MOONFLOW – BITTER KARELLA this one…I could see what it was doing. I appreciated a lot of how weird it totally got. But I’m not sure it stuck the landing, or was quite my personal thing. I can’t decide. I’m glad it exists for those who will enjoy it but it was not totally for me.
THE WORKS OF VERMIN – HIRON ENNES god…I’m not sure I could stop thinking about this one even if I tried. It pretty much did everything I wish I could pull off in a story. It was strange and the characters were so fucking fantastic. I wanted more… but I don’t know how they could have packed more into this one. It was incredible. I’m looking forward to rereading it when I get the chance, just to pick up on the subtleties I missed in my first read through…. to watch all the threads coalesce into that fucking ending. Wow. Incredible. Thank you, Hiron.
BETWEEN TWO FIRES – CHRISTOPHER BUEHLMAN reading this one right after reading Works of Vermin was a hell of a way to go. I really liked the structure for this story. I liked the choppier aspects, the stilted prose really gave it a certain character and made it feel like it was a translation, which kind of added a really charming quality to it (yeah despite the whole, plague, horrible demons, cannibalism what have you). I was fascinated by it the whole way through. I’ll definitely need to go back to this one. I was travelling a lot in my read and I know I missed some of the detail via distractions on said travelling.
MALGRÉ TOUT – JORDI LAFEBRE j’étais introduit à cette artist parmis mon ami qui a visité pour le FBDM, elle cherchais le livre et c’étais mon idée d’essayé notre local, Planète BD et voilà. J’ai eu la chance de m’immerser et wow. Les dessins, l’histoire. Tellment charmante. Tellment inspirant. Incroyable. (This one’s a French translation from Spanish I believe… I’m gonna try and up my game here and start by immersing myself in French comics to help with my own bilingualism… my speech is good but my writing is… rough).
GLOBETROTTERS: NELLIE BLY & ELISABETH BISLAND WORLD TOUR–JULIAN VOLOJ & JULIE ROCHELEAU beautiful artwork, as always Rocheleau is incredible. I have a few of her tomes already just for her artistry. The story itself was fun, non-fiction about how one woman took on the challenge to travel the world in less than 80 days, and another woman tasked with beating her to the punch. There was a lot of interesting play between the expectations of a woman who takes charge and makes her way, and the women who are expected to live up to and challenge that name for the sake of entertainment.
IN UNIVERSES – EMET NORTH this one is gonna stick with me for a long time. It’s definitely not gonna be for everyone but the main character resonated with me pretty deeply and the theme circling around mistakes and self-blame was a type of catharsis I didn’t realise I was even looking for at this point in my life. This book not only cradled me but tore me open and poked its fingers all over my heart. I’ll have to pick up a physical copy at some point. (MY first stint into Library reading through Libby!! idk why it took me so long!!)
AUTOMATIC NOODLE – ANNALEE NEWITZ…….. i really just wish this one was actually about robots making a lil noodle shop.
THE VOW – ARDEN RIPLEY & JULIAN CORMAC the art was absolutely incredible… and what a BEAST (size???) for comics! It had a lot of moments I really really wanted to like but I felt I couldn’t seem to sit with for very long? Which sounds insane because this book is a TOME. But everything felt like it was going kind of at full speed.
RODNEY R. RODNEY – V. BRIAT this book was so funny. It just scratched the itch on my right kind of humour (i found myself laughing quietly throughout). The drawings were insane, the scratchier art style really just pulled everything together. Rodney, my beloved freak. I also just liked how the strips emulated this newspaper cartoon strip–it lent itself really well to the story progression! Admittedly I bought this book at TCAF because I’d read a few of the strips on Tumblr and thought they were hilarious, so i couldn’t stop myself from seizing the chance while I had it!
HELL FOLLOWED WITH US – ANDREW JOSEPH WHITE uhmmm I’m glad this was borrowed from the library! I came across it a couple times at Argo books and–it was the type of book I wanted to read but had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t gonna live up to what I was hoping for. In the end I think I’m too old for this one haha.
