of people. But for two friends who met as camp counselors, they felt there wasn’t a niche for them.

Matthew Moraski ‘23 always wanted to make a podcast, and all it took was a tweet to spur an idea. “My friend sent me a tweet and the tweet said, ‘what if there was a book club but for albums,’...time went by and last year it hit me, and I was like ‘I can really do that.”’

Without much deliberation, Moraski and his friend from home, Anton Petrenko, decided to create their very own book club for albums called, “Certified Lover Boys Podcast”.

From the start, the two had no trouble coming up with things to say about the albums they listened to all week, due to the structure they created. “It opens up with the history and the background of the artist and then we talk about our thoughts and then we talk about the comments and what people said. We can go an hour to two hours talking about anything, and having an album to talk about just makes it easier,” explains Petrenko. At the end of each episode, the pair release their personal ratings of the album, on a scale from 1 to 10, and then reveal the album they will be reviewing the next week.

Each week, Petrenko and Moraski prepare by listening to the albums they choose for hours on end, until they know the songs so well they can analyze the lyrics clearly for the listeners. For Petrenko, he listens to the albums 5 to 10 times over the course of the week, while Moraski attempts to listen to the albums 20 times. “I do the research on the artists beforehand and on the album, because it allows me to better understand the album and the artist as a whole, because that’s how I listen to music.”

The Certified Lover Boys Podcast delves into a variety of R&B and rap albums each week. Source: Matthew Moraski '23

The two make it very clear to their listeners that they really do not have any authority when it comes to what they say about the music, and they are okay with that. “We never say that ‘this has to be how the album sounds.’ We literally say that everyone has their own opinion and that is the reason for this podcast. It’s supposed to be a discussion, it’s supposed to be a book club, not everyone is going to like every single album, everyone has their own music taste,” Moraski explains. 

What they think the listeners really come for is their interesting friend dynamic. For Petrenko, it’s Moraski's energetic personality compared to Petrenko’s rather mellow one that allows the listeners to connect with their friendship.

One listener in particular loved the podcast so much, she drew their podcast episodes as an album, and posted about it online. For a fairly new podcast, Moraski was touched, “I called Anton crying, that was the first time it hit me and I was like, damn we are doing something that people actually listen to that isn’t my mom and isn’t my friends.”  Making someone's day with just their music reviews and engaging banter, makes Moraski feel fulfilled. 

Besides the excitement of creating their own book club for music, the podcast has an even bigger meaningful aspect to it: friendship. “The podcast has done a lot for the relationship between me and Matt. I met Matt over the summer and I think this is--at least for me, the value of this is that Matt is certainly a huge friend to me and if it wasn’t for the podcast I don’t think we would have been this good friends,” Petrenko explains. 

Despite the two arguing over whether they think “Beerbongs and Bentleys” by Post Malone is mediocre or legendary, the dynamic friendship between them is what drives listeners to them.  

From Frank Ocean, to Kevin Abstract, to Aminé the “Certified Lover Boys Podcast” has covered a variety of R&B and rap albums, and they hope to cover other genres in the near future. “I think the podcast could definitely benefit from reviewing like these small pockets of the music industry 100%, and other albums that less people listen to,” explains Petrenko, who is also interested in potentially reviewing smaller artists albums and then inviting them onto the podcast so they can discuss it with them.

Moraski and Petrenko, at the end of the day, are just two friends who love to argue over differing album ratings and listen to their favorite artists together. “People have to expect value out of our podcast every time they listen to it, and that has to come with something outside of the music and I think if it would come from anything in our podcast it would definitely be with how me and Matt interact...people show up to watch the person, rather what the person is doing.”

There is a book club for everyone, with ones that are focused on a variety of types of authors and genres. For Moraski and Petrenko, they took it into their own hands to make a book club for albums, a club they wanted to belong to.

If that is a long awaited niche for you, get listening and join the club.