Shoving Music Down Your Throat [2023 edition]

 MUSIC! AGAIN!

Some of these were coincidentally released in 2023 but this is just a list of music I listened to in 2023.

Here's a playlist where I compile a song from each album:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7iql4Cxyjj59DpBpL9iqBg?si=76ca4ada5e684fec

This playlist has a song from each album on the list. Not the best song, not my favorite song, though maybe both of those. The point is that it's a song that I think illustrates how I feel about the album and/or will cast a wider net to more audience members.


Somewhere in the Between by Streetlight Manifesto [2007]
Genre: Ska punk

I really liked Streetlight Manifesto's first album, Everything Goes Numb, so I decided to listen to some of their other stuff. So on a trip to come visit my partner before moving in with them, I decided to put a long playlist together for the road, on which I included Somewhere in the Between. So let me tell you now the two main reasons I think this album rules.

The first one is that the album slightly throws away the whimsical nature of what people would expect from modern ska and the politically centered lyrical content expected from punk. That might sound bad or mislabeled but what is in these aspects' place with the most entertaining bouts of sheer existentialism and mortality I have heard in an album. Almost every song is at least connected in some way with death; a concept I think about probably unhealthily often! It is not necessarily brooding. It's more about living with the constant knowledge of mortal finality.

Reason 2: The nonstop energy of the first two Streetlight Manifesto albums is here, typically contrasting the grim lyrical content without coming off as comically out of touch. The guitar tones mix well with the drums and brass about as well as their previous albums while still having a closer punk sound to Everything Goes Numb versus Keasbey Nights

The songs are all pieced together in a way that really resonates with me and has theming that hits harder here in an ongoing pandemic where I constantly fear for my loved ones' safety. Out of all ten albums I have talked about here, I would recommend this one to general audiences the most both for accessibility to general audiences just looking for catchy tunes and for sharing how hard it hit me personally.

 

Tomorrow, in a Year by The Knife [2010]
Genre: Alternative electronic, opera

Tomorrow, in a Year is a fucked up electronic opera soundtrack by one of my favorite groups of all time, The Knife. They also made this with artists I've never heard before, Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. Kristina Wahlin Momme, Jonathon Johannson, and Laerke Bo Winther are also directly credited on the album release. Tomorrow, in a Year is an avant-garde, Darwin-focused opera and not like how Pink Floyd did The Wall. This was a legit opera; an on-stage opera with actors, sets, an audience, etc. I haven't found a way to watch the whole thing yet but I digress. Is it worth listening to on its own since the album version, at least in the US, is more accessible than the full performance? I would say yes with some caveats. The Knife has weird bops (Deep Cuts, The Knife, Silent Shout, and the "Shaken-up" versions of a lot of songs) and then they have stuff that is supposed to juggle your brain on purpose (Shaking the Habitual and for sure Tomorrow, in a Year). This isn't to say that none of Tomorrow, in a Year is slappy but you should expect the weirdest side of The Knife possible. Shaking the Habitual, in comparison, has noticeable beats, rhythms, and melody lines blended in with shrill and wracky timbres throughout the entirety of its length. Tomorrow, in a Year, is more split. The vast majority of it is the weird stuff. Though it is smart and thoughtfully crafted noise, it is still noise. That is not a diss but not something everyone is prepared for nor are they excited about. As you get to the final 25% of the album's runtime, there is relief in this sense. I decided to put Coulouring of Pigeons on the playlist this year for reference. This song is where the relief starts in this sense. It is still weird, don't misunderstand me. But it's more melodic than the rest of the album. There are still figures to pick out in the noisier stuff that are used effectively to make their own beats, even if they aren't bangers. I wouldn't be talking about this album if I thought it was a complete waste of time. It was one of the most interesting things I heard this year so I thought I would share it, again, with caveats.


Strange Mercy by St. Vincent [2011]
Genre: Progressive pop

St. Vincent is a largely influential artist to me as a fan of music, a student of music, and a creator of music. Admittedly, I had not listened to that much of her stuff. So I finally gave Strange Mercy a shot and ended up really enjoying it. This is as good of a time as any to mention that I did listen to more than 10 albums I had never heard before this year. This album has a lot of very ambient pop music. I find it a lot less simplistically and less predictably structured than the self-titled album overall. There's less I have to say about this album overall. I just wanted to say that all the songs on this album are real good. It's a real good mix of funky riffs, chill beats, and delayed synth pad ambience.

 

Shadow Theater by Tigran Hamasyan [2013]
Genre: Jazz, Armenian Folk

Tigran Hamasyan is a wacky pianist and everything I have listened to by him so far has shown this. He's also a good songwriter who has very distinctive and unique arrangements. Shadow Theater is less wacky piano and more unique arrangement. Each song on this album is a lot different from the last but not enough to be jarring. The vocals are soothing as much as they are impressive and well-arranged throughout the album. This album has legitimate metal moments, which I was not expecting since none of the previous stuff I had heard from him explicitly did. Shadow Theater overall is just this weird candy shop of different sounds all wrapped-up in cozy, strange packaging.

 

Contrast by Majiko [2015]
Genre: J-Pop

This album slaps so fucking hard. Oh, you don't understand. It is so crazy. Banger after banger. It all rips. There are so many songs on this album and it all rips. "Hypocrite Syndrome" is the first Majiko song I ever heard. My friend showed it to me and I said "this rips, what do you know this artist from?". They responded with "I dunno, that song just kinda came on and I thought you would like it."

Contrast spans a lot of different genres. Just calling it J-Pop doesn't really describe what you're in for by listening to Contrast. It has plucky, happy synth stuff, metal, synth pop, stuff that sounds like PS1 JRPG OST. It's the bomb. It is so good. Contrast is a trip through so many different genres and styles and it nails all of them. Majiko also has a nice and unique voice. I find her voice super-endearing. I need to listen to more Majiko so don't be surprised to see her in "Shoving Music Down Your Throat 2024".

 

Abyss by Chelsea Wolfe [2015]
Genre: Dark wave, gothic rock, doom metal

Abyss is not as varied as a lot of the albums I have talked about on here but it is called Abyss. Imagine if doom metal were looped underneath brooding, brutal, and high-pitched vocals. Does that sound kind of freaky? It is. I love it. It is delightfully freaky. Compositionally, the album is mostly straightforward but emotive enough for me to not call it basic. There really was not a weak song on this album. It all fits a certain mood and demeanor I really appreciated and I am curious to say if it hits other people the same way. By that, I mean other people that read this. People know who Chelsea Wolfe is, she doesn't really need my help.

 

Clarion Call by The Human Project [2018]
Genre: Melodic hardcore

I am a fairly radicalized leftist and it sounds like at least one member of The Human Project is too. Most of their lyrics are unabashedly critical of the US government, government conceptually, and bigotry. However, the politics of a song are not what grab me about it. The Human Project are just a good band regardless. Their vocals match the energy given by the instruments and I really love the vocal harmony arrangements and mix. This band has a lot of what I like about The Police but angrier and more in your face. This album is a good one for shuffling in with other stuff I listen to regularly. Front-to-back, it kinda lulls a little toward the middle. I listened back to those songs on their own and they're still good songs.

 

t.i.a.p.f.y.h. by Left at London [2021]
Genre: Indie pop

This album rules front-to-back. The end song might be one of my all-time favorite Left at London songs. I did not put that on the playlist though because I would rather people's first impressions of that song be after the other songs like it was originally made. So I put on another one of my favorite songs on here. Left at London albums and EPs always feel like a journey onto themselves and t.i.a.p.f.y.h. is no exception. Musically, I was impressed with how many weird turns the album takes while still being ultimately a pop album. By this, I mean mid-song, the song will change drastically like it's prog more than pop. If you have seen previous installments of "Shoving Music Down Your Throat", you will probably recognize that I appreciate that kind of thing.

 

ROMCOM by Jakey [2022]
Genre: Electro-pop

So I was waiting for this album to drop for a while and somehow missed it for a whole year. So now I've listened to it at least four times front-to-back upon writing this. This might be one of my favorite albums of the decade. Could easily be thrown out of that ranking since it's only 2023 as of writing this and probably 2024 as of posting this publicly. I don't 100% know what the album is about but I can tell the story it is telling was something Jakey really wanted to tell and was probably best told in this medium (I swear if I use that term it's not a punny reference to another Jakey song). Little details thrown here and there that connect to each other and reference other songs released before ROMCOM feel less arbitrary the more I listen to the album. Any concept album can reference lyrics, reuse lyrics, or repeat motifs. How it all comes together on FATHEAD, the last song on this album was something I was skeptical about at first. But after listening all the way through, I couldn't get the songs out of my head, including the final few bars of FATHEAD. I realized the next day that it wasn't just because the album has a lot of catchy melodies and cool samples. I wanted to listen to it again. And then later that night. And I listened to a few tracks the next day while running errands. Then the whole album again the next day.