Here I was going to add another one because I’m nearly done but you know what? Fuck it. It’ll go in the next post~
If you’re reading these posts (whoever you are) and have any reading suggestions I’m always down to try~ You’ve probably got a decent grasp of my taste so far.
So I’m back on a reading binge these days and I’m feeling all kinds of fun funky feelings about books again! I wanted a little spot/series where I talk about them. I’m not planning most of this so here’s what I’ve read this year so far.
A lot of these can probably be found on my Books That Are My Jam list though as I was making it I figured I wanted to really hone it in to books I feel Feral over. Hence making a couple posts like this to kinda go over honourable mentions and stories that still made me feel something even if it was the massive desire to script doctor the shit out of it.
So here we are! Lets get into it!
READS SO FAR:
[between January 2026 & March 2026]
THE CHAOS WALKING TRILOGY– PATRICK NESS, I went back to this series just to get myself on that reading kick~ The first two books of this trilogy are extremely strong. Taking the premise of, ‘oops is a sci fi where colonists land on a planet that allows men’s thoughts to be heard & women’s not at all’ could have taken a real sour turn–but Ness’ writing is incredible here, using this premise to underline toxic behaviours between men, how that’s imparted on young boys and how this kind of mentality can really quickly turn itself into fascism. Unfortunately this IS a YA fiction from the aughts… the romance between the main characters is… tough swallow imho. The final book really suffers the landing, a lot of the themes get tossed out the window for a sake of a bombastic series of events, especially where the planet’s native inhabitants are concerned. His writing style is incredibly addictive though, and the skill with which he turns the simple understandings of the main protagonist(s) to tackle such big themes is pretty–just wow.
SCOUT IS NOT A BAND KID – JADE ARMSTRONG, so I needed something completely different after Chaos Walking and picked up a graphic novel. I didn’t really know what to expect from this one, it was sitting on my shelf for a while (I’m so sorry Jade) and was pleasantly surprised at how engaging the characters were in this contemporary fic. Scout doesn’t really want to be a band kid (or does she??) and that really does mess with her friends. Its a really good messy romp about friendship, finding what fits for you and really doesn’t lose its teeth on the moments that actually hurt.
SUNWARD – WILLIAM ALEXANDER, I was sold on the idea of a tired postal worker raising baby androids and the characters really jumped off the page from there as I started reading it. I’m a bit of a sucker for a book that has (what feels like) massive world building but we, the reader are just given one small instance in its grand scheme. There’s a charm to it, makes it feel so much homey-er.
WALKING PRACTICE – DOLKI MIN, This one was fucking crazy. The main character is a shifter who feeds on humans to keep living. It’s fucking gross and fucking hilarious. I’ll never walk up a flight of stairs again without thinking of this protagonist’s absolute utter disdain for them. Me too, buddy, me too. It was having a whole lot of fun with Gender. I’m still reeling at the ending. I think it’s going to need another reread or two before I can fully grasp what the author was doing in this short-stacked story.
MORE THAN THIS – PATRICK NESS, god, Patrick what are you doing to me here. I guess major warning is don’t go into this one if you’re struggling with unreality. It’s not going to give you straight answers. But the answers it did give really struck a chord. What happens when you kill yourself… and find out your whole life was a simulation…was that life a simulation? Or is this new purgatory one? Does that really matter in the end? I really like the take-away being that even virtual experiences (especially in an era where long-distance friendships and relationships were starting to be a more cultural norm) matter. Especially if they really matter to you.
A PSALM FOR THE WILD BUILT – BECKY CHAMBERS, okay well not to be a baby or whatever but while Ness’ book already had me weak and weepy, this book came for me in a much stronger way. Ough I was crying…more than once throughout this ending. I think I’ve also just got a sore spot for a character that Overdoes and is fixated on some sort of Purpose being asked, “Why?” and not having a real answer. Idk!! Idk!! I just need to be Useful!! Anyway. I’m fine.
DOCILE – K.M. SZPARA, Well… this one had promise but it failed to pick a direction. There were a lot of fun things that could have happened in this book, but it felt really held back. It was almost a DNF but I’m a sucker and by the time I decided I didn’t care for the story I’d finished reading it. It uh… sure gave me a lot to rant about.
