Top Stuff of 2025 – Top 10 Films

So, well… that’s 2025. Woohoo? On a global level, I think few would call it one of their favorite trips around the sun—and yet, if you’re reading this, you’re still here, and I say that counts for a lot. In the meantime, too, some pretty remarkable movies debuted on our screens! In deciding which to see, and what I then loved, I’ll admit it: I’m no tastemaker. I like what I like, and that typically involves at least one explosion or zombie per reel. Per usual, too, a lot of critical darlings didn’t grab my attention, so you won’t find Hamnet or Sentimental Value among my annual accolades. Still, visual storytelling means a lot to me, and ten motion pictures in particular this year went down as prospective classics!

(If you like these reviews, I’ve got expanded versions and much, much more on my Letterboxd!)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

i. Havoc

Scumbag cinema. Everybody here sucks and/or is having a bad time, while the script is like a stoic parody of edgy Aughts gangland thrillers, but—as expected from Gareth Evans—my God are these fights glorious. When I envision a melee in one of my own works, this is what it looks like: fast, loud, and tightly choreographed yet plausibly chaotic. Most of this schlock, you can take or leave, but when Tom Hardy shuts his mouth and picks up a weapon, lock in.

ii. The Home

Pete Davidson’s questionable comedy gig choices aside, The Home is—for a good while—just generic horror teeming with scattershot editing and flaccid jump scares. Stick around for that third act, though, and you’ll be treated to a hard left into what rivals Weapons (see below) as the most satisfying climax of 2025 that also involves… well, just see it. Especially if you’re under 35.

10) Hallow Road

A spooky little thriller that plays like a horror version of Locke, as our protagonists embark on a feature-length midnight car ride which grows increasingly ill-advised. A couple of cheesy visual flourishes do cramp an otherwise grounded presentation—looking at you, cyberpunkish text reflections (or rather, you’re looking at me). Nevertheless, this overall made for great pre-Halloween viewing, haunting score and all! Simple yet mysterious, and with an eminently applicable moral: don’t go driving off into the middle of the woods.

9) Bugonia

Everything and everybody kinda sucks. In the new Roaring Twenties (that’s pain you’re hearing, not partying), this is hardly an earth-shattering observation. Still, Greek/freak director Yorgos Lanthimos puts enough of his alarming, absurdist sauce on contemporary malaise to get Bugonia buzzing. Jesse Plemons (forever having a bad time) and Emma Stone, girlboss hostage, facing off is the main draw, but the sound deserves credit as well, in a sparse yet thunderous score which heightens dread amidst its humble setting. From a simple premise—an embittered conspiracy theorist and his autistic-coded cousin kidnap a CEO, believing her an evil alien—comes a stage for both galling violence and self-aware dialogues on how internet poisoning can be as toxic as any pesticide. From where does our own “colony collapse disorder” come? And wouldn’t it be nice if just one person was to blame? Well… be careful what you go looking for.

8) Sisu: Road to Revenge

Grindhouse Looney Tunes, just like I ordered. With double the budget of 2022’s Sisu comes double the thrills: a bigger bad guy (Stephen Lang, Soviet psycho), bigger stakes (with “The Immortal” toting a morose mobile home), and most critically, even gorier yet goofier action beats set along scenic expanses. It’s conventional yet niche (my theater had two screenings and zero attendees outside family), but as a descendant of Finns with a taste for tales of relentless retribution, that’s my favorite flavor of cheese. A silent protagonist, buckets of blood, and minimal regard for the laws of gravity—what more do you require?

7) Bring Her Back

If there’s ever a Mad Maxian gas shortage in Australia, that’ll be because director-bros Danny and Michael Philippou cooked with so much of it. While I liked but didn’t love Talk to Me, Bring Her Back is a sophomore escalation in all the right ways: greater scale, a higher-profile cast, but still a chiller that goes for the heart. Sally Hawkins is a standout like never before, warping her affable screen persona into something far darker and more desperate as a foster mom with designs for her new charges. Nauseating sound design, an alarming score, and ever-tense camerawork are in full force as well. You may predict the plot’s broad strokes, but gore comes swiftly and without mercy, and it’s seeing the lengths to which this villain will go and why that make the picture. Indeed, the recurrent circular imagery couldn’t be clearer: this is a story about cycles of grief, of violence, of life and death. If someone you loved was stolen from you forever… what wouldn’t you do to undo that?

6) Weapons

There’s hooks, and then there’s hooks. With as much as I enjoyed writer/director/Whitest Kid I Knew Zach Cregger’s Barbarian, I was sold as soon as I saw this front-of-the-poster premise. As I should’ve seen coming, though, the follow-through isn’t a grim, linear thriller but rather a comic mystery box, splitting skulls and sides in equal measure. Weapons taps an ensemble cast for a quasi-anthology about an Everytown upended when a classroom’s worth of kids go missing, where modern American fears and foibles—teachers, child-snatchers, digital witch hunts, bad cops, the homeless—come alive in relentless succession. Unlike Ari Aster’s Eddington, though (all I’ll say here on that is: too soon, man), such timely themes and imagery aren’t a cushion but a springboard, launching viewers somewhere between suburban fantasy and a love letter to the greats (Kubrick, Lynch, Raimi, et al.). The closing minutes may abandon physics in favor of applause, but with how twisted both its plot and imagery get, this journey matters so much more than the destination.

5) Frankenstein

Has a man ever spiritually helmed a film as much as Guillermo del Toro has Frankenstein before finally earning the byline? Without doubt, the man’s skills and fixations are on rapturous display: sympathy for the creature (a patchwork yet hunky Jacob Elordi), opulent costumes, grim yet grandiose set design, and formidable genre alums—chief among them, Oscar Isaac as the scenery-chewing Victor (here solidified as an arrogant, controlling creator damaged by an abusive father) and Mia Goth as the macabre bride-to-be who astutely calls him out on his BS. The project accomplishes its own feat of genius by balancing Mary Shelley’s cerebral sci-fi novel with the lurid spectacle of its Universal incarnation: the Monster bodies bystanders with Tromatic zeal, but the truest villain here is the good Doctor, warmonger money in pocket and designs on his brother’s girl while he tries to imitate mommy. I’d hesitate to call this the definitive version, but is it the most lavish, poetic, yet ruthless? I think GdT has that one in the (body)bag.

4) 28 Years Later

Let it be known: this is how you make a belated sequel. It hasn’t actually been that long since director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland’s original collab, but thank goodness they didn’t wait any longer for another crack at a post-apocalyptic U.K. This time, the focus is on island-bound Scots, whose community fractures once a resentful tween resolves to bring his ailing mum to a mainland mad doctor (Ralph Fiennes, in a hell of a pivot from Conclave). Since 28 Days Later, innumerable media took inspiration from its portrait of a city fallen to inhuman hordes, so the tropes here will be familiar to most: agrarian communes, bowhunting, an “alpha” zombie, etc. However, Years delivers not only tension and gross-out moments head and shoulders (and severed spine) above intervening imitators but also artful, iconic sequences like our protagonists fleeing an Infected while seeming to run on water, or pillars of bones which evoke a birch grove. An alternately ethereal and raucous score and rock-solid performances don’t hurt either! Mind only that The Bone Temple could either raise or lower this rating—suffice it to say that Garland must be quite confident in Nia DaCosta’s pending follow-up to end such a shocking, somber picture with what feels like a crunkcore music video.

