One - Sleep Token

Of Sleep Token's two EPs, One is my favorite. When the Bough Breaks is in my top five of their tracks.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Two - Sleep Token

All I have to say here is that Calcutta and Jericho are both very visceral. Primal, almost. Nazareth is fine—uncharacteristically violent but good nonetheless.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Sundowning - Sleep Token

Pry this album from my cold, dead hands. Every time I listen to The Night Does Not Belong to God it's a spiritual experience. Also: Take Aim. That's all.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆

This Place Will Become Your Tomb - Sleep Token

Track-for-track this album has the most heavy-hitters for me. Hypnosis, Telomeres, Alkaline, and Missing Limbs clear. By far.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Take Me Back to Eden - Sleep Token

Euclid is the perfect song. The Summoning, Take Me Back to Eden, Vore, and Ascensionism are all good too. The Apparition got me into Sleep Token and I'd kill to see that one live.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆

Smile! :D - Porter Robinson

This is an album that is uncomfortably earnest & I wouldn't have it any other way. I feel seen, especially by Is There Really No Happiness?.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Nurture - Porter Robinson

Formative. Changed my brain chemistry. Came out while I was struggling with grad school and big life transitions during the first years of the pandemic.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆

The Uncanny Valley - Perturbator

Are you kidding me. Easily a top 3 album. The Uncanny Valley is such a powerful last track. The best thing to listen to driving north through Boston, late at night on 93. It's become a situational ritual.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆

Dangerous Days - Perturbator

Broadened my horizons music-wise for the better. Dangerous Days, again, is a powerful last track. I have no idea how he does it so consistently.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

They Fear Us - Ithaca

Bittersweet, but one of my favorites nonetheless. Djamila's vocals are commanding and backed by instrumental powerhouses in their own right. RIP - you threw a great Cremation Party.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆

Good Faith - Madeon

So good I've seen it in concert three times. Madeon's production quality is off the charts & his mixing skills are second-to-none.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

American Motor Sports (420CC Edition) - Bilmuri

Came because they went on tour with The Sirs Token, stayed for the absolutely bonkers sample game. Keep crankin' that hog.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Tsunami Sea - Spiritbox

This album sees me, I guess. Ex-religious, wasn't-allowed-to-be-emo teenager who grew up sheltered from the world at large, completely enmeshed in a dysfunctional family unit that grew up & doesn't know what to do with themself.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆

Hum - Helen Phillips

A snippy, tension-filled read about a woman who has been phased out of her job due to artificial intelligence and makes a decision that alters the course of her immediate future.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Vicious - V.E. Schwab

I didn't think I'd ever be so into a superhero book but once again V.E. Schwab has proven me wrong. I read this book last year and I have not stopped thinking about Victor Vale.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Tight, dense, expressive prose I hope to emulate someday. I do love that in his version of the cyberpunk future we don't have cell phones. Minus one star for creating the Cyberpunk Razorgirl™ though.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo

"Isn't this a movie?" you ask. Yes, but I've read it & like it more than the movie. There's so much more to it than the two-hour film. An exploration of capitalism & nuclear terror taken to one of its natural conclusions.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Oyasumi Punpun - Inio Asano

I read this once and vowed not to read it again until I was in a better place mentally. Rereading it a couple years ago, um. Holy shit. A story about childhood trauma, and about not growing past it.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Butter - Asako Yuzuki

A book about the ways in which women exist parallel to each other, intertwined with the lives of men, and about finding your place in your community. Even if it is unconventional.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Recursion - Blake Crouch

What happens when a disease causes people across the world to remember false memories? Loved the twists, loved the ending, even if it was terribly bittersweet.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Chainsaw Man - Tatsuki Fujimoto

Still working my way through. Only sped through the first part, haven't touched the second. I remember liking it, the characters, and the premise.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ | In Progress