HELL’S HEART – ALEXIS HALL, I’m an asshole who only listened to about 20 chapters of Moby Dick via audiobook so I can’t attest to how fully this retelling keeps to it–but it DOES seem to keep to the narrative structure of Moby Dick–except in space, in Jupiter’s stormy skies hunting leviathans instead of sperm whales. Um… this book was incredibly fun and I found myself laughing–the main character is a riot. Give me a bi disaster transfem any day. I was often reading passages out loud to my partner when I couldn’t keep from snickering. I fell in love with Hall’s versions of all these characters. So much so–I did really want to sit still and simmer in some scenes with these character’s personalities. It WAS a retelling, though. I get wanting to keep to the source material. Honestly I’m just about ready to jump into Moby Dick properly after all that. I know I ought to read it before I decide to reread this one.
I’m halfway through another book but I think I’m gonna tack that one on to the next post. I will say that ALL but the first trilogy (CHAOS WALKING) featured prominent queer characters in all of their casts. Chaos Walking does feature: Tragic Gay Dads but its a dystopia so someone’s gotta die.
IDK! If you’ve read any of these let me know what you thought! These are just quick blurbs but I have Thorts and Opinions about pretty much all of these!
I’m starting a little thing where I blogue about shit I’m futzing around with.
DATE EVERYTHING is a dating sim where you do exactly what’s implied in the title. The limit is confined to exactly 100 objects (and apps) within your house.
But if you’re here you probably already knew that. I’m not gonna fuss with preamble and I’m going to state right here, right now, these are mine own opinions.
SO–here’s a breakdown of the characters categorised in groups of most liked to least liked~
YEAH i did a tiermaker exactly for this.
(If you don’t want spoilers….. stop reading here lol)
TOP TIER
Aka…
REBEL— Probably my favourite story, favourite play through, most interesting writing and like everyone else in this category, 100% my shit. A loud mouthed brash rubber duckie? Hell yes. (They/them to boot?? I’m there).
BEN-HWA— You know I was a little worried about this one when I found them in my dresser drawer–mostly because it’d be exceedingly easy to play them as an all-out joke–but their story was really compelling you’re given a sex toy as a gift by some friends and turns out that even though you laughed at the time, they haven’t been able to really live down that humiliating moment. IDK it was well done. Voice Acting was Incredible.
BOBBY PINN— Ohhhhh I love a little crime guy… I love a lil guy tryina be a mobster. I love a lil crooked pin you pick up after they did time in your vacuum. Honestly the voice acting for this character really brought them to life. They’re a joy to play against the whole time. My partner and I absolutely lAUGHED at some of their antics. I’d protect them with my life.
CAM— //covers my face with my hand and avoids your gaze, yeah yeah the trash boy came for me. Coy little freak. IDK. HE SUCKS BUT HE’S SO FUNNYLMFAO yeah. Anyways next–
SHELLEY— Boy do I love an unhinged girlie who is REALLY doing everything to keep it together. We had a missed opportunity here, game devs, to uhh… re-mount the poorly mounted shelf barely keeping it together. Its cool though. Her musical store is ….. excellent and frenetic. (tbh all the musical scores for the characters above were also very good).
SOPHIA— oh… Sophia…..//////
CELIA— hehehe omg mayor… mommy?? I’m so sorry there’s like 5 mommys on this list. Um she’s very poised and regal and has this one sprite where she glares at you and its hot and one where she looks into your soul with a little blush and whEWWW OKAAAYYY~~~ She’s dating your floor… which is soooo funny. And you get to be slapped in that polycule so–thankYOUP~
WILLI— personification of your job you were fired from in game. Her design is already incredible, also she’s mean at first and both her mean frustrations at you and her softening opening up as the storyline progresses make her a pretty fun character overall. When she’s head over heels she’s suuuch a heartthrob. (The AI plot device is irksome if only because im just tired of hearing about it and her character depends on it from her emotional turmoil with the player… mostly because she’s mad you trained this thing (unknowingly) and it took your job & subsequently her’s).