3) Superman

Good to have you back, Kal-El. The Snyderverse was a bracing diversion, but James Gunn—appointed by DC to save their world in his own right—recaptures the color, optimism, and vulnerability which befit a “Metahuman” powered by sunshine. There’s the irreverence and icky moments for which the writer-director is known, but also his strengths: an exposure-therapy approach to absurd spectacle and a cavalcade of characters as goofy as they are unforgettable. Smartly, this isn’t an origin story, yet for all the expanded-universe ambitions, neither does it require knowledge of prior lore. Classic characters are back and well-cast (I love Nicholas Hoult’s tech-bro take on Lex Luthor), but the new faces are a delight as well, Mr. Terrific in particular (or maybe I’m just biased towards a badass nerd who puts a “T” on everything). Superman ’25 might turn off folks who wanted a more focused, reverent take on the Man of Steel, but I didn’t mind. When it’s time to be serious or scary, Gunn clicks the safety off, and yet an acceptance that we’re here to have fun is ever-present. It was only a matter of time until we got a Superman younger than me, but I feel no less inspired for it—goodness is the power we need, now more than ever.

2) Sinners

God bless that sweet spot where a talented director returns with a fatter check to “one for me” after clocking out of the franchise factory. With a pair of Jordans in tow (the irresistibly named “Smokestack” twins), Ryan Coogler mixes Southern Gothic, gangster drama, erotica, and Hammer horror into a slick, exciting “one crazy night” flick about the perils of assimilation personified by (stay with me here) song ‘n dance vampires. On the surface, we’ve got From Dusk Til Dawn inverted—with a cadre of ‘30s outcasts whose rollicking evening at a new “juke” is upset by the arrival of entitled bloodsuckers—but composer Ludwig Göransson puts music front and center as a force of nature to be reckoned with. It’s been a minute since the blues sounded this powerful on-screen! The theme is exemplified nowhere better than a literally timeless midpoint party, where Coogler’s camera tracks tribal dancers and modern rappers cavorting amid period-appropriate revelers. Rest assured, too, the closet Klansmen who haunt the first act get their comeuppance…

1) One Battle After Another

After years of period pieces that I either sat out or more respected than championed, P.T. Anderson came around the bend and fired a late lock for Best of 2025 right at me. I didn’t know the guy had a contemporary thriller in him, but with Leo in the lead and an electrifying supporting cast—chiefly, Sean Penn as a white-power cop and rebel girl Chase Infiniti—the hours fly by alongside bullets and cars. Casting his camera upon generations of freedom fighters, Anderson presents action with a haste and energy that industry veterans could learn from, while still leaving room for nuanced character development and expansive cinematography, all set against Johnny Greenwood’s jittery score (plus some classic pop drops). There’s plenty of oddball touches and humor, but the burning core of the film is a sincere, timely, yet timeless paean to progress. True life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness means a forever war against those who would subjugate us—but the fight can’t survive without friends and family looking out for each other. Even if one of them is a little too baked to remember the right code words.

December 27, 2025
Categories: Roundups and Reviews, Top Stuff . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

Top Stuff of 2025 – Top 10 Albums

RULES:

I. Had to be released on streaming in the U.S. in 2025 (buying more albums in 2026!)

II. Had to sound good to me (be aware, I have niche tastes!)

III. Wasn’t just something I liked one particular single from (see the Top 10 Singles list for such cases!)

Honorable Mentions

  1. Fooled by the Rush of Growing Up – Kidburn (nobody soundtracks sunsets like this guy!)
  2. Coloura – Coloura (I gotta start a playlist of song titles that reference Pete Wentz)
  3. Closer to the Sun – Said the Sky (“You can cry in the storm or you can dance in the rain”)
  4. So Much for Second Chances – SoSo (if Eiffel 65 went emo??)
  5. Love on the Edge of Desire – The Lightning Kids (makes me want to go on a night drive)

10) This Never Happened – The Frst

The feature: often a transparent label move to boost profits by uniting two big names, and yet also an opportunity for smaller performers to rev their engine with gas from established peers. Thus enabled, The Frst may not be as standalone as their name suggests, but as their “About” page once clarified: “You’re The Frst… We’re your soundtrack.” And the duo play that role ably, rolling with rockers like Sleeping With Sirens (rap-meets-mope “Bruce Lee”), Eagles of Death Metal (“Murderabilia,” Josh Homme still in fine form), and The Dangerous Summer (“Torpedo”). Meanwhile, “Pop Punk Song” is my hypothetical wrestling entrance fanfare. Consider me glad this album did, in fact, happen! 

9) The Last Laugh – VOILÀ

VOILÀ topped this list in 2024, so if they’re lower in the ranking this time around, it’s nothing personal—just the shockwave of discovery fading into familiarity. Still, that familiarity is as one of my favorite bands, a debonair pair who mix cabaret aesthetics with witty wordplay and a gothic fixation on death and heartbreak. For this year’s bifurcated LP, the stage is unveiled with a slow-boil title track before launching into a screaming stream of odes to drinking alone (“after (h)ours”; “Unhappy Hour”), internet addiction (“Digital Zombies”), and the one that either got away or can’t fast enough (“Wish You Hell” and “VOGUE,” respectively). There’s tenderness too, though, from the homebody seduction of “Better Off” to the tearjerking vows of “LIFEBLOOD”… and I don’t have TikTok, but if I did, I think I’ve got some winning moves for “FMK!” Fellow magicians got a show indeed this year, and I’m ready for as many more acts as Messrs. Eisner and Ross have waiting in the wings. 

8) Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party – Hayley Williams

For some, it’ll be the moment when the girl once rumored to have apologized for saying “God” in a song now calls out Americans whitewashing Christ. For others, it’ll be out of the gates, with the clamorous bravado of “Ice in my OJ.” Maybe, if you’ve got the right sense of humor, it’s “Discovery Channel,” interpolating exactly the Bloodhound Gang line you think it does. To everyone who experiences Ego Death, however (everyone who can belt out “That’s What You Get” at their own karaoke bar, at least), a realization will come: oh, Hayley Williams is an artist. As if there was any doubt, but in striking out on her own during COVID, Williams introduced a sound evocative of Paramore yet undeniably more personal, diverse, and perverse. Over an hour and change, the singer-songwriter vents about racists, antidepressants, and bad flings, but also looking toward a brighter future (“Love Me Better”; “I Won’t Quit on You”). With as vibrant as her hair and advocacy have always been, I’ve no doubt she’ll get there!

7) Vaxis III: The Father of Make Believe – Coheed & Cambria

The “Vaxis” cycle is where I went from being Coheed-curious to an unabashed C&C fan, if only because they eased up on the suites and threw in some more hooks. With part tres of the prospective pentalogy, little has changed sonically or narratively since A Window of the Waking Mind and Unheavenly Creatures—it’s metal, it’s theatrical, it’s nerdy, and I’m still not sure what’s going on without finishing the bonus novella. Notice how there was no complaint in there! “Goodbye, Sunshine” pours one out for a late companion with fitting vigor, “Someone Who Can” backgrounded more than one self-pep-talk this year, and I just about swerved off the road (complimentary) when I heard absolute firestorm “Blind Side Sonny” segue into the breakbeats of “Play the Poet.” I’ve seen them in concert twice, and Claudio willing, I’ll see them twice more for the next acts of this interstellar adventure. 