Jakey's one of those singers that has such a unique vocal tone, you know what you are hearing isn't the most technically sound vocal performance ever, and you don't care. Who does have the best voice, who knows how to use it the best, and why would that even matter? At the end of the day, I think a believable vocal performance is the most important thing. Singing is, in a sense, acting. I think this album overall demonstrates this really well and exemplifies what I have liked about Jakey's music for a long time. Aside from the vocals, the instruments are pretty on par with what he's been known for for a while. For example for those of you who don't know who or what I'm talking about, there's a dope Shadow of the Colossus sample in "TOTALLY FREAK ME OUT". I don't recognize all the video game and meme samples used for ROMCOM but none of them are jarring. A lot of the vocal processing, some more noticeable, some less noticeable, rules. I think "TOMMY HANKS" might be my new favorite Jakey song. However, his voice is pitch-shifted throughout the entire song so to represent the album better to get people interested, I put "SURVIVAL HORROR" on the playlist this year. I also really like that one and it is one of Jakey's songs out of all his music that I think maybe hit me the hardest in terms of speaking to me on a personal emotional level.

The vibe I get from a lot of the album is broken expectations and overcoming beating oneself up. That's my interpretation anyways. I haven't deeply analyzed the lyrics or anything. I have just listened to the album several times all the way through and a few of the songs on their own. Whatever the album is about, it feels unapologetically honest. Highly recommend. Obviously. It's on this list. Anyway.


Fauna
by Haken [2023]
Genre: Prog Rock

I spammed this album this year and love every song on it. For a few months, I tore myself away from it with other music just to not listen to the same thing over and over again. Haken is one of my favorite bands known for their impressive prog metal prowess with catchy melodies and great leitmotif use. They were known for a lot of synth use before their keyboardist started leaving the band around the release of Virus in 2020 (don't worry, they planned the album out well in advance and it is not what you think it's about). Fauna re-introduces Haken's former keyboardist and sounds both like their old stuff and nothing like anything they've released before at the same time.

The theme is animals and our connections to a lot of animalistic traits. That sounds silly and it can be at moments. It never gets too silly to the point where it's embarrassing. The silliness is unironically part of the appeal. The cover art is a monkey in a suit. A lot of this also ties into the loss of one of the member's father, especially "Eyes of Ebony", the last song. "Taurus" upon development became a song more about Ukrainian refugees. There are a lot of deeper topics while not being too much of a bummer of an album. It isn't explicitly brooding. It feels more like a conversation being had in front of you than a thematically conclusive story, and that's a good thing.

The music is so good. The tones are never wracky. A lot of the distorted guitars are mixed just as fully as previous Haken releases without relying as heavily on distortion. There are also a lot less blistering guitar solos in exchange of focusing more on song structure, which I personally think rules. Your mileage may vary since people listen to metal and guitar-based music for different things. For me it's weirdness. Metal is one of my most frequented genres because it was always supposed to be something that challenges your expectations. That is why Haken is still one of my favorite metal bands recently and of all time. I was scared of Fauna but after listening to it way too many times, I can safely recommend it to others. Even if you don't like metal, I would say give this one a shot.



Honorable Mentions

Execution by Single White Infidel

Unfinished Again by Lexi Karma even though a better version is coming out May 6, 2024

AnimalJam by AnimalJam

Wuhufoce!

 Wuhufoce (One hundred follows celebration) is upon us! We hit 100 followers on Twitch in February and it's all thanks to you! Or if you've never seen my Twitch, then I guess not but feel free to watch at twitch.tv/randomrings when we do this crazy thing called Wuhufoce!

The week of March 19th, we're doing all kinds of fun stuff.


This list is subject to change but is pretty close to what we're planning on doing. (Last updated March 18)

DAY ONE:
SUN, March 19th - 1pm EST:
Cat Quest w/ Kimmi

Kimmi wanted to play this cat game with me anyway so she suggested we do this for Wuhufoce. And no we're not kitty girls. We're not. So don't even ask. Please. No kitty girls on stream. Not even one.

DAY TWO:
MON, March 20th - 3pm EST:
Downwell (or something else if I think of something else to put here)

Downwell used to be a Randomrings Streams staple. We haven't played it in like a year and half. So we're bringing back Downwell to see if I can finally beat it!

We might put something else in this slot if I think of something else I want to put in this time slot.

MON, March 20th - 8pm EST:
Red Dragon Inn

Wanted to do something with Tabletop Simulator and my friends love this game called Red Dragon Inn. I barely know anything about it!

DAY THREE:
TUE, March 21st - 4pm EST:
SOMETHING

I realized I have time to do this time slot after making all the others. So I guess we'll do something here.

TUE, March 21st - 8:30pm EST:
Jackbox

Gonna get some friends together and do some goofy Jackbox stuff.

TUE, March 21st - After Jackbox:
Dork Congregation Watch-Along of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

We're gonna watch Advent Children in the Randomrings Dork Congregation! Even if we're not mutuals, you can still watch us watch this movie! I just can't really stream this kind of thing on Twitch!

DAY FOUR:
WED, March 22nd - time TBD:
Multigame Multiworld w/ Duckie, Kimmi, Urza, Val, and Waffle

Multiworld Randomizers have become a staple of what I've done on the channel since November. So Duckie thought it would be a good idea to do all the Multiworld-able games I know how to run in one seed. So I'll be running Sonic Adventure 2, Pokemon Blue, and Timespinner in the same multiworld. Everyone else will be running their own games and probably getting understandably impatient with me.

DAY FIVE:
THU, March 23rd - 5pm EST:
Gartic Phone

Gartic Phone is funny, yeah?

THU, March 23rd - 7pm EST:
Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart

Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart has been a staple of Sonic Month but I usually don't play it outside of June. I figured this would be a good cool down for Wuhufoce.

Shoving Music Down Your Throat [2022 Edition]

 Here's stuff I listened to in 2022!

These are nine albums and an EP I want to talk about because I like them to the point of recommending them to you. Yes, you! Most of these were not released in 2022.

Here's a link to the Shoving Music Down Your Throat 2022 playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Xk15F6CEYfu40Xe2LXWyV?si=eac28e88220e4604&pt=f1ddd3e3a70073b4fa8da92934e5ab43

This playlist has a song from each album on the list. Not the best song, not my favorite song, though maybe both of those. The point is that it's a song that I think illustrates how I feel about the album and/or will cast a wider net to more audience members.

Lovelife by Lush [1996]
genre: Britpop

Lush is a 90s British pop-rock band. I always wanted to check them out. I liked their overall sound but wasn't a huge fan of the couple of songs I heard prior. Turns out Lovelife fucking rules front-to-back. It's still what you would expect from a pop album in the sense that it can easily be shuffled. The songs on there are really fucking good though. The guitars are punk-ish without being wracky, the drum mix is pretty good for its time, and the vocals are full of great harmonies. One of the trademark selling points of Lush back when they were famous was that they had two vocalists hitting really high notes in a really soft tone. 

Kid A by Radiohead [2000]
genre: experimental rock / electronica

Kid A is one of Radiohead's most acclaimed albums. Radiohead was one of the bands that pulled me out of my adolescent metalhead funk but I had just been spinning OK Computer, In Rainbows, and The Bends for years since then. Kid A is one of the most interesting albums in Radiohead's discography to look into the history of and listen to. This album's creation almost ended the band due to Thom Yorke's creative differences with the band and his reluctance to make purely melody-focused rock songs. A lot of the lyrics are just sayings and general notions cobbled together over synths and loops mixed with occasional elements of their previous albums. This should be terrible. It's awesome. It's easily in my top-three Radiohead albums now.

Altered State by Tesseract [2013]
genre: prog metal / djent

Tesseract is one of the most popular prog metal bands ever and largely influential to the following generation of what a lot of people consider "bedroom rock". For those unfamiliar, it's what it sounds like from the subgenre's name. Altered State is the only album in Tesseract's discography with Ashe O'Hara, who fucking nails the vocals on this album. It's baroque with vocal harmony layering and the instruments are well-layered and organized without being too busy while still using creative and complicated time signature teases. It's prog metal that fans of more melodic and straightforward forms of metal can enjoy for the same reasons.

Intellectual Hooliganism by Flummox [2018]
genre: avant-garde doom metal

Intellectual Hooliganism is a band heavily inspired by old stuff like The Misfits, Dio, and Black Sabbath but with the recording fidelity of a 2018 album and with intentionally silly lyrics. Even if you're not crazy about the kind of music that this band took notes from (I'm not crazy about it), this is still worth a spin. The whole album has a very fun air about it. It's pretty clear that the band enjoyed making this and reminded me that not every collection of music released by an artist or group of artists has to be the most serious and thought-provoking album in the world to be memorable and worth recommending.

Любий друг by Khrystyna Soloviy [2018]
genre: folk

I was going to listen to a bunch of albums from around the world and didn't even make it a tenth of the way through the list. I started with Ukraine and found a lot of songs I liked from various artists. In terms of a full album to put on this list, I decided to go with this one. Khrystyna Soloviy is kind of like the pop stars we have over here that got their fame from American Idol or America's Got Talent. She got popular on TV and then continued a successful career in modern folk. This album is very calming. I'd talk more about it and how rad its guitar tones are but I don't speak Ukrainian. I love the vocals but have no idea what the themes of this album are. I encourage you to enjoy it anyway. I did.

The Process of Dissension by Animal Jam [2020]
genre: swancore, alternative metal

My friend showed me this EP and I was surprised by how good it is. It's kind of like metalcore but with almost no scream vocals and more clean guitars than one might expect. The opening track in particular is really good. There is a lot of thematic cohesion in the lyrics and in the composition. I'm not a huge shill for metal but these songs are catchy enough for me to recommend to people who aren't that into metal either.

