On Grief, Loss, Big Thief, and Papa
The first song on Big Thief's colossal new double album is called "Change." It's a quiet song. It eases you into its 20-song track-list without overwhelming...
On Playing Kingdom Hearts 2 Every Year
At the beginning of every year, I have this tradition where I replay my favorite video game from start to finish. If you know me well, then you probably know...
A Deep Dive into Adele's Discography
Hey, everyone. It's been a while, hasn't it? I just checked, and I haven't written for my newsletter/blog since June. I took a bit of a hiatus because I got...
Writing, Twitter, and the Internet at Large
sorry I couldn’t resist using this image. In May 2018, I emailed several writers whose work I admire for advice on breaking into music journalism. Nearly...
5 Reasons Sticky Fingers and Enema of the State are Companion Albums
On Friday, The Rollling Stones' 1971 album, Sticky Fingers, turned 50. I've heard the record now, but, frankly, I didn't grow up on the Stones in the way...
"Singer-Songwriter" Is an Obsolete Genre Descriptor
Last month, I read Amanda Petrusich's astounding essay in The New Yorker on genre and how, ultimately, it's become an obsolete qualifier for music. Streaming...
Defending the Bridge
Everybody knows that part of The Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done.” The chorus cuts out, and only guitars remain. Brandon Flowers comes in with a...
My Final Post on Substack
As I’m sure some of you have read by now, Substack is doing some things that aren’t exactly great. For those of you who don’t know, I’ll do my best to sum...
The Phenomenon of the Disappointing Album
Subscribe now All throughout middle school, Blink-182 was my favorite band. I discovered them in sixth grade, which was well after their break-up. Though I...
Collision
The trek here had been long and arduous. He had never been here before, never been in a ship, but now he was all alone. Pure isolation. This isolation felt...
First Impressions of Spider Man: Miles Morales
Right now, everyone is talking about the PlayStation 5. It released just yesterday, and I’m admittedly getting a bit of FOMO. Although I’m very much a...
David Byrne's American Utopia
I remember when David Byrne’s American Utopia tour came to Kansas City, Mo., in the summer of 2018. I desperately wanted to go, but tickets were astoundingly...
The Seekers
They had to be getting close now. The sisters could gradually feel the pavement underneath their feet morph into sand, as they sunk a bit deeper with each...
First Impressions of This Isn't Happening
If you know me, then you know that I’m a big fan of The Legend of Zelda games. In 1998, Nintendo released what would eventually become the blueprint for 3D...
Exploration in Ori and the Will of the Wisps
A year ago, a video game was ported from the Xbox One to the Nintendo Switch that I’d had my eye on for quite a while. Ori and the Blind Forest, a lush...
First Impressions of Larger Than Life
As a writer, I’m always reading something or wanting to read something. Not only do I feel that it makes my own writing better, but it’s simply something...
A Conversation with Ailbhe Reddy
Personal History, the debut album from Irish indie-rocker Ailbhe Reddy, starts in a rough place. Its opening track, “Failing,” sees Reddy in a cynical light....
Falling in Love with Super Mario Sunshine Again
When Nintendo announced that they would release HD versions of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy as one definitive package, aptly...
Falling Asleep to Music
Before reading today’s short post, I just wanted to thank my incredibly talented fiancée Rachel Tingle for creating a logo for this newsletter! She posts her...
Ranking Sufjan Stevens' Albums
To call Sufjan Stevens prolific would be an understatement. The indie-folk songwriter has traversed boundaries both within and beyond the “indie” and “folk”...
Link's Awakening and the Saga of Bizarre Zelda Sequels
For the past couple of days, I’ve started replaying last year’s Nintendo Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. It’s only one of three 2D...
Ranking The Killers' Albums
I conducted an extensive quantitative study (a Twitter poll) over the weekend to see whose discography I should rank. I kicked this series off with Arctic...
A Conversation with Eric Slick
Life hasn’t been too out-of-control for Eric Slick. The Dr. Dog drummer is typically balancing a wealth of projects simultaneously, but around the time he...
Ranking Arctic Monkeys' Albums
On July 30, I conducted a quantitative study to see if I should start a new thing for my newsletter. This new thing would involve comprehensive rankings of...
Visions of Didion
Writing about writing honestly seems a bit odd to me. That may be a strange opinion though, considering I write about music, which has famously been compared...
An Earnest Treatise on Waluigi
In the first post for this newsletter, I promised to write about music, movies, books, video games, and Waluigi. You may have thought that I was joking. If...
A Conversation with Stephen
Electronic-pop producer Stephen Swartz, known simply by his artist name Stephen, named his sophomore record after the philosophical concept of akrasia. It...
My Favorite Music in Video Games
This past week, I finished my first play-through of the original Donkey Kong Country on Nintendo Switch Online’s SNES application. I had played both Donkey...
A Conversation with Dan Croll
Dan Croll, a Liverpool-bred, indie-pop songwriter, didn’t exactly have a grand plan when he made a tumultuous trek from his U.K. home to Los Angeles. Having...
A Conversation with Allegra Krieger
Side note: I want to give a genuine thanks to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter so far! I’m really excited about the positive response to this...
First Impressions of First Cow
I have virtually no experience writing about movies. The most I’ve ever felt like a film writer is when I attended a film festival and hurriedly composed a...
We Have the Facts and We're Rejecting Your Pitch
Hey, everyone! Welcome to this blog/newsletter I’m starting completely on a whim. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Grant Sharples. I’m a freelance...