6) Going, Going, Gone – Knox

I’m not above unabashedly happy tunes, and yet I can’t deny that—thanks to Spotify’s deluge of content (canceling that subscription, promise)—I judge thumbnails at first glance. Look at this chump tossing paper airplanes, I might’ve thought; he will never be ballin’. Chalk me taking a chance on Knox up to wild curiosity—after Bilmuri rocked my world, I went scrolling though colleagues and wondered what a clean-cut kid was doing with that hog-man. Turns out, something mellower yet equally up my alley! “You Happened” scorns an ex with darkly comic specificity, “Pick Your Poison” bops all around a chance encounter over underage drinks, and “Not The 1975” parodies its namesake for a self-deprecating anthem. I’ve no doubt the performer has a diligent crew at the studio, but all the same, the result is mononym-worthy music.

5) Sweet and Sad – Mayday Parade

Mayday Parade: you know ‘em, you love ‘em, you have five of their shirts and want a huge umbrella largely to imitate their old album covers (that last part was written while looking into a mirror). It’s tough to admit we can now say “three cheers for twenty years,” but the love’s still there—in smug Knuckle Puck collab “Who’s Laughing Now,” in half-full-hearted adieu “Pretty Good to Feel Something,” in requisite Calvin & Hobbes quote “I Must Obey the Inscrutable Exhortations of My Soul.” Elsewhere, “I Miss the 90s” plays misdirection with its nostalgic label, while “It’s Not All Bad” enters the canon of certified MP bangers, infusing their signature melodrama with 80s synth for a toast to—honoring one of their rawest cuts—“the good that became of that crash.” This spot’s a little crowded, but until I hear a release date for the prophesied threequel, I’m treating these as an S-tier double album. 

4) YESTERDAY FOREVER! – Jack the Underdog

Watching the edgy rock star archetype evolve over generations can be fascinating. Whereas all-purpose rage and casual homophobia may once have been the play (Hollywood Undead really just climbed onto the charts in ‘08 with some of those lyrics, huh), contemporary bad boys are more likely to get loud and proud about not just queerness but also mental health. Exhibit J: Jack the Underdog, who blessed my collection with this effervescent sophomore effort (and a sugarcoated nightcore version) when I least expected it! “I’M HAPPY (JUST IN CASE)” taps the UFO fixation of fellow Tom DeLonge fans for a rush of stoner optimism, “LIL ME” acerbically wallows in dreams dashed by people “who give me head—aches,” and “LIVE LAUGH LOBOTOMY” raises a two-minute-fifty-three-second middle finger to… well, can you take a number? At last count, this guy covered “Wood” and didn’t change a word. Taylor Swift isn’t on the list this year (wonder why), but with any luck, Mr. Underdog will be again. 

3) A Collection of Greetings – Haunted Mouths

We have music for every season, or so it often seems. Cheery melodies for a spring in one’s step, that coveted “song of the summer,” autumnal indie, and then about four months of Christmas jingles (nights, rainy or not, synthwave’s got you covered). But what about when it’s just kinda… spooky? Chilly, misty, not a lot of people on the street? Enter Haunted Mouths, the side project from Sleeping With Sirens frontman/roving guest vocalist Kellin Quinn, and A Collection of Greetings. “Further Til We Disappear” sets the mood, eerie tones quivering over passages about rabbit holes, pumpkin tarts, and crashing waves, and what follows are soundscapes at home in bleak January (where I first listened) or pre-Halloween October alike. It comes across as traditional yet bold, meek yet forceful, and cold yet comforting. This is music for equinoxes, where day and night are symmetrical but there’s not as much to celebrate, and it’s all just a bit gray out. Glad to finally have something to stroll to in such weather! 

2) Meet Me at the Record Store – The Summer Set

Some of my favorite bands got that way because of how well they blow up a projection of my heaviest emotions, like shadow puppets lit to towering proportions: Mayday Parade’s chin-up wistfulness, the operatic angst of My Chemical Romance, A Day to Remember and their easycore screeds against conformity. If I had to pick the group that best captures how I’ve actually felt on my most trying days, though, it’d be The Summer Set. “About a Girl” crystalized the unrequited what-ifs of undergrad, and “Legendary” dominated countless twentysomething daydreams, but it was when the inspiring “Figure Me Out” led—after a mutual creative hiatus—to the callback of “Back Together” that I knew. Now, with MMATRS, the quartet have zeroed in with GeoGuessr precision on my feels… and not a moment too soon! “For the First Time” revels in realizing it’s never too late to come alive, “34” is a bittersweet celebration of nearing middle age, and leave it to these guys to riff on that myth about where a certain shoe name came from with “ADIDAS.” For TSS, life has always been one big party, for better or worse. I used to not really like parties, but I think I’m ready to let myself enjoy one.

1) Everyone’s a Star! – 5 Seconds of Summer

Look, I’m just as surprised as you are. With as tiring as “fake geek girls” discourse was at the time, I defended a rising 5 Seconds of Summer against “fake punk boy” allegations—but there’s no denying that “She Looks So Perfect,” with its product-placement chorus and lullaby-adjacent verses, was a corny first impression deserving of the One Direction comparisons. I got down with a few tracks from their eponymous debut and its successor, but that was kinda it. Until.

Everyone’s a Star! marks a total reinvention, if not breaking new ground then at least breaking away from the Top 40 ambitions of old and toward something darker, sexier, yet still eminently catchy. As titles like “NOT OK” and lines like “can you feel my heart” indicate, these gentleman have enjoyed some emo in their time, but this is no mere sad-boy cash-in; there’s notes of Bring Me the Horizon, but also the soft-spoken rambles of Gorillaz, The 1975-like wails (sorry, Knox!), The Weeknd’s electric lasciviousness, and on and on, with room to spare for serenades like the anguished “I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again.” It’s minor-key one minute, club-ready the next, and—as the deluxe edition and one unexpectedly funny track acknowledge—evolved indeed. In studying their most gracefully aged genre forefathers, 5SOS have arrived at my ideal merger of pop and the hard stuff. It’s not a guilty pleasure; honestly, I think I’m ready to retire that phrase. It’s just a pleasure—to dance to, croon to, love to, and everything in-between. As said stars, let’s keep those good vibes going into 2026 and beyond!  

December 18, 2025
Categories: Roundups and Reviews, Top Stuff . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

Top Stuff of 2025 – Top 10 Singles

RULES:

I. Had to be released as a single on streaming in the U.S. in 2025 (buying more albums in 2026!)

II. Had to sound good to me (be aware, I have niche tastes!)

III. Wasn’t also a track on one of my Top 10 Albums (coming soon!)

10) “Acid Rain” – Greywind

There’s a certain vibe—you know it when you hear it—to Aughts alt-rock that contemporary acts carrying a torch for the era can struggle with: not just mad and sad but keening, wistful, and apt to equate despair with some ruinous natural phenomenon. 2017’s brief Afterthoughts was admittedly just that for many moons, yet in what’s been teased so far, Greywind’s pending trip to Severed Heart City is poised to whip up a whole new storm.

9) “Hurry Up, Darling, We’re Going to Miss the Crucifixion” – First & Forever

Who was the first band to do the whole “sardonic long song name” thing? I’ve always assumed Fall Out Boy, but it’s fun to imagine some similarly verbose predecessor. In any event, First & Forever have been dropping downtrodden tracks for a while with no full-length in sight, but in their latest batch, they’ve arrived at a promising flourish: medieval melancholy meets bangin’ riffs. Toss on a title that’s irreverent in every sense, and this might just be my favorite F&F not led by Vin Diesel (although, just imagine…).