Eternal Blue by Spiritbox [2021]
genre: metalcore, djent, prog-metal

This really isn't the "proggiest" prog-metal album. It leans a lot more toward a poppier side of djent. It's still really good though. If nothing else, listen to "Constance", which is on the "Shoving Music Down Your Throat - 2022 Edition" playlist I linked above. For those unfamiliar with Spiritbox, they are a metal band with aggressive tones but with serene vocals. There are screams but they are tasteful and fitting to the songs they are paired with. They never feel like they are just there to show off.

Turbo by Dirty Loops with Cory Wong [2022]
genre: jazz fusion

Dirty Loops is a three-piece pop/jazz fusion that got famous from doing covers of famous pop songs. They do more original work now and it's rad. Cory Wong is a jazz guy on YouTube who is good at guitar. Turbo is a collaborative album that swings way more toward the modern jazz side. The first track, "Follow the Light" is more in line with what Dirty Loops is known for. The last track is a cover of Thriller. The other songs are actually primarily instrumental. I feel like this would be a good introduction to pop fans unfamiliar with jazz structure. There is a lot of really good brass accompaniment on the pop and jazz parts. If you're going to get into Dirty Loops for the first time, I recommend Phoenix over this but Turbo was still a pleasant surprise for me personally. I was really excited for a new Dirty Loops release. I watched the video they made for "Follow the Light" expecting a Cory-Wong-flavored Phoenix-like experience. I definitely don't like Turbo as much as Phoenix or Loopified but I can't say I'm disappointed either. For a while, I had been curious what Dirty Loops might sound like going full jazz and now I extensively know. Honestly, out of all the albums on here, this is probably one of the ones I would generally recommend the least but it's worth noting that I listened to more than ten albums this year and still chose to keep this one on the list.

Pharalis by Dir En Grey [2022]
genre: alternative metal

I have talked about Dir En Grey in almost every single "Shoving Music Down Your Throat" installment. They are metal with freaky throat noises and shrieks. Most of it is pretty melodic. It's kind of hard to explain why I like Pharalis so much without describing a short history of their discography. I'm not going to do that to you. Suffice it to say that all their albums sound a bit different from each other. Noticeably different. However, they went through this phase of being a lot more death metal. Dum Spiro Spero is my least favorite album by them because it is where they leaned into this the hardest. I'm not inherently against death metal. One of my favorite bands is Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom. When it's death metal and everything has the same tone and timbre for 50 minutes, I rapidly lose interest. Pharalis sounds like the audio fidelity of those albums with more of the attitude of Withering to Death and Arche with a bit of the album they released before Pharalis. The vocal performances and melody lines are stronger on this one than on their previous album, The Insulated World. The mix is good. The guitar layering rules. It kind of reminded me that sometimes a band making the same old, same old is fine if the "same old" is really good. I rarely feel that way but I feel that way about Pharalis. If you're just now interested in Dir En Grey, I would recommend Arche or Withering to Death to start out with. Pharalis is honestly not bad to listen to afterward.

Systems Music for Home Defence by Bis [2022]
genre: indie, alternative punk, disco

I started listening to Bis recently and did not expect a full-length album to come out in 2022. Systems Music for Home Defence surprised me. It's definitely more melodic than their really early punkier stuff but they've always been kind of electronic punk. There are still a lot of elements from their old stuff on this one. It definitely sounds like a modern version of Bis. Not sure what else someone would expect from a 2022 Bis album. The lyrical content is just as punchy as their older songs, they just aren't shouted as much. Between this, The Gazette's new album last year, and Dir En Grey's new album this year, I guess I just lucked out with bands I really like still being passionate about what they do. They're still passionate enough to put out stuff that sounds like a new version of where they are at as musicians. I like what comes out of it. I guess being raised on mostly rock and metal put me into this mentality that bands just get "worse". Albums like Systems Music for Home Defence have proved me wrong.

I Still Like Pokemon

 I'm stealing this from Arren. He's playing by the rules (1 like = 1 answer). I'm NOT [boom] PLAYIN' [boom] BY THE [boom] [boom] [boom] RULES!

(follow my boy ArrenSol on Twitch or Arren Sol on Twitter)


1. Favorite Pokemon

Treecko.
            It's fast, cute, and relatively badass to all the other tiny woodland creatures in these games.

2. Favorite Pokemon Game

Pokemon Ruby.
            There were so many cool innovations and a lot of "patchwork" kinda stuff added to gen 3. In my opinion, significant improvements to the game wouldn't happen again until Gen 6. A lot of stuff that was added later (GTS, hidden abilities, Victini) was really cool. However, I don't think the games significantly improved upon the increasingly mundane formula until X and Y with Super Training and shared Exp. Share (yes, I'm calling shared Exp. Share an improvement. If you don't like it, turn it the fuck off).

3. Favorite Pokemon Spin-off

Pokken Tournament.
            I've always wanted a Pokemon fighting game and was shocked when they not only made it but got Tekken devs to make it. What I've really always wanted was a dedicated Pokemon Smash Bros. but that's never going to happen. In its own right, Pokken is still pretty good and the closest we're probably ever getting to that idea.

4. Favorite Legendary

Mewtwo.
            Mewtwo was my favorite Pokemon until recently. I realized I'd been lying to myself and others to be a bigger edgelord. It was never Mewtwo (after Ruby came out). It was always Treecko. Anyway. It's an old one but I think we can all agree that Mewtwo has one of the most badass backstories of any legendary. Now there are five million legendaries and most of their stories are way more hamfisted or nearly non-existent, especially if we're counting mythicals. I also really liked playing as Mewtwo in Melee more than most characters even though he's hot garbage.

5. Favorite Mega Evolution / Dynamax / Gigantamax

Mega Evolution: Mega Mawile.
            This is the only mega that I think didn't just look like "this one but worse".
Dynamax: Aren't these just big Pokemon? I didn't play Sword and Shield.
Gigantamax: Hatterene.
            Butterfree is a close second since they are the only two I like at all. I like how abstract Galarian Hatterene looks and I think the overall vibe and color palette of Hatterene works with this blobby design. It looks like a Trix yogurt nightmare.

6. Favorite Regional Variant

Hisuian Zoroark.
            I didn't play Legends: Arceus but these fuckers are so badass. It's constantly just wisping around but still looks like a silly little mammal. This was a really good way to introduce Normal/Ghost type too. I like Pokemon with fucked up Pokedex entries. Doesn't get much edgier than Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark.

7. Favorite Starter

Still Treecko.

8. Favorite Region

Hoenn.
            I could probably draw an overview of this region from memory with at least 80% accuracy. I fucking love how it's laid out. It's not as easy to traverse as Unova, Alola, or Paldea but it's less of a pain in the ass than Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, and because of how much movement sucks in XY, Kalos. I also think it's one of the most varied (you're simply not making a "too much water" joke) regions. Its layout plays along with the setting and plot better than most of the regions in Pokemon as well. It's got good creatures. The gym leaders are all interesting. The elite four looks cool. Pacifidlog was a sick fucking idea they did very little with. I'll shut up about Hoenn now.

9. Favorite Pseudo-Legendary

Hydreigon.
            I don't know why I love this goofy fiend so much. It's so silly and terrifying. If past evolutions count, I would probably pick Larvitar but I think the final forms are the actual pseudos so I'm picking Hydreigon. It's also pretty close to the Randomrings color palette. That's probably why I like it.

10. Favorite Mythical

Victini.
            Victini is part of the issue I have with this franchise and how it handled mythicals after Johto. However, Victini is fucking adorable and just wants to have a good time. It can't help that it's powerful and can learn a lot of different moves.

11. Favorite Rival

May.
            May was very different from Blue and Silver but still a rival. I personally feel that she kind of set a standard for rival characters that had more direct plot involvement (Barry, Cheren, Bianca, and the fucking hundred of rivals in XY definitely have more dialogue and related characters than Blue and Silver). This might be seen as a bad thing but May was the pioneer of this concept. I could make a whole-ass video essay about Pokemon rivals but I think May hits the sweet spot between being a good character, being a good skill check, and being a likable rival that services the plot well. Also, her design is just as iconic as Dawn and I will die on that hill.

12. Favorite Professor

Professor Kukui.
            I don't blame anyone for skipping Gen 7 but you missed some fun fucking characters. Kukui is the only Pokemon Professor that has a natural and well-written addition to the main plot and the region's lore. In Alola, you are actively watching history unfold in this specific region that has nothing to do with whichever dragon or giant bird is causing a mini-apocalypse that year. Don't get me wrong, I like Oak, Elm, Birch, and Juniper and they aren't unimportant to the plot but Kukui might as well be main cast.