MEMORIA— oh her design is already stunning… (sorry clearly i have a spot for High Class Femmes???) but her voice is also incredible. I’d do anything for her (including toss away all my old memories in the attic–she also has the hots for Cam and like, same girl~)
VOLT— I feel like anyone who knows me, sees this character’s design and immediately is already rolling their eyes because they KNOW ME LMFAOOO. Anyways he calls you Live Wire the whole time and has a really good hotguy voice and the plot w/ him and Eddie is maybe one of the most involved ones in the game which was exciting~
XXXSHADOWL0RD420XXX aka SKIPS— Ok just the ShadowLord persona was hilarious and would have originally put him in the next tier under but then we got the SKIPS reveal and my partner looked at me and deadass said, “Oh that’s a YOU character”–
MHMM YEP THIS GOOD TIER
These were SO CLOSE to being My Shit.
BODHI— I really didn’t think I was gonna like this dude all that much because he comes on pretty strong but watching this poor 80s guy find out all his faves were problematic well, ya feel for the poor guy.
KEYES— haha… wwwowww….;;;; Um she’s stunning. I don’t really know why everyone else in the house gives her grief because she’s really not too difficult to get along with //squints at the rest of the house.
BATHSHEBA— she’s fucking insane. She got bumped up from the next tier after I got to her ending,asked her to be my girlfriend and she straight up LAUGHED AT ME. Queen, icon. Hilarious. Damn.
TINA— Sorry okay Fucking Crazy Femme is my type I guess. Uhh Tina. Yeah she’s awful but also absolutely incredible. I almost wish her story was a bit longer LMAO.
MATEO— [insert 50 gross sobbing emojis] yeah i love him. Blankie boy. Honestly the ONLY reason he isn’t up in ‘my shit’ is his animal-rescue storyline was a bit much for me lmao i like animals and have two cats of my own but not enough to make it my whole personality I guess.
RAINEY— man she’s a heartbreaker. She’s a lot to start with but as her story goes on oof. I like the trust you have to build with her, talking her through a bad memory of her accident to try and find the source of her struggle and how you might be able to help her. Um… the ‘screws loose’ metaphor… was heavy handed…. and kinda got lost in the lewd ‘screwing her better’ innuendo at the end which left a sour taste. Whoever wrote this…. im confiscating your keyboard.
TYDUS— oh her design is fantastic and I think her intensity with her funky lil tide pods is really fun. The rock paper scissors was silly–ah…. i think my game broke personally because I was struggling to figure out how to beat her for a few rounds (even when I kept track of her pattern??) idk. I think I won by a fluke BUT HEYYYY.
BETTY— oh….Betty…. haha… //twirls hair.
DASHA— (see Betty’s entry) LOL. Uh Dasha, too would have absolutely been My Shit if she didn’t have that weird Abel storyline (sorry bro but like fuck no????) Also…. her design could have been pushed a lil more. IMHO
IN THE GREEN TIER
These were really good! Really fun!
HARPER— GOD MY UNHINGED GIRLIE
BEAU— so fun, unfortunately Jacques was there the whole time and I couldn’t bully him WITH Beau which was a crime.
DOUG— idk i think i kinda like that he called me dork…
NIGHTMARE— her voice honestly puts her here more than anything.
MAGGIE— a pleasant surprise??? wound up being WAY hornier than I was expecting.
REGGIE— listen, he made it fun to hate on the assholes bc i got to see his fabulous face every time.
FLORENCE— she’s so cute and sweet! I love her. We don’t really get MUCH story from her though which is a shame.
DORIAN— Um…I’m here for Tiny Dorian, Backdorian, Secret Dorian and Trap Dorian.
ZOEY— she really came on strong but realising her at the end was probably one of the strongest endings in the whole game.
EDDIE— sorry broe,Volt’s just My Kinda Guy….even… if you’re the same guy…
AMIR— A bit too much for me but extremely fun all the same.
TEDDY— well he had me at one of those bedtime stories that got Way Too Real.
KOA— tbh I think I could use a guy to take naps with. Especially this year.