8) “Let it Out” – FlickN

Hey, do you miss vintage Blink? The fellas in FlickN do, and with cheeky moniker in tow, they spent 2025 cranking out one skate-punk homage after another. That I came to learn of them through a fellow attorney acquainted with one member might’ve tilted the scale (without giving away too much, I believe they’re from the area), but I suspect I’d relish hearing this sound come back ‘round regardless. Looking forward to that freshman album!

7) “Better Days” – Yellowcard

An embarrassing anecdote is that, growing up, I didn’t know Yellowcard had a violinist. I was introduced to them by “The Takedown” in Guitar Hero: Van Halen (2009), where I just assumed—sandwiched between saintly Eddie solos—I was miming really fast strumming. While I arrived at their full catalog too late to embrace every minute of this year’s titular album, then, the band’s resurgence at the crest of the “When We Were Young” wave is a welcome call to positivity, Blockbuster-bound music video and all. No, it’s not too late!

6) “Oh No!” – All Time Low

It’s the aging emo’s dilemma: If I finally, for serious this time, clean up and turn that frown upside-down, am I still me? All Time Low was always bubbly even for “pop punk,” but when decades-strong frontman Alex Gaskarth frets about whether, now “over the rain clouds,” he’s as appealing as back then, it’s hard not to relate, even without merch sales to monitor. I’d like to be known as happy and well-adjusted… but what if it is the madness in the man that makes the music?

5) “Please Me” – Coven Dove

Gotta rep for local talent! Coven Dove, in their own words, makes “witch-pop stories from the pit,” and having attended a hometown concert earlier this year, I can confirm the classic-meets-cryptic appeal firsthand. If you like smooth tunes for an evening in or at the bar, this is an outfit to watch out for.

4) “6SPEED” – Rematch

The cross-pollination between hip-hop and punk rock always intrigues me even as it tends to go one way, with rappers copping a guitarist and new flow. Rematch, however, picked a fitting name twice over, coming back from years of sporadic singles with their first record proper and this gear-switching centerpiece. With its pity-party chorus and nod to weeping at G-notes, “6SPEED” is a sure shoutout to scenehood, and yet it’s also cocky and self-referential, singer Matt LeGrand spitting boasts about stacks of cash as his “boys” blast through fangirl speakers that feel spiritually at home in the club. It may claim to be Nothing Like You Wanted, but this blend of flavors is just what I needed.

3) “100%” – New Found Glory

Yeah, it’s all gonna be about self-improvement from here on. The hit-to-eh ratio on NFG’s (many) LPs has always been a bit too bottom-heavy for me to identify as an outright fan… so if I saw them in concert and have a pennant of theirs on my wall, that’s just because when they’re good, they’ve glorious indeed. I may not always reach that coveted full quantity, but I aspire to this attitude, this goal, and with the same jubilant insistence that’s kept these dudes going strong since ‘99.

2) “Kept Me Alive” – Grayscale

Here comes a technicality, since only a variant with Slowly Slowly from a deluxe reissue of The Hart made it as a single, but it’s my self-imposed gesture at music critic conventions and I’ll bend it if I want to. Bend and break, really, as this gale-force tribute to a loving partner became the latest installment in a small, unwritten playlist of ballads I can’t carpool-karaoke along to without welling up. Pining for unrequited love may be the cornerstone of many songs, but celebrating someone who’s already there for you, and always has been? That’s bedrock.

1) “Lose Your Way & Find Yourself” – AS IT IS

In the early months of 2024, I sought mental health services for the first time. The circumstances aren’t relevant, suffice it to say that I worried I’d be a hazard to myself if I didn’t phone a professional. Therapy followed (“professional growth coaching,” rather—tomayto, tomahto) as, by coincidence, my boss decided I had enough potential that it was worth bankrolling me seeing someone who could loosen up a few interpersonal kinks. And with their powers combined… well, it worked. I’m still not perfect, but I’m better than I was five years ago, and I want to keep improving. As I always try to remind myself, regret is cheap. There’s infinite things we all could’ve done, but there’s just as many things we still can do. I won’t turn my back on the past like I once did, but I’m also ready to move from reaction to action. I won’t let the future just come—I’ll bring it toward me. I’ll still get scared, sad, anxious, and angry sometimes. But when it happens, with eyes on the horizon, I won’t let that pain haunt me.

December 18, 2025
Categories: Roundups and Reviews, Top Stuff . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: 1 Comment

My Top 10 Films of 2023!

Just in time for Oscar season (so, late), it’s my takes of my top favorite films of 2023! This time, for want of a red carpet or recent, decent occasion for cosplay, I decided to engage in some entry-specific costumery… tune in and see! What were your favorite films of the year?

January 27, 2024
Categories: Roundups and Reviews, Top Stuff, videos . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

My Top Music of 2023

You’ve heard from the best, now hear from… well, me! I’m no Fantano or Pitchfork, but I do have Airpods in at most hours–along with a well-used car stereo–so I heard plenty of music in 2023 for which praise is due. To complement my Top Games of 2023 list from the other day, then (a brief movie one is on my Letterboxd – expanded video adaptations of both pending!), here’s some quick ‘n dirty takes on my favorite albums and singles which hit my ears this year:

TOP ALBUMS OF 2023

#10) Noah’s Ghost, Lost Nights

Low on the list out of principle ’cause I didn’t get around to listening until I was driving home from a NYE party, but still: Solid vocal and instrumental synthwave of the eerie Stranger Things-adjacent variety, all wrapped in an endearing package honoring the same retro aesthetic.

#9) Hackney Diamonds, The Rolling Stones

Half a century and change after their biggest hits, there’s admittedly more hack than diamonds in this LP, but having the boys back in town with new material felt like a cause to rock all the same. And we got a Lady Gaga feature, no less!

#8) Badlands, Magic Sword

In a genre full of nostalgia-mongering and fantastical imagery, Magic Sword has cornered the market on a specific yet indelible mood: Music to quest to. With eerie synth tones and song titles like “Nowhere Else to Run,” “A Dark Task,” and “There is Still Good in You,” how can you not want to don a cloak of your own and journey towards what lies on the horizon?

#7) Halloween Mixtape II, Magnolia Park

Back in my day, if you wanted Halloween-themed emo music, you had Blink-182’s “I Miss You” and maybe a Panic! at the Disco track or two. Leave it to young guns Magnolia Park, though, to dole it out on the regular! Amid tracks which explicitly name-check the holiday and other suitably spooky subjects, raucous yet wistful opener “The End: An Emo Night Rhapsody” more than earns its subcultural pretension, 408 collab “Manic” is an infectious ode to a dysfunctional relationship, and “Life in the USA” makes for a darkly funny, unapologetically political dig at late-stage capitalism.

#6) The Jaws of Life, Pierce the Veil

If Vic and the gang put out a new record, you know it’s gonna be on this list somewhere. Shouty lead single “Pass the Nirvana” had me wary when it dropped in 2022, but I came around to its sound on the release proper, and numerous other tracks keep PTV’s quality-over-quantity discography going strong: The thunderous yet dreamy promises of “Even When I’m Not with You,” the cacophonous pleading of “Emergency Contact,” and the aching reflections on Chloe Moriondo duet “12 Fractures” were particular highlights.

#5) The Maine, The Maine

I’m always a little wary when a band well into their career releases a self-titled album. Are we in for a bold, image-defining musical experience, or just a going-through-the-motions contractual obligation? With The Maine, however, it’s neither, as their 2023 eponymous LP may well be my favorite yet. From the indignant yet bouncy chorus on “Blame” to the downright danceable “Leave in Five,” The Maine remain an indelibly entertaining missing link between radio-friendly pop rock and heart-on-the-sleeve, Hopeless Records catharsis. Generous of them, too, to write the theme song for every college party I ever peaced out on with “How to Exit a Room.”