13. Favorite Gym Leader/Elite Four/ Champion

Gym Leader: Jasmine
            Jasmine can defend herself and uses that power to help Pokemon and others around her. She also does so with poise and peace, never forgetting to try to bring people together before using her resilience to tear people further apart. Her stint in Johto's plot is short but always stuck with me. I know this is too deep for a "1 like = 1 answer" thing but I think Jasmine was one of the only role models I really had as a kid under the age of 10. Today, I just really like her design but maybe I'm trying to mask that a Nintendo character makes me want to become a better person.
Elite Four:
            Okay, the short answer is Phoebe. She's one of my favorite character designs in the whole franchise.
            My top 4 are Lorelei, Phoebe, Rika (don't judge me), and Caitlin (the Psychic one from Unova).
Champion: From a character writer standpoint: Cynthia. Aesthetically: Iris.
            Looking at the champion list, most of the champions are kind of fucking weak. They're strong trainers, weak characters. Fighting Blue, Drake, and Steven feels satisfying but inevitable. Alder and Iris are underrated but still kind of do their thing toward the end of the game. I think Diantha's plotline was literally unfinished or something? Nemona is a good character but a hamfisted champion. Cynthia's really the only one that has a positive and mysterious impact on the story. I don't really like Sinnoh but I think I get why people love Cynthia. I think. If nothing else, she's a good character.

14. Favorite Villain Team

Team Skull.
           Team Skull has one of the coolest B-stories in the entire franchise. They have so much direct impact on the story and how the legendaries unfold. For once in the franchise's run, there's some subtlety to the Team Rocket stand-in. Rocket, Aqua, Magma, and Plasma were really only as cool as the people leading them. Team Star actually comes close to this but Team Skull carries this unique aesthetic that Sun and Moon had as a whole.

15. Favorite Character Overall

Uh. May? You'd think I would have a real answer for this.

16. Favorite Route / Town / City

Route: Route 117 in Hoenn.
            Hatchin' eggs or grinding Amy and Liv?
Town: Seafolk Village
            Mina lives here and I want to be her neighbor.
City: Olivine City
            This is the first place I think of when I think of Johto. I love the look of this place. I would totally live here and play Mario Party with Jasmine.

17. Favorite Soundtrack

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

But also listen to Colosseum and tell me that isn't the fucking tits.

18. Least Favorite Pokemon

Binacle? I dunno. I really like Pokemon.

19. Favorite Battle

Kyurem.
            This is more of an "encounter" but fuck it, they're all battles. There are tiny breadcrumbs leading to Kyurem but it's purely optional. Getting to where Kyurem sleeps is daunting in its own right, then when you get it, it kicks your ass (unless you get lucky with a Quick Ball). They gave this legendary the mythical area treatment and it's what I wish they would do instead of mythicals from now on. I'm not even joking. If they stopped making mythicals, I'd be 100% okay with that. Unova's legendaries and mythicals, for better and worse, are my prime argument for that.

20. Favorite Type

I guess Grass?
            My older cousin was the one that mostly got me into video games and certain franchises after the fact. I couldn't beat him in battle until Ruby and Sapphire. He always picked the Water starter so I thought I would at least have a leg up with the Grass one. I didn't.

21. Favorite Mobe







22. Favorite Ability

Synchronize
            Why don't you also feel poison then? You bitch.

23. Favorite Item

Running Shoes

24. Favorite Z-Move / Max Move

Sinister Arrow Raid

Close second is Twinkle Tackle because it's funny.

25. Favorite Shiny Pokemon

Probably Sylveon.

What are Ayden's stats in Pokemon?

 I saw this prompt from Out of Context Pokemon on Twitter. It actually might have just been a meme and not a prompt. Either way. They said, "fuck Pokemon battles what are YOUR stats?" So I overthought that.

Ayden
Cartoon Bitch Pokemon

Type: Normal / Poison

Abilities: Punk Rock, Compound Eyes, or Sturdy (hidden ability)

Gender ratio: 50% androgynous / 50% female, unbreedable

Catch rate: 100 (21.7%)

Egg group: Human-like

Hatch Time: 5140 - 5396 steps

Height: Wouldn't you like to know

Weight: 150 lbs / 68.04 kg

Base experience yield: 137

Leveling rate: Fluctuating

EV yield: 1 Speed

Shape: The bipedal one without the tail

Pokedex Color: Gray

Base friendship: 35


Base Stats:

HP: 40

ATK: 40

DEF: 60

SP. ATK: 35

SP. DEF: 45

SPD: 87

BST: 307


Now you can add me to your romhack and laugh at how much I suck at fighting your Pokemon.

Updates on Everything

 I was going to make an update video but I think I want to put my time into other stuff for right now. So here's your 2022 Randomrings update.

Life (skip this part if you don't care; I don't blame you)

Last update I talked about having a lot of burnout. I don't think I'm completely out of it. It might just be depression there. I've been making more stuff and enjoying making it. However, I'm severely depressed. The mysterious stuff that happened at the beginning of the year is something I've more or less overcome. It still affects me a little but I'm functional in regards to that. Many other things have affected my overall well-being and I'll be honest; I'm at a very fucking low point in my life. I won't vent about how I feel about it, I'll just tell you what's up.

I live in Redneckia, USA and I'm openly queer. I no longer feel safe using the bathrooms at my job. Most of the people at my job are bigots or just incredibly unknowledgeable. Also, everything is very expensive. I used to be able to live fairly comfortably part-time at the same job. I make more hourly now and can barely make rent at the end of every month. This is the poorest I've ever been and I have the biggest credit card bill I have ever had (save for buying my guitar but that was knowing I would be able to pay it all off at the end of the month, anyway). I am trying to find other jobs that won't destroy me and will give me insurance. I am also trying to find jobs that do that and utilize my bachelor's degree. I've been doing physical labor for too long and it's starting to take a bigger effect on my body and mind than I have ever consistently dealt with. My BFA is in writing. Most writing jobs these days don't pay well enough for me. I had an interview and it was mostly just the hiring agent at the company berating me for not having enough recent customer service experience and treating me like an idiot for needing a new job in 2022.

So the fact that I've been able to regularly stream at all is kind of a testament to my overall resilience and how much I like doing what I do online for people. But in all honesty and full transparency, I'm rarely finding joy in anything tangible. Everything I do enjoy now just has a constant looming dread attached. I can't think away poverty. I can't smile away the risk of homelessness. I'm fucking terrified. I'm not just depressed, I'm fucking terrified and that's not helping my mental state. Taking care of myself is a chore, also because eventually, I will run out of resources to take care of myself which will put me in greater financial debt. I am scared of running out of toothpaste, makeup, clothing, the whole nine.

But hey, what kind of silly little things am I going to make for everyone to consume?!?!?!? Continue reading to ffiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnd out!


Randomrings Channel

I might have a game review out soon. I might occasionally do those again. We'll see.

I am going to do a whole series of Randomrings Let's Plays videos. Right now, only two episodes are out. There will be 12 total! Or 11! Not sure yet! It's of my Pokemon SoulSilver stream series. Each episode is roughly 24 minutes on average and covers a major point of the main story of the game. The exception is the final episode which will be a bit over an hour long, covering the Elite Four. Fun sidenote; I beat the Elite Four using an all-Water-type team (Feraligatr, Quagsire, Gyarados, Lapras, Lanturn, and Slowbro).

I'll talk about it more in the next section of this blog post but we're probably streaming more Pokemon SoulSilver pretty soon. I didn't do any of the Kanto stuff. So we gotta do that, right? I will probably edit that into a kind of sequel series. So in other words, if the Johto arc ends on P11, the Kanto arc will start on P12.

I have a second highlight video based on my friend Satellite's PowerWash Simulator chat show that he does on Wednesdays called "Say It and Spray It". He invited me on a second time for reasons God only knows. That should be out soon. I just have to throw a few images on the screen. Everything else is pretty much done. It won't be as extensively edited as the first one but it holds up on its own without me pushing it along with more intricate edits.

There will be an RLP video of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck for the Nintendo 64. Don't know how soon to expect that. End of the year?

I might put out a vloggy thing about Russian Doll Season 1. I recorded it and edited it. Let's see if I actually finish the video and render it without being overly embarrassed of myself.

I'm going to finish up RLP Timespinner P2 soon. I'll be honest, I'm not that excited for this series anymore. I just kind of want to be done with it. I really hope other people can enjoy it but the gender dysphoria with my voice is too real to enjoy long-term. I like the edits I made and everything. I actually had more planned for Timespinner P2 but ended up not doing the more elaborate things I wanted to do. I don't want Timespinner P2 to be my peak video. Like I said, if people enjoy it, that's great. It just kinda bugs me personally.

Remember the Spyro 2 video? That video has a sequel and I still haven't finished it! In fact, I haven't worked on it in months! But I still have all the files for it. Shouldn't be too much longer. Also, don't be surprised if I'm lying right now and it doesn't come out until next year!


Randomrings Streams

Pokemon SoulSilver will come back eventually. I beat the Elite Four but after that, you can go to Kanto and I want to see what all that's about!

I want to stream the new CODE Bunny demo but I haven't picked out a date for that yet. I want to schedule that in advance so people can expect it.

We're starting The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age in 2023! It will most likely be the first game I stream.

In 2023, time willing, we'll be doing a randomized Nuzlocke of Pokemon Omega Ruby! I think I'm going to randomize:
    - Pokemon spawns
    - Pokemon starters
    - Item placements, probably including key items
    - Pokemon Abilities (passives)
    - Maaaaaybe their moves as well


Lexi Karma

Music? I'm planning a Lexi Karma stream on May 6th, hoping I can actually pull it off. It'll be a live event on the Randomrings Twitch channel.