KOPI— ;;;A;;; i loooove her. I wish she had a biit more story… also that we didn’t p much have to use her to get to nightmare rip;;
PHONEICIA— super cUTE
TONY— this fuckin’ guyyy you KNOW what IM talkin’ abOUT.
CONNIE— oh man… you know I’m a sucker for a Loop.
STILL IN THE GREEN TIER
These were fun, not fully my vibe but a bit unexpected (some more than others)
CHANCE— he could have been MAJOR annoying but I thought he was actually really sweet and legitimately reminds me of a couple forever GM buddies of mine!
BARRY— my forgetful ADHD king. I do not like the voice acting on this one but I respect his storyline a bunch.
CHAIREMI— sorry that’s your name, babe. Um… this one could have been fun but I think got bogged down in a little bit too much of the ‘consent’ fear idk.
FREDDY— sure dude, I’ll be your Cool Kid.
PARKER— okay i didn’t WANT to like this guy but he’s fucking crazy. I cheated 1 time and even though he rolled to be my FRIEND at the end I could tell he just could NOT let it go and that sold him for me.
TIMMY— oh I hate timothy so much but then i …then I visited him on an-off time… and Timmy is so fucking funny. Idk. I think the voice actor really had fun with this one I lost it every time we interacted.
HECTOR— comes on a bit strong but overall chill.
DUNK— comes off extremely small and was GOING to be on my bottom tier but interacting with him a couple more times makes his character come out a lot more engaging? Idk why his intro is written like that lmao.
KEITH— oh man this guy was pretty mid-tier– AND THEN HE STOLE ALL MY MONEY AND FUCKING DIED??
RONGOMAIWHENUA— she’s fun! just a bit short.
DANTE— I feel like a spiteful part of me is putting him here because I KNOW people are putting him up higher on his voice acting alone. He’s fun but he & Dasha are pretty much the same premise.
TYRELL— pretty fun.
DOLLY— she’s cute, nothing to write home about too much.
MONIQUE — see above.
PENELOPE — girl you GOTTA get a higher opinion for yourself and STOP WORKING FOR SHITTY CEOS.
PRETTY MID-TIER
um…. yeah I take issue with the writing on some of these ones…
ARMA— ohboy. um. well the crux of this one’s story is that you’re trying to get her to take a break and some much needed R&R and after she does she seems fine but that interaction she starts pulling a, ‘ohno there’s a fire’ re-trigger so the assumption made here is to not encourage the re-trigger except jk she was right and she hates you now! (this fucking sucks)
TELLY— they rhyme… their voice is a lot. and it really didn’t have to be A Lot for like 100% of the time.
FARYA— again with the tricking… why the hell am I studying for her test? Its a bit much that she instantly hates you for getting answers wrong, girl, do your own hwk geeze. (its a shame i think her design is really fun)
HOLLY— another one that just kinda thinks its ok to encourage a characters self-destructive behaviour…?? i guess?? or hints you down the wrong path. Idk apparently to get the romance ending you just gotta encourage her into overworking herself.
LUX— man i wanna like them but yeah… no interacting with them is boring at best, kind of annoying at worst.
CURT& ROD— i don’t think the writers know how to do sarcasm v good. I had the same difficulty figuring out what the difference was between two ‘mean’ options because they both felt the Same Level Of Mean to me idk. And im a pretty fuckin sarcastic bitch irl.
STEPFORD— god i hate the way the narrator talks to him. he’s also the ONLY fuckable boy in the game before you start realising characters and then you get punished into the friend zone if you do just because he won 2nd place in his competition… there’s an option in his playthrough where he’s lamenting about his sheen and you can opt to not to call it silver but Platinum which makes him swoon. So I’m a little confused how him winning 2nd place would be that much of a bad thing when he could have come back smug and smirky about how he actually won platinum wink wonk and then whisk you off your feet or whatever. Idk. Lame.
STEFAN— he’s a CHEF and you totally FUCKED IT UP??? what the hell is wrong with you. Istg the person who wrote this guy wrote Pissoire I’m about to throw down.
HOOVE— admittedly my game …. broke? glitched? idk his storyline was a bit of a mess, too.
