Recommendations

ROCK AND STONE IN THE HEART!

Rating: S

You get to play as a small bug that wields a nail as a weapon and can pogo on enemies to kill them. What more could you ask for?

Rating: S

Easily my favorite game in both gameplay and story, Outer Wilds lets you play as an alien astronaut with the goal of exploring the solar system and uncovering all of its secrets. Its incredibly free-form story-telling, meticulously-made physics engine, amazing soundtrack, and ability to do whatever you want however you want (including fly your ship into the sun) makes it an amazing experience.

Rating: S

A pure stealth game set in a dark fantasy setting where you get to play as a goblin assassin and thief. The game has its flaws (such as bugs, sometimes choppy controls, and hit-or-miss VAing) but the gameplay is fun and the main narrative is so compelling and interesting (especially given the uniqueness of the player character) that it's all-in-all a great game.

Rating: A

It's funny, it's got a charming and unique style of narration, it's the only sci-fi media to date I've not just liked but LOVED for the science aspects. Seriously, read it.

Rating: S

A collection of essays by Thomas Lynch, an undertaker and poet, that use death as a means to talk about life. His diction and direct but affectionate narration is something that makes the messages he tries to send feel much more personal, rather than just pretty words from a faceless name on a cover.

Rating: A

His music sounds like he is conductor for an orchestra of weeping willows, frogs, and fish. There's an organic element to each song that feels so unique to his music and his music alone that you can't help but be swept up in this sort of awe for the stories he spins with the instruments: like nursery rhymes told to the mice in the cupboard.

Rating: S

I was made aware of his music through an animator project with one of his more popular songs, Jesus on the Telephone. He has a very unique style of singing that feels more raw and unfiltered yet at the same time amps up the drama, with instrumentals that tend to reflect the same. Not all of his songs quite do it for me, but I love the passion behind each one that's hard to miss.

Rating: B

What it says on the label: the band has made a career out of creating big band and similarly styled covers of videogame music, with outstanding production quality and passion put into each song and performance.

Rating: A

If a bunch of bards from a medieval fantasy setting got together and made a band in the modern era, this would be them. Their music is all very climactic and meant to take your breath away with the feeling of power and conviction each song has, with an underlying feeling of strength in love and community and just trying your damn best.

Rating: S

Chaos, confusion, and candid cadavers! There no music quite like Will Wood's with its both over-the-top drama and morbidity that makes much of his discography feel like you're on a rollercoaster ride that wasn't OSHA-certified. Just listening to one song of his will give you a very clear idea (yet none at all) as to what the rest of his music is like.

Rating: S