@coldclimate amberol

https://flathub.org/apps/io.bassi.Amberol

@coldclimate I use Clementine, which seems to tick most of those boxes.

I can no longer remember why I settled on it, but it basically.... plays music and doesn't get in my way too much.

@coldclimate for f in *.mp3; do play $f; done

Also: totem

@coldclimate ncmpcpp for me: https://rybczak.net/ncmpcpp/

Related to Quod Libet in that it is an interface to mpd, but its keyboard-focused nature is more my jam. I guess the most relatable thing I'd like it (or mpd?) to have is playback speed control. The other things are just organisational details.

@coldclimate my favorite so far is Qmmp.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qmmp

Weird name, but delightfully retro look.

@coldclimate @neil I used mpd in the past. It was very nice but I'm too lazy to set it up again. I'm now using Gapless and Firefox's file:///…

Mpd is especially nice because you can remote control it and use any CLI/TUI/GUI client you want.

@coldclimate
I mostly use the command line 'play' (which is an alias for the SoX executable) in a "one folder per album" layout on disk.
example:
play /path/to/flac/Artist/Album/*.flac

If I want to get fancy, I'll use cmus or mocp (both ncurses, text mode).

This will be in a terminal window or a console.