#4) Desert Hearts, W O L F C L U B

It’s a crowded scene out there for 80s-throwback acts, especially in my library, but WOLFCLUB stands apart from the pack (no pun intended) by having… well, just really darn good hooks. As ever, young love, sleek cars, and dark nights are the imagery du jour, but with tracks like soaring, insistent opener “Crystalise” and breathless call-and-response “Shoreline” (complete with a sax solo!), they simply outrun the competition.

#3) Intellectual Property, Waterparks

I don’t consider myself a sonic tastemaker at the best of times, but I was still surprised to see Waterparks’ latest LP pop up on multiple critics’ worst-of lists for 2023, because… this thing slaps? I get it–rambunctious production, goofball lyrics, and random stylistic transitions aren’t for everyone, but the loopy, corny, often horny energy of tracks like “Funeral Grey,” “Brainwashed,” and “Self-Sabotage” is just too infectious for me to pooh-pooh.

#2) The Heavy Box, Derek Sanders

We didn’t get a new Mayday Parade record in 2023, but we did get the next best thing: Another acoustic outing from frontman Derek Sanders! Despite its five-track run, this box is heavy indeed — “Home” is a melancholy reflection on the road to peace, “Howell Canyon” evokes The Postal Service with its thrumming percussion and laments that “we exist to only fall apart,” and the sparse instrumentation of “True Story of a Boy Whose Exploits Panicked a Nation” encloses a heartbreaking look back at a life literally or figuratively reaching its end… while also continuing Sanders’ cute tradition of naming songs after Calvin & Hobbes quotes. Cap it off with a reunion with classic Mayday compatriot Jason Lancaster on “For Dear Life,” and you’ve got an EP which all transported me back to 2013–not a place I ought to linger, in truth, but a comfort in certain troubled moments all the same.

#1) Emotaku, Sunrise Skater Kids

Four words: emo songs as anime themes. As prolific as the overlap is between weebs and scene kids, it’s amazing no one capitalized upon this peanut butter-and-chocolate combo before, but bless SSK for giving it a go, turning pop-punk hits by Yellowcard, My Chemical Romance, and more into even peppier J-pop bangers, complete with translated lyrics. Enjoy the back half, too, where each track is convincingly condensed into what could well be the opener to your new favorite slice-of-life series! Now for someone to actually produce the shows that’d go with these…

TOP SINGLES OF 2023

#10) “Burning Rubber,” Arcade High

Nothing too complicated here–just another rad, funky throwback perfect for neon-lit night drives, from the dudes who arguably do it best.

#9) “Mess it Up” (Purple Disco Machine Remix), The Rolling Stones

As alluded to above, I won’t pretend Hackney Diamonds is a newsworthy return to form for the rock titans, but to just have (1) a disco remix (2) of a Rolling Stones song in the year 2023 felt like a rift in time had opened in the best way.

#8) “Nobody Tells You When You’re Young,” Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

To have weathered my twenties to the sound of Everything in Transit by Jack’s Mannequin, only to reflect along with frontman McMahon on the things only growing older can teach you… it’s nice. Not uplifting, but nice.

#7) “Tell Me I’m Alive,” All Time Low

For all their overproduced earlier work and off-stage scandals, I stand by my conviction that All Time Low can always be counted on to fire off a rowdy earworm about being an unambitious screw-up. Their 2023 record may have been too familiar to make my Top 10 in aggregate, but this all-too-relatable lead single of the same name stands tall (or, maybe, slumps against wall) just the same.

#6) “After Destruction,” Descartes a Kant

I don’t know exactly what’s going on here, but it’s loud, it’s vaguely sci-fi, and I have a thing for orange hair, so color me pleased.

#5) “More Like a Crash,” Mayday Parade

We did get some new Mayday Parade singles this year, at least! And the first was the best, or at least the most promisingly unique: “More Like a Crash,” in which classic Mayday heartbreak (“guess it’s been a while since I had nothing to do”) crests before the trademark guitar breakdown with a holler of the title line, feeling right out of their rawer Black Lines period. Eager to see where the overall sonic direction of their next project goes!

#4) “Childhood Eyes,” Yellowcard

Among the many bands experiencing a renaissance thanks to emo-era nostalgia, none were perhaps more surprising–or welcome–than Yellowcard reneging on their 2016 final bow with a new EP. Of particular note was this track, in which the band openly carries forward their original youthful energy without sounding desperate or pandering. Another pop punk group that tried to make a comeback in 2023 should blink their own eyes and take note…

#3) “LosT,” Bring Me the Horizon

Some songs capture a specific emotion so well that it’s almost like a part of you has been carved out and pressed on vinyl. Not always a pleasant emotion, mind you, but all the same, “LosT”–with its incessant guitars, glitched-out electronic segments, and furious lyrics–is the sound of that one adjective, that one feeling, running like a bull in a china shop through one’s head in moments of self-doubt. I (thankfully) can’t relate to controversial lead singer Oli Sykes watching anime while doing ketamine, but to wanting to scream “what the hell is fucking wrong with me?” after a bad day? Consider me found.

#2) “Take Me with You,” Neck Deep

Hey, remember that week or two in 2023 when some random government guy claimed he saw UFOs, and everyone decided that was irrefutable proof aliens exist? Neck Deep does, or at least they struck while the iron (or some other metallic substance not of this planet) was hot and dropped this silly little homage to The X-Files, E.T., and the increasingly sensible anxiety of wanting to leave Earth while there’s still time. I didn’t know these dudes had a nerdy novelty song in them, but it just makes their library of A-tier pop punk even better!

#1) “Eat the Acid,” Kesha

In the late Aughts, Ke$ha was widely derided as the nadir of music: trashy, airheaded, unconscionably perverse. With time, however, came change for the artist, both for good–a reappraisal of silly, sexy pop stars–and for ill: namely, a #MeToo-adjacent sexual abuse case and subsequent industry fallout. I don’t have the space, much less the education, to dissect how all of this influenced Kesha (long since bereft of the dollar sign) during the production of her 2023 record Gag Order; I just know that, for all of the bombastic tracks I showered with accolades earlier, “Eat the Acid” is the most interesting song I heard this year: a calm, haunting, hypnotic mantra about faith, isolation, and the dilemma of seeking self-actualization from without as opposed to within.

January 1, 2024
Categories: Roundups and Reviews . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

My Top Games of 2023

2023: Not a good year, am I right? We all have our own reasons—be they personal, political, or just not caring for the weather—but in any event, I think we can all agree that 2024 hopefully holds better days. Fortunately, the last 365 days had some pretty darn good videogames to tide us over! I didn’t get around to most folks’ GOTY, Baldur’s Gate III, but here’s my quick thoughts on ten titles that left me especially impressed, be it for visuals, story, and/or just sheer fun. I’m fixing to “adapt” this into a YouTube video by January, but for the traditional sake of year-end takes, let’s kick it off in writing with…

#10) Amnesia: The Bunker

Since Amnesia: The Dark Descent in 2010, the premise of the indie stealth-horror series (plus sci-fi spinoff Soma) has remained consistent: awaken as a memory-challenged wretch in some bygone era, solve environmental puzzles, and avoid making eye contact with whatever’s slithering around the abandoned building you’re stuck in as you look for both answers and an exit. With The Bunker, though, it’s World War One, and developer Frictional Games adds a new twist accordingly: the titular barracks are under attack by more than just soldiers, but your generator only has so much fuel. What could otherwise be just a spooky walking sim, then, becomes a terrifying cycle of resource management and cost-benefit analysis, every trip deeper into a given tunnel valued in real-world minutes until the lights go out and your nocturnal pursuer gains the upper claw.

