It’s a new year and I am making a point of talking about the things I like, loudly, as much as possible, because macroscopically things are kind of terrible and will probably continue to be for like, a long while, so I’m embracing that good microscopic shit until someone pries it from my cold dead hands.

We finally finished the second season of Stranger Things in January and despite my foot-dragging re: actually watching it, I really did end up loving it. I stand by my assertion that it’s OKAY FOR THINGS TO END and also that it probably should have been an anthology series, BUT I was really happy the entire time we were watching it and I also cried a whole bunch, so whatever, I will follow these children into the DEPTHS OF HELL probably.

🖤

On my first day back from work after the holidays, I spent my afternoon constructing a YouTube playlist of the 1996 KROQ New Music Revolution CD because a beautiful, kind person added the tracklist to the internet. This was like, one of the most formative music collections of my youth and it was SO FREAKING FUN to listen to it again and remember what it was like to be 10-11 and just absolutely LOSING it over new music. If you’ve got any nostalgia for mid-90s altrock, give it a look/listen. The best of the best is this Menswear video I hadn’t actually seen before where there is truly too much going on with too good of a song for me to have survived as a youth.

🖤

Fall Out Boy, Mania – I’m not going to talk about this that much since I know it’s going to be on my list at the end of the year, but this album is so good and such a complete, satisfying whole (If you’re listening to it digitally, the songs are out of order!! Here’s a Spotify playlist in the correct order.) and I haven’t loved a Fall Out Boy album this much since Folie a Deux came out (It’s their best album. I will fight you.) and I love it so much that we bought tickets to see them in Boise, Idaho (THE WORST STATE!!) and Salt Lake City even though tickets were like $600 and we’ll have to drive 32 hours/2200 miles to do it. Love will do that to you. Or something.

And one to look forward to…