ALL EYEZ ON ME - 2PAC This is honestly one of the hardest reviews I’ve had to write all years because I have no idea how to say something that hasn’t already been said before. Like yeah if you like hip hop or wanna get into the genre more you need to listen to this album. If I was teaching a class on rap101 this would be the album I would pick to represent the west in the east west culture war of the 90s. It’s just that influential and important no one should ever skip over this album and put it off like I did. So worthwhile and of course it only leaves me wondering what Tupac could’ve done if he was around longer sadly.
TALLAHASSEE - THE MOUNTAIN GOATS This album holds an interesting place in tmgs discography for me because it’s after the lo fi stuff but before their modern sound leaving it in an odd place, looking back at it. It’s still an excellent album but can’t hold a candle to all hail west Texas or beat the champ for me and that’s okay. It’s just not my personal flavor of John Darnell’s music.
STARDUST - DANNY BROWN This album was so damn good it’s probably my fav pop adjacent album from this year all the features on it are perfect. When this album was releasing I was really worried it would feel like Danny brown working too hard to fit himself in spaces he doesn’t but that isn’t how this album feels at all. It feels like he takes a new sound he really likes and forces it into an area that’s more in his wheelhouse and the way it all works is just incredible to me. Can’t recommend it enough.
AMERICAN FOOTBALL - AMERICAN FOOTBALL I wish the internet didn’t make this album into kinda a joke because if it didn’t I would’ve listened to it genuinely so much sooner. I’ve come to love this album so dearly and it’s amazing to me that so may others clearly did because they’ve had so many imitators over the years it spawned an entire sub genre of emo but. None of them quite do it like this for me this album is so good. I especially hold the teenage memories that inspired this album pretty dear to myself so it makes complete sense I love this album as much as I do.
OIL OF EVERY PEARLS UN INSIDES - SOPHIE Fuck. Talk about artists gone way too soon and we can talk about this album. The sounds she played with on this album are still millions of miles ahead of what other most other producers are doing even today when this album is almost a decade old. The biggest pain this review brings me is that I have to speak about Sophie in the past tense. She had so much ahead of her and I can only hope that one day everyone else can catch up to the level she was on. Until that day comes I’ll be bumping this on repeat.
SMOOCHIES - ASHNIKKO I had fun with this album but my biggest issue is kinda a larger one I have with pop albums as a whole where it lacks coherency for me. Like it feels more like a collection of fun songs than an album with a cohesive theme or message. And that’s fine it just usually leads to me being less interested in the genre as a whole. That being said all these songs have great production and vocal performances. It is like really really fun even if I only care for about half the songs. Liked it but didn’t love it.
DEAD FI$H, VOL 1. - PERRY MAYSUN, AHK SAIR This is the latest collaboration from a rapper I found on Instagram and honestly I feel like this guy can swing with the big dogs. Honestly very similar energy to slowthais older stuff and that’s a huge compliment from me. Very good bread and butter hip hop, I can’t wait to hear more from these guys.
CRYSTAL CASTLES - CRYSTAL CASTLES This album is really cool it’s so far outside my wheelhouse I’m gonna have a hard time talking about it but I want to try anyways. It’s half really cool pleasant synthpop that’s really easy to listen and dance to, half clusterfuck of sounds that are dense, rich, and expressive. And I did read a few articles about this album to get a better understanding of it and that’s exactly what they were going for so it’s really cool to see an artist execute what they were going for first try so effortlessly.
THIS OLD DOG - MAC DEMARCO I really respect Mac Demarco for being bold enough to ask the question: what if Elliott smith only made you wanna commit yourself to a ward a little bit? The result is a bittersweet album with beautiful melodies and warm acoustic guitars. This album just feels so insanely welcoming it’s so relaxing to listen to and I really appreciate that. Highly pleasant listen.