Self Titled Again is coming along. I need to finish up the vocals on it. I haven't recorded vocals on it in a while because I've been really fucking broke and depressed.

Fake and Stupid won't be out in 2023. It just won't be. God, I want to put it out but it is nowhere near done.

I'm writing new stuff a lot too which is part of the reason none of the stuff I've already announced is done. I've been really excited about taking Lexi Karma into a new timbral direction and I think these songs I wrote are going to really solidify that in a way that people will still enjoy. I'm really fucking excited about that.


Webcomic(s)?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


Uh.... writing... of any kind at all?

I'm starting a portfolio for my writing. Rather, I've been sitting on stuff like this for a while saying "I have to get it to a certain point of quality before putting it out publicly!" It's just a portfolio. It's better than no portfolio. However, I've been running into technical snags getting them up now that I actually have a script to publicize and another one on the back burner. I'll probably make a separate blog post and talk about it in various places when I actually put up something readable.


Conclusion

I am very fucking depressed. You enjoying anything I slap out into this nutso world makes what I do feel worth it. Knowing that people enjoy what I do in any regard encourages me to keep doing all this stuff. Thank you for being a part of this. I only hope I can get my behind-the-scenes together so I can continue to entertain you all.

Thanks for listening,
-Ayden Iona

Randomrings Update March 2022

 Hey, gang! It's me! Ayden! I am fucking depressed! But like... more than usual!

I'm not going to vent here. Well. Basically no? Fuck it. My blog. Welcome to a kitchen of sulk.

Skip the first two paragraphs if you don't care why I'm a little baby uhteeheeheeeeee!

If you're thinking "pussy! So many things are going on in the world right now and you're worried about YOURSELF!!!" Whatever you're thinking of right now, I'm either unaware of it or also pretty distraught with that topic. In case I don't delete this later, we still have almost every problem that was a thing in like 2015, a lot of problems since way before then, anti-trans legislation where people are literally allowed to witch hunt trans children in Texas, cops running amok doing their cop things but more obvious, Disney's CEO being a pussy while still being a CEO, and Russia murdering a lot of innocent people. Oh. Also, COVID-19 is still a thing and I wear a mask to my heavily-populated job every day while everyone else doesn't. So yeah. No. Whatever you're trying to jam down my throat, I've already started swallowing. Thanks, though. (Why am I getting so defensive over an exaggerated hypothetical?)

So what's my problem? :p
I won't tell you! But things have been leading to massive depression spikes leading to me occasionally sobbing like a Sobble. See, I made it cute so it's more tolerable to hear about! A lot of it has been just building up for a long time, I have recently realized. In various friend circles I have been in, with my relatives before I ditched them, and in other situations that my brain is too tired to think of right now, I have always been one of the people or the only person to take all the damage and stomach it. In grave and grim situations, I can keep a stoic disposition or silliness for others to cling to. I think sometimes when you're freaking out, just having one other person with you who isn't freaking out is nice. I pride myself on being that fucker and seeing what else I can do to help from that point. I have kind of tried to be doing that with all the bullshit I mentioned in the last paragraph. Sometimes I will go on a mad rant about it to my friends but beyond that, I've been able to keep the rage dick in my pants. Then over time, I was like "fuck, do I not care anymore? What's wrong with me?" Then I realized "oh no, I still care, I'm just fucking exhausted". I have lost a lot of self-love for myself because I just wasn't telling anyone about it so much so that I didn't even realize it myself. I am now trying to gain a lot of that back. Oh, also I have gender dysphoria! So I had that on top of all the things I already mentioned. Some personal issues have arisen that would have been pretty surmountable bummers had I not had all these other circumstances on my back. All that and everyone calling me "bro" is like so fucking cool! I'm getting angry typing this! Yay! So that's why I haven't streamed this month at all and when I come back, I'm going to say fuck schedules.

That's right! For now, I'm just not going to use a stream schedule. It's the number one tip for new streamers, right? Set up and stick to a stream schedule. Yeah? I still have low as fuck numbers after over a year of doing this! So I'm just going to do whatever I want whenever I want. I will play Bastion soon on stream so we can all do that! I also have this idea for a screenwriting stream that I was going to start doing weeks ago. Whoopsies! The idea is that I use this AI that writes a prompt for you based on phrases you put in. So I get two random phrases from the internet and put them in the AI, then write a script based on that with the hopes to continue that story in another stream. Cool? I thought so. I also don't know what the fuck I'm doing with that idea until it happens though. It could be the worst thing ever. Guess we'll find out.

Remember when I made videos? I'm starting to forget whether or not I actually did that! After the Disney Walkouts, I will put out a bigass video I made about Turning Red. It's not something I usually do. It borders on podcast material. I just talk about my thoughts on Turning Red and it lasts like an hour. Which is probably way too long. Oh well! It should be out on March 23 and then you can decide whether or not you like it! I don't want to promise much of anything else because every time I have over the past three years, most or all of those videos never come out. So you're welcome for not announcing those <3!

I'm still working on Lexi Karma, my music. I hate mixing and gender dysphoria related to my voice has slowed these projects down to a crawl! But it's still better than it was like last Spring! Improvement!


Anyway, that's pretty much it. Time to continue depriving myself of sleep!

Thanks for listening-- well-- reading!
-Ayden


Millennial Who Grew Up on Dial-Up Discovers Tumblr

 So I made a Tumblr account and a separate Tumblr account for my music moniker called Lexi Karma

Here's the Randomrings Tumblr: https://randomrings.tumblr.com/
Then the Lexi Karma Tumblr: https://lexikarma.tumblr.com/


I'm not sure what I'm doing with Tumblr yet. This may sound like I'm trying to think of something creative or purposeful to do with either or both Tumblr accounts. When I say I'm not sure what I'm doing with Tumblr, I mean it boggles my mind. I do not understand it. It makes me feel 70. But hey, if you're looking for freakos to follow on Tumblr, I have two fresh accounts for ya!


Randomrings' Tumblr is going to be a place where I put some Randomrings art. I might throw blogs there that I post here. Not sure yet.

Lexi Karma's Tumblr is going to be mostly promotional but I may post some audio snippets there as well.


That's about all I have to say about it because if I say much more, I will have divulged my understanding of Tumblr.

-Ayden, the fucker who makes Randomrings and Lexi Karma stuff.

My LGBTQIA+ Cards

 Damn, look at all these little ID cards I have in my pocket! This is all typed out so you can't see them. Ha ha ha ha! You fucking wish. But hey, I'm going to talk about this. I've been out of Closetville for a while. I'm just going to put this out somewhere because I feel like it. I talk about being queer on stream sometimes but I rarely go on a whole rant about it.

tl;dr:
My pronouns are they/them and she/her.
My gender is non-binary but I'm okay with feminine labels (i.e. girl, woman, chick, bitch).
My sexual identity is polysexual.

Pronouns

I use they/them and she/her. I must say that "they" has quickly grown on me since I came out as non-binary. A lot of my close friends started referring to me as "they" without me explicitly asking them to. Some friends I still very much like and respect refer to me as "they". I refer to myself with they/them  or she/her pronouns. I especially use she/her on odd occasions when I put in more than fifteen minutes into outfits, makeup, and hair. I also do this when I draw my little avatar fucker in more feminine outfits. Like "damn, look at her!" That's pretty much it. Nobody fucking calls me "she" but you can if you want and it isn't fucked up.

Gender

I'm non-binary! Ain't that somethin'? I am transfem, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, all that stuff. So originally I liked the concept of having many elements of masculinity, androgyny, and femininity encompassing my identity. Now that I have been out for a while and most of the people I meet just treat me like a man despite wearing obvious make-up and a decent amount of women's clothing, I'm kind of over it. I don't get offended or upset by feminine labels. I definitely don't get offended by gender-neutral labels. I originally didn't care about masculine labels but now I don't like them. Not only do a lot of people still just treat me like a man, but most of them also treat me like a straight, cis man. When your gender identity is a lot of things and not an exclusion of things, it is kind of hard to say "well, actually I don't like that". The question is always "what do I replace calling you BRO with then?" Why? I don't know or care. That's just the way it goes. So I just have to take it and be miffed a little bit. It's just easier.

So uh, try to refrain from calling me bro, man, dude, or sir. Especially "sir". I don't know what it is about "sir". You're trying to show innate respect or something completely discounting that I barely look like a sir. I just have a big upper lip and a long-ass face. Like. I'm on HRT. I have tits. What do these punks want from me, y'know?

Anyway. Yeah. Enby. Also, calling me an enby is great. It's totally fine. Some people that aren't non-binary think that "enby" is like the n-word of non-binary people or something. Not that extreme but same basic concept. It's not that deep. It's really easy and cool to use.

Sexuality

Polysexual. Not many understand what this is. It took me so many years to find this and what it actually means. So polysexuality is close to pansexuality. So imagine a bunch of solo cups, right? Each one has marker on it that shows what gender the cup is. So like a gay dude might just throw a ping-pong ball into the "men" cup. A pansexual person will say "give me all these fucking ping-pong balls you motherfucker" and throw one into each cup. A polysexual person like myself might throw a ball into each cup and then say "uh... actually hang on". Then I'll take a few out. For me, it's the "men" cup. That one's pretty damn empty. That's basically where I'm at.