As ever, there’s plenty of cheap deaths and finicky physics, and the conclusion is more eerie than satisfying, but the franchise hasn’t felt this fresh and anxiety-inducing in years. For genre fans, you can’t go wrong with hunkering down in this bunker.

#9) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Can a game be both a sequel and, effectively, DLC for the last one? It’s a query that’s arisen more and more in recent years, as ballooning development costs and higher demand for consistency between entries have led to many follow-ups taking place, in whole or in part, on maps carried over from their predecessor. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may well be the poster boy for this trend: the graphics look the same and the overworld is functionally identical, so if, like me, you spent a hundred hours exploring post-robopocalypse Hyrule in 2017, the magic’s just not quite there anymore.

It’s the underworld, though—and the, uh, over-overworld—where Tears both flows freely and reconnects with the series’ roots, as in addition to a bevy of caves and flying islands, we get a roundabout Dark World with The Depths: a subterranean abyss full of new monsters and challenges. Add in some honest-to-Goddesses (if not meager) dungeons and bosses, a stirring dual-timelines plot, and arguably the most robust physics-based crafting system… ever, and you’ve got an adventure which, while missing the impact of Breath of the Wild, improves upon everything which made that game great, and adds much of what it lacked. As contemporary sequels go, that’s alright with me!

#8) Resident Evil 4

Whether Resident Evil 4 is one of the greatest games ever can make for a spirited discussion, but there can be no debate that it’s one of the most influential: from Gears of War to Dead Space to The Last of Us, if you’ve played a game about a guy with a weapon in his hand and a camera over his shoulder that came out in the last eighteen years, you’ve probably got Leon and Ashley here to thank for it.

Expectations were high, then, for Capcom to nail a modern reimagining of the action-horror classic in keeping with the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes—and it’s safe to say they delivered. If you’re an RE4 diehard, it may all seem a bit too slick yet familiar, but at least for a casual fan such as myself (I didn’t play the ‘05 version in earnest until the PC port, mere years ago), this is an update in the best way: satisfying gunplay, stellar graphics, and a script which retains the original’s cheesy thrills while both knowing what to cut (sorry, statue-fleeing QTE) and where to add breathing room (a wide-linear lake segment). Post-game support, in the form of comparable revisions of “The Mercenaries” arcade mode and Ada Wong’s “Separate Ways,” are just the icing on the campy, gore-drenched cake!

#7) Star Wars: Jedi – Survivor

When I was a kid, a new Star Wars story coming out was a capital-E event—I still remember the months leading up to the 1999 release of The Phantom Menace in particular, when everything from Pepsi cans to KFC buckets had the cast’s faces plastered on it, heralds of a date so monumental that it was as if the new millennium was coming a year early. Post-The Force Awakens, though, with new shows dropping semiannually and George Lucas’s original vision—however bungled and childish—distended into an indefinite cinematic universe, I must confess that I feel like Yoda under his blanket in Return of the Jedi, on the verge of just evaporating from the burden of so much extraneous ~content~.

All of this is to say that it takes a lot for me to get invested in a galaxy far, far away these days, but Star Wars: Jedi – Survivor (I think that’s where those punctuation marks go) earns it. Like 2019’s Jedi – Fallen Order, from which its events directly follow, it’s a single-player, story-driven action game which combines the combat loop of a Soulslike, the madcap setpieces of an Uncharted, and the block-pushing of a traditional Zelda (it’s a compliment, I swear) with a cast of likeable characters who develop themselves and the Star Wars universe in compelling ways, all without sacrificing the series’ pulpy charm. Like many sequels, its conclusion feels more like a stepping stone to some grand finale than its own resolution, but hey—for a brand defined by sets of trilogies, I’m sure another memorable adventure with Cal Kestis and company is just a few parsecs away!

#6) Pikmin 4

Among Nintendo’s many beloved IPs, Pikmin is perhaps the oddest, if not for its conceit (diminutive astronauts enlist peppy plant people to salvage valuables on an ambiguously abandoned Earth) then definitely for its sparseness, with only two sequels in as many decades (we don’t talk about Hey! Pikmin). That changed in 2023 with Pikmin 4, and while this installment is certainly the most accessible yet, it’s all relative—even with a suite of defensive options and the privilege to re-do a bum expedition, you’ll still have your hands full and palms sweaty managing elemental types, tearing down obstacles, and trying to nab as much loot as possible before sunset.

But thanks to new nighttime missions, the day being over no longer means your adventure is, while a cadre of stranded coworkers make for good company in the hub area, whether by handing out upgrades or allowing you to restyle your custom protagonist. Did I mention there’s also a little dog-like alien to ride, as well as all-new competitive segments where you see who can lift the most trinkets in time? If the word “Dandori” doesn’t mean anything to you, play this latest Pikmin, and it’ll become your mantra soon enough.

#5) Final Fantasy XVI

What is a Final Fantasy game? That’s not a rhetorical question—after over 35 years, seven console generations, and an untold number of androgynous hunks with spiky haircuts, I’m still genuinely curious. To some, it’s a turn-based JRPG, plain and simple; to others, it’s a checklist of endearingly specific elements: Moogles, magic crystals, deicide, a guy named “Cid” with a vehicle to loan out. Whatever its core values, Final Fantasy XVI caused a stir this year, as not only was it the first Fantasy to secure an M rating, but the gameplay is the simplest the mainline series has ever seen, even after XV’s “hold A to attack, hold B to dodge” format. There’s a relative handful of meaningful items or equipment upgrades, most levels are a chain of slim corridors broken up by vacant fields, and on the rare occasion a fight is difficult enough that you die, you’re given the choice to resurrect on the spot with more Potions.

And yet, call me a lowly Branded, but I had a blast, because when this game gets going, holy hell does it go. From the cold open, where you drop into a battle between two kaiju plummeting into the earth like Gandalf and the Balrog on steroids, the design directive is clear: make a boss fight as exciting as possible, and then make the next one even more exciting. This is not an RPG, it’s a cinematic spectacle fighter, and while I can understand why sticklers might bristle at that arguable dumbing-down, it’s a blessing under my roof—there are brawls in FF16 which make God of War look reserved, including at least one which even rivals the OTT spectacle of Asura’s Wrath. Routine encounters are exciting as well, as juggling melee combos, ranged shots, a canine companion, and nearly a dozen magic attacks means there’s literally never a dull moment in the heat of battle.

The music is invigorating, the characters are compelling, and while certain scandalous asides and the warring-kingdoms drama are transparent nods to Game of Thrones, it suits a world (in)famous for complicated, continent-spanning mythology. I didn’t expect a major developer to revive the glory days of early-2010s character action games, but I’m so grateful that Square-Enix pulled out a Phoenix Down and made it happen.

#4) Spider-Man 2

Tears of the Kingdom wasn’t the only game this year which followed up an acclaimed open-world console exclusive with a sequel set in more or less the same location! To be sure, Spider-Man 2 takes place in a New York that’ll be mighty familiar to anyone who played Spider-Man or the Miles Morales expansion which accompanied its intervening remaster… but while I still feel like Tom Holland-izing Peter Parker’s face in-between entries was uncalled for, it can’t be understated just how fun this game is, both to gawk at and to play.