MAC— man. i really love Mac’s voice actor’s delivery. I LOVE Mac’s design… but god is their writing just… its not good. You can’t give me a trans character saying, “I can’t wait to change and be better just for you” and my ONLY DIALOGUE OPTIONS are the equivalent of, ‘omg yay!’ YIKES??? Also man idk whoever wrote this character just wanted you to hate them i guess, their realisation went straight into cryptocurrency as their job and it just felt really fucking out of left field.
FANTINA— okay it IS extremely funny that she will NOT settle down about her feelings for you until she’s realised and then thinks you’re kinda ‘ew’ that was also a lil rough LOL;;
MIRANDA— im so sorry her design & voice are really cute, her story is just kinda boring lol I just kept forgetting about her (also at this point we have like several musicians in the house… but idk why her story couldn’t fit her theming at all… its like the writers were scared about making sexy chefs ffs).
WINNIFRED— I just feel like her story never really like… finished? Unless I missed parts of it? Does she ever really talk to Washford? Or River?? About wanting an open relationship?? Idk?? Also i think i picked some wrong option and got friendzoned at last second even though she seemed really into me the whole time //shrug.
NOT MY CIRCUS TIER
I can imagine these guys being SOMEONE’s CUPPA TEA but not mine.
DAISUKE
CLARENCE
BEVERLY
ABLE
CABRIZZIO
SKYLAR
STELLA
GAIA
ARTT
VAUGHN
PRISSY
I, RONALDINI
LYRIC
TEXTBOX-CHAN
AIRYN
SASSY CHAP GUY
DIRK
HIRO HIME
No breakdowns bc I just don’t really care about any of these guys….. though… i am sorry for putting you in purgatory, Cabrizzio…. after I hate-zoned Daisuke and was unable to realise you.
BOTTOM RUNG…
I think this one sells itself LMAO.
The HANKS were a missed opportunity to have a boy band and im not even INTO boy bands.
ACTUAL GAME THOUGHTS
DATE EVERYTHING really suffers from uh… its extremely confused and scattered. I feel like some paths for some characters were extremely obvious (to the point of being monotonous and kind of boring) or extremely difficult to read. I also found myself gritting my teeth going, “I wouldnt fucking say that” multiple times throughout many of the story lines. A lot of the dialogue throughout even a singular character’s story really does not affect the story they’re telling at all.
You could have a character like Rebel that has VERY different results depending on what you do with their character/how you respond…
Or characters like Stepford where none of that shit matters at all and its all about the last like 2-3 interactions ….. to be honest a good 90% of the characters were like this.
Most of the stories lasted maybe 2-5 exchanges (evil) while some characters you didnt give a rats fuck about lasted about 500.
GAMEPLAY-wise… wow… its kind of a mess. LOL. This game crashes once every 5 days. The ‘5 interactions per day’ mechanic, while fun, means that if you’re trying to replay for a specific character’s ending you’re also having to REDO the 5+ other characters you were also working on at the time.
SPEC points… idk… they felt really unnecessary. You only get 1 candy per category to reset a Hate Ending but that doesn’t fix a friendzone ending at all…. and you only find out mid-game that you need to realise um ALL the characters in order to properly Finish and realise Skylar….
you can only DO that by getting Friend or Love endings with ALL of them.
“But Hivver doesn’t that lend to replayability” and like sure… i mean, if you want to replay a game with 100 date-able characters whose stories dont REALLY change as you go through them… it just gets really old really fast.
I’m not really sure what the deal is also with the women & non-binary characters often being the most hyper sexualized characters in the game… like can i get more than 1 or 2 sweet pieces of hot man candy ass… like HORNY hot man candy?? Because making MY text horny for the character is NOT the same as making the CHARACTER HORNY FOR ME DUDE.
That part irks me a lot and continues to irk me a lot. Idk. They spent to many ‘stupid bullshit’ character tokens on the boys ig.
YEESH WAS THERE ANYTHING GOOD…?
Actually yeah. I wanted to end this on a high note because its INDIE and i see a lot of potential out of future games with this studio and things.