I can't see myself fooling around with men. I have tried to imagine it and it just doesn't work. It simply exists as a fantasy. Like Pan's Labyrinth but sexual. When I think about enbies and women in that same vein, it's a much different sensation that I simply don't get with men.


"Um, okay? Thanks???"

So I get three flags. The trans one, the polysexual one, and the non-binary one. Technically, I probably get more than that, like the genderqueer one but those are the three where I'm like "ah, yeah okay, those are the ones that I fit into". That's pretty much it. Just kind of sitting here wanting to type something and this is the something I typed.

What does this mean for you? Don't be discouraged not being able to find what label you can put on yourself right away. Don't be discouraged if the criteria for a label you thought you found ends up changing. I once thought because I can see what people attracted to men see in some men to some extent that I was bisexual because it was one of the only sexual identifiers I was aware of. I never really identified as that though because it didn't really seem all that accurate. I also told a few people "I might as well be a lesbian at a certain point". Gee, I wonder what would have led me to that conclusion. Maybe it was being born in the wrong fucking body and being raised to believe that anyone who wasn't cis or straight was psychologically deranged. Just spitballing. Don't be down on yourself for not having one concrete answer to sexuality or gender. Sometimes yours will change later anyway because people change over time. You were always born as yourself. "You" should just be an umbrella term that works for everyone. It isn't your fault that this term isn't good enough for a lot of salty people. Maybe you already found your identity cards. That's pretty rad too.


I've got a debatable pile of the L, a dash of the G, I guess a dash of the B, at least 156mg daily of the T, and decent fucking loads of the Q and the "+"! Cool. That's the conclusion of my blog post. "Cool."

Shoving Music Down Your Throat [2021 Edition]

 here we go again

Shoving Music Down Your Throat is a thing I do every year where I talk about music I listened to over the course of the year. I gush about the top ten albums that really struck me, trying to keep it to one per artist (because one of these was the year I got into Dir En Grey and that band took up like a third of the event). Beyond that, there's not much of a prerequisite. The albums don't even have to be from the current year. In fact, they usually aren't. In the case of this year, the only current-year album is MASS by The Gazette. Yes, I did actually listen to Lorde's new album. I probably won't go out of my way to ever listen to it again but I also don't think it's bad. People freaking the fuck out calling being an abomination of an album need to take a deep breath and listen to as much AFI as I have, then go back and give Solar Power a fucking spin. You'll be kissing Lorde's very apparent ass after that new trial of perspective, I bet.

The albums are in chronological order.

Here's a link to the playlist I made for the 2021 Edition of Shoving Music Down Your Throat. I pick a song from each of these albums to put on the playlist. These songs aren't always my favorites from each respective album. They are usually just the ones that are either the one I think is the most accessible to the most people or the one that illustrates a specific point I brought up about it the best. Sometimes these things overlap.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5z5urWxz7jN0uDpgoC6NDt?si=20da13d7da344293

I was working on my own music more often this year so I didn't get to listen to as much different stuff as I have since starting Shoving Music Down Your Throat years ago. For what it's worth, these were not the mere 10 albums I listened to. I definitely took in more than that, just not as much as I might have wanted to.

Faces by Earth, Wind, & Fire [1980]
genre: R&B, funk

I have now listened to a decent handful of Earth, Wind, & Fire and must say: the hype is real. It's honestly hard to go wrong with this band. I do recall listening to an album that came out in 2000-something that I didn't like but I cannot fish out which one it was. For all you know, that album is great too. It had cover art that looked like a Journey album but you could argue that for like 5 EW&F albums. This year for whatever reason, I decided to listen to a few more. I finally got around to listening to All 'n All which is one of the "big" ones, I guess. It was really good but I feel like anyone interested in funk is already aware that All 'n All slaps bounding ass or should be aware if they aren't yet. So I'm going to talk about Faces because this one's also really good. Most of my EW&F experience so far has been 70s stuff and Faces starts their 80s stint. I was kind of scared because I feel like most bands seem to drastically change their style up in the midst of a new decade for some reason. That or they laughably stagnate. Faces sounds different enough but still has a lot of stuff that makes the previous few albums great too. I lack the language to efficiently articulate what separates Faces from all of their 70s stuff that makes it noteworthy. I *can* say that the main reason I'm putting this on here though is because it is the album I feel is the most consistently amusing. If that sounds prudent, it would sound way more dickish trying to basically "review" the album here. Neither of us wants that to happen, right? There are moments that are either notably goofy or just feel standardized on almost every EW&F album I can think of, even on All 'n All. The high moments of the album always make up for it though. Faces is more consistently bangy though its bangiest might not bang as bangy as the bangers of other albums. Of course, this is all subjective. I just feel like most people getting into certain genres expect the spearheads to have a lot of albums with two great songs on their most popular albums with a bunch of dust bunnies lodged in the seams. Faces, I can assure you, is not like most Maroon 5 albums. This can apply to a lot of bands and albums, I just thought I'd get a quick dig in. It's not cute but what's done is done. I could edit it. I could backspace it right now. That said, we're moving on.

Raoul and the Kings of Spain by Tears for Fears [1995]
genre: pop-rock, Spanish folk

Hey, white moms! Did you know the band that made "Shout", "Head Over Heels", and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" released an album in 1995? I've researched this kind of phenomenon for years now and can confirm that a lot of the bands you remember from the 80s released more music after you stopped giving a shit! It's true!!! Hey, millennials! Remember Donnie Darko? That queef snorkeling vocal mess disguised as a song at the end of that movie has a good version that came out before most of you were born! That band used to be a big deal until the two main members split in the early-to-mid 90s, leaving the remaining member to finish up an album at his new home studio and pretty much write this 1995 album by himself! Hey, gen Z! Look, this is one of those bands you immediately forget when you heard them at the dentist and I mean no disrespect but you're not going to have the attention span to research this. Furthermore, I can assure you from firsthand experience that the scholarly approach to Tears for Fears is not worth your fleeting time.

Raoul and the Kings of Spain is basically a Roland Orzabal solo project but it's called a Tears for Fears album because why the fuck not? The first time I heard this, I found it kind of weird that it had a lot of Spanish stuff that seemed to harken back to a culture that the creator didn't know about only to find out that Orzabal isn't a racist cunt, I just need to spend much, much less time on Twitter. Roland Orzabal is known as an Englishman because he's the dude that isn't Curt Smith from the band that did "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". However, he has very strong ties to his Spanish heritage and lyrically explores that a bit in personal ways that are kind of interesting to look into. You're not going to have your mind blown by any of the lyrical content but what he did with a longstanding brand is commendable. But is the music fucking good? This one really has its heavy ups and downs. For whatever reason, I keep fucking listening to it. It is nowhere near as good as The Hurting or Songs From the Big Chair but I really appreciate its own flavor of Tears for Fears. There are cheesy moments even for Tears for Fears standards. For the most part, these moments are made up for with pretty moments and fairly unique guitar and vocal arrangements and effects. I recommend listening to the album once through but can't guarantee you're going to love every track. I have admittedly listened to it several times now and still don't listen to a handful of songs on the album on their own or skip them sometimes during a revisit. The only one I will mention by name here is "Don't Drink the Water". It's one of my least favorite songs from this album anyway because it is corny and the parts that do punch are in a more dad-rock way than in any way actually intriguing or awe-inspiring. In addition, it has the f-slur disguised cleverly with everyone's favorite cigarette slang excuse! Yeah, who knew someone would need a content warning for a fucking Tears for Fears release! All of the genuine and not-hammed-up weirdness of the album is thematic and seems to escalate as the album continues while still being pop-rock. Though at least half of these songs are a good time on their own, "Raoul" really shines as a full experience more than fuel for your shuffler playlist. I wouldn't be talking about the album here if I didn't really enjoy it but it's more of a "why do I enjoy this and will other people like it at all?" than a "this album is the tits, why is nobody talking about it?" If you have never delved into a full Tears for Fears album, please don't start with this one. On that note, I will have you know that I have knocked off a few years of my life expectancy to listen to all of Tears for Fears' studio albums and can say with conviction that "Raoul" is not their worst. The Seeds of Love is! Though I recommend Songs from the Big Chair more, it's one of those albums that more people are aware of than they think. Raoul and the Kings of Spain is more interesting to talk about because nobody has in about 24 years.

Social Dancing by Bis [1999]
genre: indie pop, electropop

Remember watching Powerpuff Girls when you were eight and thinking "damn, this outro theme is so cool. If there were more music like this I would totally figure out what weed is and smoke it to that while I don't do my homework"? Bis is the band that did that. Turns out they weren't just hired hands in terms of composition for the show and actually had a flag in the ground of 90s electronic music. To my knowledge the big one was and unfortunately still is Social Dancing. It has punk elements here and there but mostly, the electropop label fits here. Though mostly following a bit of a verse, chorus pattern of a pop album, the chord choices and layering between the guitars and synths keep the album consistently interesting. The vocals are also really fun and harmonically creative. All three members do vocals at various points of the album. It's not in a System of a Down way where it sounds like the vocalists are fighting each other for your attention and another Chop Suey royalty check. The singers all do different harmony parts or overdub themselves sometimes depending on what they actually wanted to do with each individual part of each song. It's really cool to hear and is electronic music that is really unique if nothing else. The album after this one was a lot more shrill and yelly. Not terrible but shrill and yelly. Despite growing up with Powerpuff, Bis is pretty new to me so I don't know if this is their best album or whatever. I know it's definitely not their worst and one I would highly recommend. If you have any friends that have been asking for Scottish electronic music from the 90s with punk undertones recommendations, Social Dancing might just be the missing puzzle piece to their fucking Bisless heart.

