10. Vein.fm — This World Is Going to Ruin You White-Knuckled Terror This is an album that cranks up every violent and punishing dial as far as it can go. It covers everything meaningful in gasoline and spits a match onto the pile. It sounds like the record is written…

20. Ethel Cain — Preacher’s Daughter All Bared This is such a sonic record. It sits somewhere in the concentric sound designs of Lana Del Rey, Lingua Ignota and Emma Ruth Rundle, boasting the same exposed-skin-revelations of Grouper. Of course it, too, is her own thing entirely. The instruments on…

30. Soul Blind — Feel It All Around Grunge This record rules. They released a little 3 track EP that boded well, and then dropped this absolute murkfest of grunge and sludge. This one reminds me of the first time I went back and listened to Silverchair after years of…

40. Circa Survive — A Dream About Death EP Ambient Indie Similar to The Mars Volta, as you’ll read later, I’ve always cited Circa Survive as a favorite band, even though realistically I’ve only liked 2 of their records, and the multiple times I’ve seen them live have had me…

50. Frontières — Regret EP Hardcore I typically place a lot of indie records on these lists, but those are mostly ones that I want to listen to while I’m alone and brooding, deeply reckoning with What to Create and How I’ve Lived, etc. A record like this is one…

In 2017, I wrote a list of my top 100 records that were released that year. It was my first time trying to string together a list of any sort that included some reactions, some blurbs, all sorted out in a blog-style format. Before that, I was posting a photo…

I have built a reading regimen that has lasted since the beginning of the pandemic. Every day, I’ll wake up and read for an hour until I get through whatever book I have. That took me through several months with Infinite Jest, and books of similar girth but knowing that…

(Spotify) || (Apple Music) || (YouTube) Beach Bunny — Weeds Over their past two records, Beach Bunny have impressed me one song after the next. They give such a good and airy feeling through the lightly applied vocals alongsie the metered and delicately grungy guitars. This album was such…

I think a lot about friendship. Truly, outside of my family in my home, the narrative of my friendships is the thing I think about the most. More than work, more than responsibilities, more than hobbies, more than music. I think about the branching timelines of all of the friendships…