The sheer amount of WORK that went into this game is pretty fucking insane. Drawing 100 different characters alone is a task but each one had several different poses and expression combos. And they ALL HAD A SECOND rEALISED outfit to boot? Thats mental.
But not ONLY that, fine whatever we’re all crazy illustrators, most people reading this probably draw comics– okay but EACH CHARACTER HAS THEIR OWN THEME SONG???? …..and they’re all really good too. I get CAM & REBEL’s stuck in my head a lot… Bathsheba’s is also really good as a stand-out.
I also thought the credits sequence being a ‘date the devs’ was really funny and really cute if I’ll be real. What a fun way to highlight everyone’s work and effort on this project in an engaging way for the player to really feel that this was made by people.
The final touch of the characters having their own splash art done by a bunch of different artists was also an excellent bonus.
Music really is my fuel. I don’t have anyone to really talk to about this stuff so I’m putting it here. If you have any recommendations that kind of fit these vibes (hell even if they don’t I’ll try just about anything once). Hit me up wherever else you can find me.
DREAM MACHINE (LUCID EDITION) – Des Rocs*
This album makes me absolutely fucking insane. Most of his stuff does. There’s a lot of really sharp old rock feel to his music, everything feels crisp and energetic. That guitar is so fucking dirty and crunchy. I also am just a sucker for Range. This album’s songs are just really flexible and change vibes while somehow all still feeling cohesive? Incredible. Well done. TOP 3 TRACKS: The Way It Has To Be / In The Night / Dream Machine
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LET THE VULTURES IN EP – Des Rocs
I’m in love with this EP. It’s got a moodier vibe to it, still keeps the high energy you’ll find in his later work but there’s a lot more snarky-shit energy to it. TOP 3 TRACKS: Maybe, I / HVY MTL DRMR / Let Me Live (Let Me Die)
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“&” (AMPERSAND) – Bastille
Quick vibe-check. Yeah I wasn’t sure about this album at first, it feels a bit one-note to start with but something about its melodic tunes really kept me coming back for more. The music is beautiful, lilting and sad… maybe nostalgic even? It really got me looking into the historical figures the songs bring to light. I fell in love with it <3 It had, honestly, huge shoes to fill after their GIVE ME THE FUTURE album. TOP 3 TRACKS: Seasons & Narcissus / Drawbridge & The Baroness / Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her
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RITUALS ON THE BANK OF A FAMILIAR RIVER – Kiki Rockwell
Oh… yeah I’ve got feral queer babes in the woods energy. Woman scorned through time, over and over again but what if she also got to get her just desserts for it too? There’s a LOT of really fun raw energy in this album. Again, lots of really fun variation going on in this tracklist but they all just really work together. TOP 3 TRACKS: Rise Up O Flame / Cup Runneth Over / Same Old Energy
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THE KITE MACHINE – The Kite Machine
Found these guys looking for some chill tunes to fit with one of my tabletop characters and wound up falling for the really fun deep bass tracks and the funky vibes of this entire album. Just feels like what I’d might listen to on a sunny day walkin’ down the street. Jammin’. TOP 3 TRACKS: Charlotte / Makeshifter / Sinister Sound
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1981 – I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME
IDKHow but yeah they fucking got my ass. I really like this EP. It’s honestly got a really fun sarcastic flair. It really hits fun 80s pop-nostalgia with lyrics that will really gut you… my favourite <3 TOP 3 TRACKS: Choke / Bleed Magic / Absinthe
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RAZZMATAZZ – I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME
This one is a bit more low-key than their 1981 EP but there are a lot of good vibes here that I keep going back to and sneaking onto playlists here and there. This album’s vibe plays a lot with really dark humour in the lyrics, but there’s a lot of sincerity in here that kinda hits? Compels me. TOP 3 TRACKS: Leave Me Alone / From The Gallows / Kiss Goodnight
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ROCKISDEAD – Dorothy