鬼葬 (KISOU) by Dir En Grey [2002]
genre: industrial rock, alternative metal

Dir En Grey is a "Shoving Music Down Your Throat" mainstay but most of it has been their more "processed" stuff for lack of a better term. Dir En Grey is one of the very rare metal bands that don't completely stagnate when faced with higher production value. If you're just now hearing of them, Arche is still my favorite album from them and I especially recommend it to people who like weirdo metal. Probably Uroboros for a little more variety. All that babble out of the way, KISOU is one of their first albums, back when they were still considered a visual kei band if I'm not mistaken. They still did not sound like what I have mostly heard from visual kei but that's part of what I like about them in a sense. KISOU is decidedly less heavy than most of their albums. However, it's not particularly soft either and still has all the weirdness one would expect from Dir En Grey. There are a lot of really emotive performances from the vocalist, Kyo. Across their discography, these usually range from situationally moving to really fucking silly to probably unsettling for most people, and I mean all this is a positive sense. "Moving" is more subjective for KISOU if that makes sense. Some of the silly stuff I still personally recognize as Kyo trying to go for something specific and probably succeeding. I also don't speak any more Japanese than a native two-year-old so maybe to a fluent Japanese speaker, this is the stupidest shit. Works for me. It's harder for me to recommend a lot of their albums I've heard several times a piece now because they are much more "metal" than "alternative". KISOU is somehow less heavy but notably wrackier. Still, it's a varied album in terms of alternative metal and industrial rock. As one of their longer albums, if my memory is accurate here, it never grinds its gears. It's still weirdo metal and although not a punk album, I think it will do better for people within that crowd than it would for your friendly neighborhood metalhead. It's a very unique album in a way that is hard to put into words unless you have heard Dir En Grey's other stuff, which works out because despite KISOU being really good, I still recommend Arche and Uroboros more. That's a lot of homework though so for those who don't want to sacrifice that much time just because I told you to, here's a reminder that at the top of this post, there's a playlist consisting of one song from each album featured in this post so you can hear a pretty dope-ass song from KISOU called "Gyakujou Tannou Keloid Milk". Did I mention this is weirdo metal?

Tremulant by The Mars Volta [2002]
genre: prog rock, post-hardcore

I somehow had no idea that there was a studio project by The Mars Volta that I somehow didn't know existed until 2021. The Mars Volta is one of my favorite bands of all time and has been for about a decade now. So this is a big deal to me as much as it is mystifying that I could be that negligent. This isn't some strange, obscure B-side kind of thing. This EP is the first thing that The Mars Volta put out. They weren't out of nowhere either. The Mars Volta features a few prominent members of At the Drive-In, a fairly influential and decently well-known punk/hardcore band. Tremulant embodies a weird tonal crossover between the adrenaline from At the Drive-In and the trippy prog energy-lightswitch that is The Mars Volta and their first album in particular. For those who don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, Tremulant is three prog-rock songs done by punk artists. It's punk done by a band with an idea of what a time signature is or at the very least occasionally using 3/4 time on purpose. Also, nice organ sounds and occasionally psychedelic parts. Wouldn't be a Mars Volta release without at least like seven of those. Tremulant might not be the first thing I recommend for people to listen to from The Mars Volta. At the same time, I feel like the band is generally pretty fucking acquired taste anyway. If someone said "show me that annoying band you listen to but note I probably won't press play unless it's less than 30 minutes long", I would certainly show them Tremulant in hopes that they enjoy it as much as I do or it at least inspires them to listen to The Mars Volta's other stuff. Look, I swear it's good alright?!? For those who are familiar with the band, here's a bonus section! For those who really want me to shut the fuck up about The Mars Volta already, skip the bonus section or something!

BONUS: Landscape Tantrums by The Mars Volta [2021]
genre: prog rock

One of the most popular albums, if not the most highly regarded, from The Mars Volta is De-Loused in the Comatorium. Personally, it's in my top 3 favorites from them even though I wore it out the first time I heard it roughly 8 years ago. Landscape Tantrums is a bunch of demos of that album in early conception. The difference between Landscape Tantrums and when most bands do something like this is that Landscape Tantrums covers pretty much the entire original track-listing. Lyrics are different and sometimes missing, vocal melodies are altered, harmonized, de-harmonized, or scrapped entirely. A lot of lead guitar overdub wasn't done yet. You might be thinking "I can't stomach that, it's going to sound like shit. I was actually pleasantly surprised with how clean this release sounded considering the fact that it was essentially a demo reel recorded sometime between 1999 and 2000. I'm sure it was fine-tuned for a 2021 release as to not make it ear-shattering. It still isn't something I would listen to every day but something I could recommend to someone without being a sadist. I won't blab about this one too much nor am I putting it on the playlist. The interesting aspects of this album lie in the fact that it is an unfinished version of something that already exists. As such, I wouldn't recommend it to people who aren't already a fan of The Mars Volta or at least "De-Loused". If you really like that album as I do, this is worth at least one listen.

good kid, m.A.A.d. city by Kendrick Lamar [2012]
genre: hip-hop

To Pimp a Butterfly, another A+ album by Kendrick Lamar, was one of those rare albums I find that really woke me up from the process of just trying out new music. This one even more so than many others that further inspire me in both musicianship and in life. Listening to To Pimp a Butterfly was supposed to just be trying out a new album while doing something else. It demanded my attention. Not in an annoying way. It was magnetizing to my mind in so many ways. good kid, m.A.A.d. city is not that album. It's still pretty fucking good though. I would say it is equally creative. "m.A.A.d. city" plays out like a feature-length film set in Compton. This is one of those albums that uses long dialogue segments without seeming pretentious or obnoxious. From front to back, the album delivers what it seems to be selling. This effectively tells a competent story without being too on the nose with what's happening. Something I don't have a problem with but many might with "TPaB" is that there are a lot of parts that fully juxtapose from most of what each song has going for it. Not quite "inserts" but segues that pull out in front of you at 70mph. Other than the dialogue portions, this album has more of a tendency to stay on each song's original course. Make no mistake though; if you like the sporadic genre bends of "TPaB", there is plenty of that in good kid, m.A.A.d. city. Moments towards the beginning upon my first two listens of the album made me say "oh cool, a hip-hop album" in comparison to "TPaB". By "beginning" I am referring to the first three or four songs. They are still good songs but anyone who isn't a fan of hip-hop probably is not going to be particularly swayed by this one until a good handful of songs in. This is one of the main things that would make me still recommend To Pimp a Butterfly over good kid, m.A.A.d. city. So if you were laughably behind on the times as I was prior to listening to "Butterfly", I guess listen to that first, especially if you aren't familiar with Kendrick Lamar. In any other case, I still recommend giving good kid, m.A.A.d. city a shot. I'm going to go ahead and shut up about this one for now. Typing the full title of this one out is physically and mentally exhausting.

Restoration by Haken [2014]
genre: prog metal

I fucking love Haken. I started listening to them in 2020 and according to Spotify I am in the top 1% of people listening to Haken in 2021. Let me tell you about the EP called Restoration before I find a way to avoid all of my taxes. Haken is a prog metal band but not a screamy one. I guess I get why most people assume death metal that sounds like a skipping vinyl when I say "prog metal" but I would say a safe 98% of Haken's discography doesn't sound like that at all. So apparently there are some old Haken demos I haven't heard from when the band was still a band baby. Haken was fully formed after the members decided they were badass enough to be a full-time prog-rock band and goddamn the extra years of effort show. Restoration came out about four albums into Haken's discography. Most of the music is recycled from their old demos, completely reworked all the way down to the songs' titles. It's only three songs but the average Haken song is probably seven or eight minutes long. The first song is pretty cool. I particularly like "Earthlings" and "Crystallized" though, the latter of which is over 10 minutes long. These three are notably melodic not unlike their other stuff released before 2014. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Restoration doesn't sound like an expansion pack to whatever album preceded this one. Although it's closer to The Mountain than Vector and Virus, it doesn't sound like something that didn't quite make it onto The Mountain for whatever reason. It also doesn't sound exactly like their first two albums, though you could argue that for the first track. Restoration, if someone new to this sort of music can stomach the runtime of each song, also isn't terribly heavy or aggressive half the time. It definitely has its heavy moments; Haken is still a prog metal band and they didn't take a break from that for this EP. Before Vector, Haken was pretty good at saving the aggressive stuff for moments that are supposed to give off an aggravating or anxious mood. A lot of "Crystallized" is actually pretty fucking upbeat, a lot of it sounding kind of more like Yes than one might expect, as much as I hate making such comparisons. I'm not just using this EP as an excuse to gush about Haken. I kind of am but I'm not just doing that. Until I become re-obsessed with another song by Haken that changes my mind or perhaps a new release, "Earthlings" from this EP is one of my absolute new favorite songs by them. That's really saying something because I have spammed the fuck out of Aquarius, Visions, Affinity, and The Mountain. Restoration really isn't the worst way to try Haken out either. One of my favorite things about Haken is how good they are at chaining a story together throughout the course of their album. Restoration doesn't really do this unless I'm missing something. Aside from that, it does a pretty good job of getting across most of the things I like about the band in under 30 minutes. If you're new to Haken and you like good music, I would probably recommend Affinity. If you're new to Haken and you like metal, I would recommend Visions. If you're new to Haken and you like fucking goddamn heavy metal but don't mind a melody line every now and again, Vector is for you. Okay, I need to stop myself. I really like Haken. Stop. Fuck! Shut up!