D.Gray-Man - Hoshino Katsura

I have been following this one since I was in high school. It's turning into something lovely and it's very fun to see a whole bunch of narrative threads coming together at the moment.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ | In Progress

House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski

I'm going to be honest, it's been so long since I made progress on this one that I have no idea what's going on anymore. I remember liking it, and experiencing a profound horror I'd never seen in fiction before.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆ | In Progress

Undead Unluck - Yoshifumi Tozuka

"Read Undead Unluck. I'm no longer asking." Okay, I will. Turns out, it's really fun! Maybe not the best one to start on a flight. But otherwise: this has everything I like, so far.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆ | In Progress

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

The Cold War is my historical specialty and I really, really love the satire of it all. One of those films that makes you think: did Kubrick invent this stereotype or were people just Like That™ when it came to communism in the 1960s? (They were.)

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Pacific Rim (2013)

One of my favorite movies, and likely the one I've seen the most. I've lost count. The concept of drift compatibility fundamentally altered my brain chemistry. Mako and Riley are perfect for one another.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Crimson Peak (2015)

Was taking a 20th century gothic lit class at the time this came out and that combo defined my taste in everything ever. Due for a rewatch.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Upgrade (2018)

If I had watched this when I put it on my list I wouldn't have liked it. Watched it 6 years later and loved it—a fine work of cyberpunk horror that gets everything right.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Breaking Bad (2008-2013)

Rewatched recently. Holy fuck Walter pissed me off. Which is intended. Initially watched in 2013 so I'd have something to talk to my crush (now spouse) about. Free my girl Skyler she did absolutely nothing wrong.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Artsy, vibrant, borderline esoteric. Watched in theatres and I'm not sure my attention was quite there to follow the throughlines. Another in need of a rewatch.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

JJBA: Golden Wind (2018-2019)

The original Japanese audio is great but the fanmade Italian dub? Amazing. I wish more of Risotto's backstory made it into the anime (exhibiting clear bias) but that's just the way it goes.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Promare (2019)

Movie I've seen second-most. Kickass animation, rippin' soundtrack. Covers all the basics: billionaires, climate change, and xenophobia. And somehow? It makes it all work.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (2024)

Literally revitalized my creative spirit. Seriously pulled me out of a years-long writer's block. I love the way FromSoft tells stories: as an undercurrent, woven throughout the player experience.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (2021)

I would sell my soul to play this again for the first time. I'll get around the control scheme. At its core, a story about seeking knowledge against the bounds of our world.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Bloodborne (2015)

Viscerally feminine and I will die on that hill. If I live to see at least a remaster, but hopefully a sequel, I'd be beside myself with joy. Note to self: finish setting up mods and emulate the damn game.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆

Xenoblade Chronicles (2010)

Bought on a whim with my minimum wage retail job earnings. Didn't understand JRPGs at the time, looked up a walkthrough, decided I didn't want to start over and left it alone until the definitive edition. I feel like I did myself a disservice, it would've been worth the time. The title screen is still my favorite Easter egg in a video game.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Citizen Sleeper (2022)

There's so much I want to say about this game and I cannot, you have to go in blind. You have to go in blind.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Paradise Killer (2021)

My favorite visual novel. Has you exploring a manufactured paradise in the wake of a politically-motivated murder. The soundtrack was my top album on Spotify for three years straight.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Control (2019)

Unreality and cosmic horror done right. Heavily inspired by the SCP Foundation, nicely wrapped in a "you accidentally become important" box. Love anything that has to do with trying to contain and quantify the truly unknowable.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

OFF (2008)

I still think about the ending of this game from time to time, and it's one of those I wish I could experience for the first time again. Played in 2013 when tumblr was real hot on it.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2007)

Shaped my ideas of friendship, much like Majora's Mask. I think it set the basis for dependability and trustworthiness as good qualities to have.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000)

I don't want to say this is my first "grown-up" game but it did make me consider things that I hadn't before: the innate connections we all share, how small our communities can really be, and what it means to be a good friend.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