Women. Am I right? Ugh this album has all kinds of guttural guitar and Dorothy’s voice is just… phenomenal. I love the scratch. I love how fun this album is. It’s just a real good time through and through. TOP 3 TRACKS: Kiss It / Raise Hell / Whiskey Fever
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THE BITTER TRUTH – Evanescence
I peeked in on my babe, Evanescence on a whim because, of course she was my #1 in high school and I hadn’t heard much from her since. Her voice? Still gorgeous as ever, her music still captures a lot of the old magic she had from Fallen, in my opinion. It’s a fun & moody dark listen. TOP 3 TRACKS: Yeah Right / / **
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LANTERNS (SPECIAL EDITION) – Son Lux
This guy’s… Weird. I think Unhinged is about the best I can explain it. There’s a lot of quiet murmurings and cacophonous unsettling moments. It’s not an album I can necessarily sit through on a whim but there are a LOT of mental tracks on this thing I keep going back for and picking at. TOP 3 TRACKS: Easy / Pyre (both versions) / Lanterns Lit
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CITIZEN SLEEPER OST – Amos Roddy
I got into this game because a friend of mine played its music for our Starfinder game as mood-setting, played the game, fell absolutely head over heels for this quiet electronic track set. The mood in these ones just ranges from thoughtful to hopeful to absolutely heartbreaking while managing to keep to the same Vibe. TOP 3 TRACKS: Matsutake / Among Ruins / Possible Futures
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STRAY GODS – Austin Wintory
I’m not a musicals-type bitch– (at least not always but sometimes… wow okay. Kick my ass). This is a game that’s a musical with variant options to pick from. I can’t even explain the mental gymnastics Austin was playing with planing musical motifs & alternate endings to songs and somehow EVERY VERSION of SEVERAL SONGS hits so hard I don’t even know what to do with myself. TOP 3 TRACKS: Challenging A Queen / The Ritual / It’s Time
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MODERN VINTAGE – SIXX:A.M.
Definitely not NEW this year, not even for me, but this guy is a real crutch & comes in clutch when I’m feeling really down. I love this album. Its fun, its really got an emotional core that keeps me coming back. I have both a glue movie… and a glue-album (this is p much my glue album). TOP 3 TRACKS: Stars / Drive / High on the Music
SONGS ON LOOP
I don’t know if I can fully grasp the SCOPE of music I listen to with just a slap-full of albums pasted above so here’s a slew of this year’s songs that wont stop worming in my brain:
Supernatural – World’s First Cinema
Monolith – Twin Pumpkin
The Dismemberment Song – Blue Kid
BAD BITCH – Tessa Violet
YES MOM – Tessa Violet
Sleepwalk – Forrest Day
Villain – Bella Poarch
Choke – I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME (acoustic)
Golden Boy – Bryce Fox
DEVIL – Shinedown
MONSTERS – Shinedown
Planet Zero – Shinedown
HONEY – Luna Aura
Another New World – Punch Brothers
White Whale – Everything Everything
Pathetic – Blame Candy
JEKYLL & HIDE – Bishop Briggs
Bathroom Bitch – HOLYCHILD
Son of Nyx – Hozier
Eat Your Young – Hozier (og & Bekon’s Choral)
The Fold – Wickerbird
That Unwanted Animal – The Amazing Devil
Whisper – Martin Rev
Gold Guns Girls – Metric
Love, Me Normally – Will Wood
Lampshades on Fire – Modest Mouse
Dangerous – Big Data, Joywave
Grenadine – Dreadlight
Dirty King – The Cliks
I Created A Monster – Hello Operator
I think I’ve got to move on from this post here, for now. But I’m leaving this as an open-ended section I’ll link back to if folks are interested in my insane musical tastes.
Cheers~
* DES ROCS is a bit of a new find for me this year. I’d be lying if he wasn’t like my entire jam. If i could put my brain energy into music this would be it 24/7. So you might imagine how fucking devastated I was that he was playing in TORONTO while I was in CALGARY visiting family. Absolutely ruined. Touring one of my current favourite albums in existence. Fate pls bring this tour back for me and me only kthnx.
** This EVANESCENCE album still catches me by surprise. I haven’t listened to it solo enough to really pin-point favourite tracks aside from Yeah Right but listening through the whole album is easy and really nice idk! Felt right to include it in the list anyway~