The Big Apple has never shone so brightly in the medium, and thanks to the subtly enhanced power of the PS5, you can swing, launch, and now outright fly across not only Manhattan but also western Queens and Brooklyn, without a loading screen to be found—including the fastest fast-travel system I’ve ever experienced. Combat remains delightfully chaotic yet coherent, there’s oodles of collectibles (including some seriously sick suits), and being able to swap between two web-slingers at virtually any time is a great feature.

While the story is admittedly less focused than Spider-Man 2018, it balances our heroes’ great powers and responsibilities well: Miles must weigh an opportunity to confront Mr. Negative against the safety of his community, while Pete’s elation at a recovered Harry Osborne inviting him onboard a scientific foundation is tempered when a certain “symbiote” takes a liking to their bodies. Per usual, a threequel is all but explicitly set up, but I can’t wait to see what these Spider-Men do next.

#3) Super Mario Wonder

Among the major videogame developers, Nintendo gets a lot of flack, and not without reason: whether it’s antiquated hardware, letting celebrated franchises stagnate for inscrutable reasons, or the Disney-like dissonance of wielding both a family-friendly image and a ruthless legal department, there’s plenty to dislike about The Big N (wait, does anybody still call them that?). But at the end of the day, there’s arguably no other company that, at least in their first-party efforts, answers one simple question with polish and verve: what would make people smile?

To that end, Super Mario Bros. Wonder delivers a cavalcade of clever, colorful, and rambunctious platforming challenges that can be enjoyed solo or with friends. After years of the New Super Mario Bros. sub-series coasting off nostalgia (to the point that the adjective in its title stopped even being accurate), the name change is both an implicit statement of intent and a merry warning—for with every level comes a strange new enemy or hazard to navigate, crescendoing with the acquisition of a trippy “Wonder Seed” which throws time and space itself into unpredictable tumult. Structurally, there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before—and don’t expect a plot more complicated than “Bowser’s at it again!”—but when it comes to the journey mattering more than the destination, this latest outing with the bros is a wonder indeed. Now if only two-player mode didn’t cause one guy to die if the other one just moves a little too far in any direction…

#2) Alan Wake II

Trevor reclined on his couch, holding his phone in front of him like a menu at a bar whose drinks he wasn’t sure he could afford. It was more comfortable than hunching in front of a computer, let alone a typewriter, and yet the words wouldn’t come. He had to review “Alan Wake II,” the long-awaited sequel to the 2010 videogame developed by Remedy Entertainment which combined a setting inspired by the television series “Twin Peaks” and “The Twilight Zone” with a tale of a writer tormented by dark spirits ripped right from the pages of a Stephen King novel. But where to start?

Should he lead with the story, how it skillfully balanced episodes about not only Alan’s struggle to escape Cauldron Lake after thirteen years but also Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a murder cult in Bright Falls with ties to her own past? Would it be ideal to focus on the gameplay, which– while often cumbersome and simplistic–looked better than ever, every building convincingly cluttered and dark forest ripe with fear lurking behind each tree? Or were the personal touches the most important, the enthusiasm with which Remedy included so many signatures that resonated with Trevor as well? Rock-show musical numbers, live-action interludes, Finnish cultural pride, the mere fact that it starred a horror writer and took place in rural Washington State and New York City, both places he had lived? No, surely it was right to at least open with a tribute to the recently deceased James McCaffrey, whose weathered voice brought so much presence to not only Agent Alex Casey but also Max Payne, upon whom the new character bearing director Sam Lake’s face was clearly based.

Trevor sighed, rubbed his eyes, and put his phone down on the coffee table to go make some lunch. He may as well have been staring into a bottomless pit, a black void stretching into infinity. As uneven as it could sometimes be, when it came to writing about Alan Wake II, the amount of praise he had to give wasn’t a lake. It was an ocean.

#1) Hi-Fi Rush

On February 14, 1991, The Silence of the Lambs released in theaters across America. Starring Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, and Ted Levine, the film made back over ten times its budget and swept the Academy Awards the following year, winning Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay (from Thomas Harris’s novel), and Best Picture. To date, it is considered by many to be one of the greatest motion pictures of all time.

What on God’s metallic, neon-green earth does this have to do with Hi-Fi Rush, a jaunty little character action game inspired, if anything, by a combination of Guitar Hero, Devil May Cry, and Toonami reruns? Well, aside from the fact that developer Tango Gameworks is best known for creepy, grisly titles like The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo, it’s proof positive (in this humble critic’s opinion) that, sometimes, the winner comes forth at the beginning of the year, not near the end. Hi-Fi Rush was both announced and released on January 25, 2023, and since that surprise drop, I haven’t been able to stop gushing about it, nor—with generous bonus DLC—run out of reasons to return to it. This coming from a man whose reaction to rhythm games is typically to run in the opposite direction with poorly timed steps!

With an effervescent art style and a diverse gang of characters to match, fights aren’t a chore but a joy, and the pace is precision-tuned to keep you always upbeat, always eager to earn another “S” rank or grind down the next railing. During bosses or big cutscenes, the original score gives way to licensed cuts, and while there’s few tunes by music game standards, it’s a matter of quality over quantity—I never thought I’d face off against a buff she-wrestler while Nine Inch Nails’ despondent banger “1,000,000” thrums in the background, but it’s dreams like these that gaming brings to fruition. Also, leave it to this tracklist to indirectly inform me of a Smashing Pumpkins side project, Zwan, that’d somehow escaped my notice!

Hi-Fi Rush is, as much as my bones creak to consider it, an ode to 2000s nostalgia, back when teams of anime-tinged rebels ruled the airwaves and videogames were about power-ups and youthful ‘tude, not pay-to-play battle passes or weary fatherhood. It’s a game by people who know what makes them fun, made for people who share that wisdom. It’s not much, maybe, but as comforts go, it’s like a favorite song on a long drive with friends, volume cranked and windows down.

—————

And that’s, blessedly, a wrap on this turkey of a tour around the sun! I don’t know much about the future (if I did, I’d have quit my job ages ago and become a for-profit prophet), but I do know that there’ll be many more opportunities to come: opportunities to enjoy some fun games, yes, be they long-awaited and AAA or indie hits slumbering in your Steam backlog, but also to put the controller down and tackle the real quests, whether that’s moving on up in your job, finishing that book (reading or writing), or finally asking out that person who you just haven’t had a chance to chat with yet. As I said at the end of this list once, life can still make sense if you don’t force it to. I’m looking forward to 2024 being my most sensible year yet—how about you?

December 31, 2023
Categories: Roundups and Reviews, Top Stuff . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

My Top Stuff of 2022

Happy New Year, all! It’s time for my annual media lists, now in video form! Sticking with films and games this year – simple rundowns below, but check out my channel for more in-depth analyses, and be sure to like and subscribe if you want to see more!

10) Tinykin

9) Shadow Warrior 3

8) Tunic

7) Scorn

6) A Plague Tale: Requiem

5) Stray

4) Kirby and the Forgotten Land

3) Horizon: Forbidden West

2) God of War: Ragnarök

1) Elden Ring

10) Carter

9) V/H/S/99

8) Barbarian

7) Incantation

6) Avatar: The Way of Water

5) Top Gun: Maverick

4) The Northman

3) The Batman

2) Nope

1) Everything Everywhere All at Once

January 1, 2023
Categories: Roundups and Reviews . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

My Top Stuff of 2020!