Hitch by The Joy Formidable [2016]
genre: alt-rock

The Joy Formidable is a really cool and easily identifiable Welsh alt-rock band that I never hear anyone talk about here in the States. Every time I look into them they seem to be doing fine though. They're still hangin' in there! All of their releases are pretty fucking good and it's going to be up to your personal alt-rock tastes which one might be for you. Duh, right? So why Hitch? The album that I think they are most known for is The Big Roar for a few select singles. This isn't to say they fell completely into obscurity so much as they fell into complete obscurity in America. The album after this one, Wolf's Law, is really fucking cool but both of these albums feel like an indie rock three-piece making an indie rock album with slightly higher than usual production value. They're still unique but there's less dynamic tonal variety especially in the overall audio department on their first album. Wolf's Law really picks up as it keeps going but starts out similarly. Hitch is where things get a bit weirder while still being charming-ass Joy Formidable. I don't know if "weird" is the right term so much as "melancholy" though. I also listened to AAARTH this year and that's weirder and dips into the alternative metal pool from time to time. To elaborate on what I meant by "feels like an indie-rock three-piece", there are many vocal trade-off moments between the guitarist and the bassist that sometimes just sound like they're drunkenly yelling out a melody line and Melodyne pairs with reverb to turn that into music. This is a staple to the point of stereotype in alt-rock. It's much, much less annoying when The Joy Formidable does it. Moments like this I guess have this arguably more "live" sound to it that a lot of people appreciate. I'm not one of those people. When it comes to what I enjoy in an album and how I create my own music, live is live, studio is studio; very few exceptions. Hitch sounds like they actually went in wanting to make an album instead of just seeing what stuck. This probably sounds fucking cold and whiney. I really don't mean it to be, this is just the best way I know to describe Hitch in comparison to The Big Roar and some of Wolf's Law. Delightful stuff all around. There really isn't, to this point, a bad Joy Formidable album. That said, I picked Hitch over AAARTH for this blog simply because I think Hitch is more accessible to more people overall. This is why I earnestly really like AAARTH but a general audience will probably find more that they immediately appreciate about Hitch over AAARTH, or as general as this audience gets while still managing to find this thing where I just ramble about music that I like.

Since I started writing this, The Joy Formidable also came out with a new album called Into the Blue and it's fucking good. It has one of the lowest points of the band in my personal opinion but it's brief. The rest of the album is every bit as good as their others.

Swords by Nick Lutsko [2019]
genre: indie rock, I guess

Nick Lutsko makes really silly songs on the internet, known mostly for ones that dunk on idiots that conservatives think are really cool. He also makes songs that are not joke songs. He has some pretty cool music videos for them on his YouTube channel which is mostly populated with lower-budget music videos for the goofy songs about Dan Bongino and Gremlins. Explaining this makes me sound like an IGN article that doesn't know what a meme is so I'm just going to explain Swords instead. Swords is a full-length album that is not a comedy album. It's not to say that there aren't things about the album that aren't goofy but it's usually to a higher lyrical point than it is to be super funny. Swords also has tracks that all start with the letter "S". Not sure what the fuck is up with this despite listening to the album a few times. Indie rock is the best descriptor I have for the album's sound because it's all over the place. This is why I love it. Most of the time when I listen to music, it's a bunch of stuff I like shuffled together. No particular genre, just a lot of stuff I like regardless of how it sounds. Swords works for me really well in that sense. There are elements of everything from pop to rockabilly to symphonic rock and other styles I'm too uncultured to have the balls to guess a name for. The songs seem to have a lot to do with privileged white Americans standing at the wayside while other people are oppressed both in and out of their country. It also seems to be lyrically spoken from the vantage point of Nick himself, a Tennessee-raised musician seeing this sort of thing repeatedly occur throughout his own life as well as his own musings and mental health in direct response. The songs are all memorable and catchy in the midst of the heavy themes. As the album continues, it gets overall darker with sadder-sounding tones and bolder symphonic layers. The last track, "Software" is really somber and pretty with a fitting sense of finality to the album's tale but also has this slight feeling of continuation, which is pretty fitting since this was released right before 2020 came and fucking happened. The only real "problem" I have with the album is that some of the mix is kind of quiet for something released in 2019. Magic Machine by An Endless Sporadic is one of my favorite albums and it was kind of quiet and occasionally thin for 2016. It's not that big of a deal to turn the volume up for a little bit. Though it varies itself and is not an album I would all-around consider "repetitive", this is a pretty standard arranged album in terms of accessibility. Translated from computer to human: it's not a prog-rock album despite what I usually talk up this much and it goes verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus frequently. I have no problem with this. For most people, this isn't a problem in general. I also highly recommend his YouTube stuff, a lot of which is also on Spotify in the form of Songs on the Computer.

MASS by The GazettE [2021]
genre: visual kei

The Gazette is one of my favorite bands of all time and I haven't been sitting there waiting for their new release since their 2011 album, Toxic. This is because, in my opinion, The Gazette's last great album came out in 2009. Despite being my favorite band, I only really have a soft spot for their first four albums. Every full-length album before Toxic is really fucking good. Toxic is when they started leaning way heavier into industrial metal than they did on the 2009 album Dim. The sound of Dim with more pitch correction and industrial influence basically turns it into a nu-metal album with a better singer. That was Toxic and subsequently the four albums after Toxic. It's not great. It's not the worst but it's not great. The next four albums more or less do the same exact shit and I'm constantly disappointed by this. Their first four albums are four of my favorite albums ever and Toxic was at least a step in a slightly different direction for the band at the time. MASS doesn't do too much to break out of this moldy, crusty mold but at risk of sounding like a complete cunt, it sounds more "refined". Don't worry, I too taste a little puke. The way I've explained it to my friends who have never heard of The Gazette beyond my insane ramblings and the existence of Black Butler season 2, I explain MASS as "it sounds like songs from the Shadow the Hedgehog soundtrack but on purpose and better." That's not a dig on Shadow the Hedgehog's soundtrack as much as it's a knock on nu-metal. MASS does not feel like a nu-metal album. It doesn't sound as cool as Dim but there are some little gimmicks that help separate it from the five albums in between. Most of the metal stuff I recommend here or talk to people about is weirdo shit. The Gazette is pretty fucking accessible unless you hate any form of death growl at all in a song or are racist. As a whole, MASS might be the most generally accessible one I can think of while still being a fun album from beginning to end. The guitars usually serve as a wall that serves the melody of whatever pretty synth or vocal tracks are playing at the time. The drum mix on this one is pretty solid too. Nothing groundbreaking or anything but the drums don't sound plastic or like YouTube metal. The only song that I think is kind of comparatively lame is "Frenzy". The opening riff kind of sounds like The Gazette covering Metallica which would be one of the only ways I would agree to voluntarily listen to Metallica. Even then, "Frenzy" isn't a bad song. It makes up for its basic-bitch metal riff pretty quickly. Ruki's voice sounds great. Granted it's probably pretty well Melodyned, it doesn't necessarily sound like it had to be. I'm not a mixing expert but I'm also not a complete amateur. I usually have a pretty good ear for that sort of thing. His screams sound a lot different over the course of the last few albums and not in a way of "I'm getting old but this is my career now so I'm just going to ravage my fucking throat". The scream parts are pretty damn rare on MASS. That's part of the reason why I said this is one of the most accessible albums in their discography. The screams that are there are good, gritty screams but they are mixed in a way that sounds pseudo-plosive without being wracky. They're "soft" but they're still screams. I went back to flip through a few of the songs to pick one for this year's playlist and was thinking "is this really good enough to put on here or will I be embarrassed now that the novelty of 'this is the new Gazette album' has passed?" I was surprised by twists and turns I forgot the album took, though briefly. The album isn't the most artistically baffling, wheel-retconning thing in the world but it is creative enough within its own merit for me to say it's a solid album. Not every song needs to change time signature, genre, and tempo three times for it to be intriguing. I'm pretty happy that I have an album by one of my favorite bands that can serve as a stepping stone for people to maybe try some of the stuff I like even more than the new stuff. MASS isn't the best album ever, not the best album by The Gazette, nor is it the best album on this list. It is still a good album and one I confidently recommend.


These aren't on the Shoving Music Down Your Throat playlist but my buddy Game & Sound released a new sick-ass Metroid medley called Journey of a Hunter. This is a big deal for him but even if he had just miraculously slapped this one out, I would still recommend it because his medleys are nutty and this one is no exception.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7Gk6h7DbNHzzf6THnOAAuj?si=eda1ec80198a4673