Cute and calm acoustic album. Kinda jazz, very light rock, pop.
kanekoayano – 石の糸 (Threads of Stone)
Dva – Piri Piri
This album catapulted to the top of my listening charts of this year, it just has a ridiculously strong hook. It definitely helps that sun coming out more, trees are bursting in leaves, and this is essentially a soundtrack to summer. Kung Fu and Lococo are hymns for a sunny day on a meadow by a lake while having food on the grill and tossing frisbee.
Indie pop is a great genre for this record: it is absolutely pop with a world music spin, but it’s quite a mile from mainstream radio pop. Some songs have this strong cuteness factor because of the singer’s voice, like how The Asteroids Galaxy Tour took us by storm in 2009 with their debut. It also brings me back to the Radiocafé era of Hungary.
Messa – The Spin
It’s dark like gothic but not black metal or post-punk goth, it’s well-crafted musically but not over the top progressive metal, it’s slow in tempo but not at all doom or sludge. I was a bit confused when they listed things like jazz and dark ambient in their influences, and then, the track The Dress goes into a full-on jazz depart before jumping into a cinematic transition and ending up with a fantastic solo and then the crystal clear vocals arrive… They really have it all. Still, it’s not a mish-mash of things but a perfect amalgamation and genre-bending.
Overall, Messa is just one of those most eclectic dark rock bands that put the sweetest sorrow in my throat. And The Spin is a beautiful album, gives me shivers over and over again. I can easily listen to this on repeat.
Update: I’ve just listened to the previous albums of Messa and now it’s clear why they mention stuff like drone, dark ambient, doom, or stoner as references for their music. There are actual full tracks with these aesthetics on earlier records. However, I think The Spin is a lot more evolved and cleaner version of their sound. It’s not so much all these styles living side-by-side anymore but having a great blend of these sources into one coherent voice.
Decius – Decius Vol. II (Splendour & Obedience)
Easy listening house, bleep techno, and electroclash. Casual electronic lounging and catwalk music.
Flow (2024)
It was a rather unique and nice journey. Coming out of the cinema we had somewhat different ideas about the setting, but that’s exactly what makes this feel fresh: it’s up for interpretations and metaphors, and it’s interesting to discuss the different ideas.
Marie Davidson – City Of Clowns
It’s this fringe kind of electronic music, with an electro aesthetic, electroclash perhaps. It’s exciting and interesting and has things to say, feels fresh and different. It has become my third big thing that I’ve stumbled upon in 2025 (after Heartworms and Ela Minus).
Z for Zachariah (2015)
I find it fascinating when I find such random movies that I’ve never heard of and there are actual A-list lead actors in it. Although it’s a pretty narrowly scoped setting, pretty much like a chamber drama but in an open world setting, so they didn’t have to spend on a whole lot more.
In any case, this is an absolutely fine little film. It has a post-apocalyptic backdrop but it’s a super simple love triangle flick, so any sci-fi setting is just flavor that doesn’t really have an impact on what happens. And as simple as it is, it gave me just enough ambiguity to look up thread on Reddit and find that there are different views on how the whole thing ends even. I like these kind of tightly focused movies that give a lot more than what they seem to offer.
Modesty Beast – Majesty
Sometimes futurepop can be more cheese than actually good music. This is futurepop, which is actually good music.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
I remember my father having this on VHS when I was a kid but I’ve never rewatched it since then as an adult. Having seen this now in 2025, my definition is: it’s Red Dead Redemption – The Movie. It’s a fantastic, entertaining, and light-hearted western flick. Robert Redford is at peak here.
Random fun fact to realize that this received an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song for Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head. I would have never guessed that song was written for a movie.
My Old Ass (2024)
This was so much better than what I had expected. I expected a Friday night semi-dumb rom-com, and what I got was an entertaining and kind coming of age movie. It’s a solid 7/10.