GUERO - BECK I wanna listen to more beck but it can be really intimidating when he’s been such an important figure to the indie scene for decades. I thought this album would be a good starting place and I assume I’d be right as it’s one of his most popular while also having a sound that is essential early 00s indie. I liked it a lot and will be writing more about him in the future to be certain.
IT’S ALL FEAST OR FAMINE - TOUCHDOWN JESUS This is an Ohio hardcore band based out of Cincinnati, I actually found them through Anthony Fantano’s end of year stuff and I’m amazed this almost slipped through the cracks for me because it is one of the best rock sounds I’ve heard all year, this thing is absolutely incredible. The riffs are a perfect blend of math rock and hardcore and everything just works. At 22mins there’s no real reason not to listen to this it’s just absolutely thrilling.
RID OF ME - PJ HARVEY I found this album as I’ve been going through the stuff that Steve albini produced after his passing and this one really sticks out to me, especially the title track (one of the main ones albini himself produced) and I’m still absolutely blown away by it. It’s pure electricity and more importantly fire just burning into a beautiful destructive sound. I need to spend more time with this project but I am absolutely in love with it right now.
METAPHOR RE:FANTAZIO I absolutely loved this game and it’s very possibly the best thing atlus has made in a decade if not two. The gameplay takes the tried and true press turn system of shin megami tensei and tweaks it ever so slightly (mainly through the use of status ailments and combination attacks that use multiple turn slots) to make the best version of press turn seen thus far. That being said atlus knows how to make gameplay good it’s been the main appeal of their games since the beginning. Where I feel the game truly shines is the writing. There’s so many things that could’ve gone wrong with atlus writing this plot but I’d say they only botched one or two minor plot points which is astonishingly low amount for them. I could gush about it endlessly but you should really just go play it. This is Terra’s certified banger rpg of 2025.
HADES 2 As of the time I’m writing this i still have plenty to do in this game but I think ~100 hours across two profiles is enough to say this is a damn good game. I think it’s interesting the way this game manages to do everything better than the original while not making the original game feel boring or obsolete by any metric. It really is just Super Hades in most regards though they just took the formula of the first game and expanded on it in new and fun ways. And I love that! It truly is a great game.
POKEMON SCARLET (replay!) I lost my copy of violet in the move and got bit by the competitive pokemon bug so I ended up playing this so I could get my guys back. And I gotta say I liked this game so much more the first time. TPC kinda tears me in two because mechanically as a battle simulator I think this is no holds barred The Best Pokemon Game. They just drop the ball so fucking hard on everything else I have a really hard time actually saying that. I love the new pokemon designs but hate their in game models and especially the colors used on the models. The writing is ass I do not care about what’s going on in the plot at all and honestly that’s devastating for a jrpg of this length. Idk with recency bias gone this game really just doesn’t live up to snuff for me.
NO MORE HEROES III (replay!) This is another game I didn’t like as much on replay but I felt like it was honestly 90% my fault in this instance. I do wanna talk about that ten percent though because some of the writing and especially the difficulty curve in this game drive me crazy. Spicy is a cakewalk and bitter is like swallowing nails. And honestly I would be fine with all that if it didn’t feel like the one thing making the game difficult is how much sushi you can have it just makes the entire game feel arbitrary and annoying. Honestly very possibly my least favorite nmh game but also I could just be mad at it rn lol.
CELESTE (replay!) Yeah it’s fucken goated. The plot is maybe my favorite allegory for mental health and gender dysphoria ever. The gameplay is slick and perfect for speedrunning. It’s the funny transfem game did you think I wouldn’t be super into it? Because you’re dead wrong if that’s the case.
THE BINDING OF ISAAC: REBIRTH I’ve played this before but getting good at tboi is a very gradual thing. That being said I feel I’ve seen most of what the game has had to offer and love it very dearly. It’s so much fun man especially once you start getting past that more intense learning curve. Also the plot is so well written but it also makes me wanna ask Edmund McMillan if he’s okay like damn. It’s fucked but I love it so much im really happy that this is a game that exists