So it’s been a bad year, but one nevertheless full of good stuff if, like me, you tend to enjoy looking at a screen more than out a window! So without further ado…

GAMES

5) Hades: Supergiant Games did the impossible: with their house blend of lush isometric visuals, memorable music, and ASMR-tier VAs, they got me to play a roguelike for more than 10 minutes. Can’t say I’ll ever beat it, but props all the same!

4) Visage: The horror community mourned the passing of “P.T.”, but one diligent dev succeeded in realizing its vision. Visage has some rough edges, but in a year where we’re all stuck inside, its photorealistic depiction of domesticity gone surreal scared me like nothing else.

3) Ghost of Tsushima: Ubisoft set the pace for last decade’s open-world action games, but Assassin’s Creed walked so this could run. Satisfying combat, a stealth system that actually matters, and the most gorgeous visuals ever for the subgenre combine to make essential playing.

2) DOOM Eternal: Marauders suck. With that out of the way, ripping and tearing reached legendary heights this year as the franchise doubled down on its 2016 revival with more items, more environments, more lore, and more gore. Multiplayer and DLC are just icing on the cake!

1) Final Fantasy VII Remake: FF7R has stellar graphics, soaring music, and slick combat… but is it a remake or a sequel? The question seems odd, but it’s at the (crisis) core of the game, and it made me both love this and want to play the original–that’s never happened.

Honorable Mention: The Last of Us Part II: TLOU2 is the best-looking game I’ve ever seen, with simple yet addictive gameplay and an epic plot. It deserved a story which wasn’t so willfully cruel, and creative leads without such contempt for their characters, staff, and audience.

FILM

 

5) Unhinged: I’m a simple man; I see a violent movie starring an Oscar winner playing a dangerous lunatic, I give a thumbs-up. In any other year this wouldn’t make the cut, but with theaters barren since March, this thriller was just what I needed.

4) Relic: When a loved one succumbs to dementia, it can feel like their world is falling apart right along with you. Drawing from Hereditary and The Taking of Deborah Logan, this Australian film puts grief before horror–until an insane final act collapses the two into one.

3) The Invisible Man: With movie monsters, seeing less can be scarier–but what if you see *nothing*? Director Leigh Whannell proves the adage still holds, as this reimagining of the Universal creature feature is tense like no other. Just mind your step around the plot holes…

2) TENET: “Don’t try to understand it; feel it,” a character tells The Protagonist (yes, that’s his name) in Christopher Nolan’s latest multimillion-dollar head trip. Sage advice; as a story TENET flounders, but as a twisty James Bond homage, it’s a hell of a good time.

1) Becky: This is a movie where a teenage girl brutally murders a bunch of skinheads led by Kevin James. It’s basically an R-rated Home Alone with an awesome score. What else do I need to say?

Honorable Mention: Murder Death Koreatown: 20 years after The Blair Witch Project, I didn’t think it was possible for found-footage to seem real again, but between prerelease viral marketing on 4chan and the uniquely unsettling cameraman character, this flick left me seriously spooked!

SINGLES

 

5) “Darkness,” Eminem: Leave it to Shady to spit an extended metaphor comparing the Mandalay Bay shooter to an anxious rapper, but the result is still both a haunting examination of inner torment and a crucial condemnation of gun violence.

 

4) “Your Man,” Joji: Less is more–especially when “less” is a music video of a dancing alien. The closing track from Joji’s Nectar LP doesn’t even crack 3 minutes, but its simple, earnest refrain feels both funky and sweet over a pulsing electronic beat. “Have you ever loved? Would you go again?”

3) “A Good Song Never Dies,” Saint Motel: There’s an odd subgenre of music on YouTube: songs from bands no one’s heard of with millions of views. Some are good and some are meh, but some–with a boppin’ beat, ’60s spy thriller riff, and slinky verses–are friggin’ awesome.

2) “The Plan,” Travis Scott: The theme to Chris Nolan’s polarizing TENET is far from Zimmer theatrics, but this synthy rap track fits the film’s mood like an inverted glove while also delivering nods to its plot (“move in reverse on my turf / I draw the line and cross it first”; “close the opera / hear the red and blue outside, I think our options up”).

1) “Jessie’s Girl 2,” Coheed & Cambria feat. Rick Springfield: God knows who thought we needed a darkly comic sequel to “Jessie’s Girl” after 40 years, but they were right. C&C nail the storytelling, and man that chorus–who hasn’t wanted to scream “I don’t love you no more” over an ex or a relationship gone wrong?

ALBUMS

 

5) RTJ4, Run The Jewels: Breathless, merciless hip-hop with some killer (no pun intended) beats, gnarly hooks, and all-too-relevant lyricism. Take note, Eminem–it wasn’t just about the puns and the pace this year.

4) POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR, Bring Me The Horizon: Great alt-metal with nods to both gaming (tracks inspired by Parasite Eve and Death Stranding; production by DOOM composer Mick Gordon) and COVID (“The sky is falling, it’s fucking boring / I’m going braindead, isolated”). Looking forward to the foretold next entries in this series!

3) After Hours, The Weeknd: Forget the Grammys, this thing slaps; synthwave is an inspired addition to The Weeknd’s sound, and it manages to work as both night-drive and slow-jam music.

2) Heartwork, The Used: After hopping from protest rock with Revolution to the tearfully bland The Canyon, the boys took notes from Linkin Park and BMTH for a return to their roots with sixteen bleak but infectious tracks. Seriously, how can you not dig “Cathedral Bell”?

1) folklore, Taylor Swift: I regret nothing. In a year marked by many with loneliness and quietude, there was something comforting in hearing our top pop star drop the raucous bad-girl act and get back to some lowkey acoustic work. “Yeah, I knew everything when I was young…”

Honorable mention: Tickets to My Downfall, Machine Gun Kelly. I know, I know, but yours truly cut his musical teeth on pop punk, so I’m easy to please with a catchy chorus and a snotty delivery, artificiality be damned. Someone has to get songs with guitar charting!

December 31, 2020
Categories: Roundups and Reviews . . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

VLOGGIN’ IN #6 – “The Invisible Man” (2020) | WHITE BUT NOT TRANSPARENT

 

Put on my full-body bandages and fake nose for a Saturday at the cinema with the new Leigh Whannell Blumhouse/Universal movie monster horror film “The Invisible Man”!

tl;dw: It starts off a bit predictable and ends with some plot holes, but overall it’s a fantastically shot, scored, and acted sci-fi thriller that ironically deserves to be seen.

All non-me media from Google Image Search or Adobe Premiere Elements. I know I fell off the wagon with movie reviews, but I’m hoping to get back on in time for the season of renewal that is Spring!

Also, an invisible man walking sim would be incredibly easy to program, now that I think about it.

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March 7, 2020
Categories: Roundups and Reviews, videos . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

VLOGGIN’ IN #5 – “Gemini Man” (2019)

Decided to *double down* on a Thursday night and see Gemini Man in all its 3D, high-frame-rate, uh… glory? tl;dw: If you can find somewhere to watch it like a normal movie, it’s a generic but fun scifi-action romp.

All non-me media from Google Image Search or Adobe Premiere Elements/Movavi Video Editor. Trying something a little different this time to find my “voice” for content creating. I tend to overthink a purely written script, but I also tend to ramble when it comes to ad-libbing. Hopefully this can be a step towards striking a unique balance!

Also, everybody hates cilantro.

October 14, 2019
Categories: Roundups and Reviews, videos . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: 1 Comment

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