New BMSR album is sneaking up on me. I wasn't feeling it all that much at first and decided to let it find it's way naturally into my rotation. I have a playlist called Backwoods Altar, several of the Panic Bloom songs are now going on that playlist.

Is it harder to stay up with new music as you get older? If so, what causes that?

I think this is true as a general trend, the older you get the less you'll be moved by new music. But the underlying reasons for that are more complicated.

As you get older, you leave the college atmosphere. Your social life changes fundamentally between mid twenties and mid thirties. There's a defined zeitgeist when you're in high school and college that gets more diluted as you age. Not BECAUSE you age, but because social circles generally shrink as you age. There are less people around you to give new music suggestions, there are less people around to compare your music preferences with.

And another big thing that I think comes in to play here is that as you're getting older, you start listening to music by yourself more. Listening to music with others, building associations between songs/albums with people/places/experiences is critical to attaching to new music. As you get older there are less opportunities for that to happen.