A track description can provide useful context, but it also gives your attention somewhere to go. Try keeping a small record of your first listen before reading the story attached to the music.
Write only what you can point to
Note an entry, a change of texture or a moment you wanted to hear again. Avoid inventing a biography or a narrative for the performer. “The texture thins before the voice returns” is a more checkable observation than a guess about a private emotion.
You can record your own response too, provided you label it as yours. A passage that feels restless to you may feel different to another listener.
Read the accompanying material
Now read the artist’s note, release description or programme information. Separate documented context from promotional wording and from someone else’s interpretation.
Listen again and mark which details the text helped you notice. You do not have to force every phrase of music to illustrate the written explanation.
Keep both versions of the note
The first note captures an encounter; the second captures an encounter with additional context. Neither needs to erase the other. Combine this approach with listening again to a familiar song when your existing knowledge has become so strong that you no longer notice the recording’s small surprises.