#monthly topster

[sirensandcondolences]

november :3

[rabbitechoes]

heyyy here’s what i’ve been listening to this month!! feel free to follow me on rate your music and twitter!

[theclowncowboy]

june watchlist and may topster

[tenderlady]

yyyyaaayyyyyy july is overrrrrr yippeeeeeeee

[onemorecupofcoffee]

topster!!!

[neko-tempo]

Don't have a spotify wrapped thingy since I pirate all of my music but I guess I could post what i've been listening to in november. 🎵

(I also censored that one Unsane cover art cuz it (apparently) has a picture of a corpse in it. Looks fake to me but ehh, I might as well hide that shit dsbfhsdbg)

[yourknifemyside]

My name is Brandon, and I am really bad at doing new things. Let's try to fix that!

I recently had the thought when trying and failing to compile one of those Topsters lists of my favorite albums. I thought to myself, "man, I am bored of always listening to the same things. I've listened to the same things for the past seven years. How do I tell which ones are my favorites anymore, they all sound exactly the same!" So, I decided then, that going into 2025, I would wipe the slate clean. As far as my "favorite albums of all time" list concerned, as of right now, I have never listened to a single album in my life! This year, I'm going to attempt to listen to a ton of stuff, old and new, and completely rebuild a catalogue of music from scratch. If I haven't listened to it since the ball dropped, it doesn't exist to me yet! This tumblr blog is for keeping a journal of everything I listen to this year and beyond, new finds and relistens alike. And for fun, we're throwing games, movies, and tv shows in the mix as well. We're just gonna keep track of everything old and new that I get to this year. This is the place for my unfiltered thoughts on whatever. This truly exists for nobody but me, but maybe you will find something worth sticking around for. I wouldn't count on it, but either way, you're more than welcome to tag along for this journey of discovery / rediscovery!

Here's a list of the most important tags I'll be using to group my posts, as well as a reference key for any little icons that may pop up from time to time!

Tags:

#music - music listening journal, mostly albums

#games - video game backlog catalogue

#movies - feature length films

#shows - tv shows, cartoons, anime

#brandoncore - collection of the most essential, personal favorite things I've posted about

#recap - monthly wrap-up posts, including a brief list of things I did, but didn't post about

#bonus - extra posts related to music, games, movies, and shows

#nuzhof - winning teams from throughout my years of playing

#whocanrelate! - intrusive thoughts in the form of bars

Icons:

✨ is for post subjects that are new to me, I am experiencing them for the first time!

🔁 is for post subjects that I am relistening to, rewatching, or replaying!

💖 is for subjects that are officially, professionally certified #brandoncore, and find their way into the pantheon of brandoncore things.

I really considered not giving anything number scores, because I feel like people put too much stock into the number signifying how "good" something is. Unfortunately, my brain truly just loves to rank things and give them ratings, so we're committing to that. To give you an idea of what to expect, I think I'm generally a lot more positive on the shows and movies I watch, since I'm criminally underexposed to a lot of what's on offer in those mediums. Games and music are definitely where I'm more critical and harder to please, I'd say. Some have called me a hater in the past, but really, I only hate because I love so passionately... there needs to be a balance to everything! Everybody's internal scale operates differently, so for transparency sake, I'll be outlining my exact (loose) definition for the vibes of my own score scale:

Occasionally I might add a + or - modifier to a score to further adjust and represent my exact thoughts on something. This just means that within its number rating, I lean a smidge higher or lower on it than its peers.

Like everything else with the scores though, its all just silly and for my own brain's enjoyment, and the easiest, fastest way to sum up my feelings on something. A lot of the time the most personally resonant things for my are the 7s and 8s of the world, my little imperfect masterpieces. There's more to the story than just a score :)

Well, that's me! And that's what this is! I hope you find something of value here if you went out of your way to read all of this! Special thanks to @teddydeer for the lovely visuals on this post, I spent two days trying to make it look good myself and uh, she blew mine out of the water in the space of about an hour >_<

[fishpondfish]

decided that i want to be one of those people who post monthly topsters. here's january yayyy

[sneek-m]

I want to thank you because a while back i went through your blog scrolling back a couple years & i found a lot of stuff I really enjoyed. Slow Crush in particular i enjoyed so much I bought 2 vinyl records from them & also enjoyed many others. Even when I’m not listening to those specific artists, it allowed me to discover others on my own. I originally found your blog while trying to find stuff like Dadax by Dadaray & glad i did to get into Keyakizaka46, AKB48 and so much more

I am very happy to help you out in music discovery somehow! Thanks for this, it made my day.

As you may know, I am pretty dormant here on Tumblr, but I do still keep track of my listening via album charts on Topster now. I kept them on a Twitter thread, but I've started to share here this year too partly so I have a backup of the images when Twitter inevitably crumbles and I'm no longer able to look them up. If you, or anyone else, wants to browse through those charts, here are my Twitter threads for them: 2021 / 2022 / 2023

I admit that it's not maybe as ideal to discovery as I'd like. There's no information or a preview of the music attached this way. I can point you to my monthly playlists that I put together with my listenings and findings, though those are dense with the amount of music too. But I do hope you keep finding things.

I'm always here for more specific music recommendations. My inbox is always open.

[crowdedstrangers]

everyone clogging up tapmusic trying to get their year end topsters -_- how am i supposed to post my monthly square…

[sirensandcondolences]

january:3

[rabbitechoes]

what i've been listening to this month!!! first listens, old favs, and stuff :3 (not ranked)

click here to see my favorite songs of the month!!

also feel free to follow me on rate your music and twitter (i’m not calling it X)

[theclowncowboy]

monthly topster posting from my film editing class

[tenderlady]

apparently there's a holiday today. pretty sure it's topsters monthly day so yippee~

[onemorecupofcoffee]

march topster!

[musicreveiwsbyezti]

May topster epic explosion

This month I listened to a shit ton of sludge metal and Billie Eilish, just girly pop things you know

You know the drill, first the one that I don't know how to feel about:

Melt-Banana-Fetch(Noise Rock): I don't know man I've seen so many punk bands praise them that I kinda expected something more... explosive or something? It's not bad by any means necessary, but it just doesn't sound like something I would see myself re-listen a lot.

10th: Immortal-Pure Holocaust(Black metal): My monthly black metal fix. Nothing else to say tbh. Also yeah it's soaked with typical black metal edginess. All in all it's alright, but still Darkthrone on top.

9th: Exhumed-Gore Metal(Goregrind): The first goregrind stuff I have heard ever and frankly I am not disappointed. The riffs are great and Limb From Limb has been genuinely stuck in my ears for like 3 weeks. The problem with similar "hyper violent" bands (I just made that I cuz I don't know how to explain myself) that they either take themselves way too seriously or just a big unfunny joke. Exhumed kinda has the perfect middle ground with this album.

8th: Kyuss-Welcome to Sky Valley(Stoner rock): Technically the first stoner rock album I ever listen through as I mostly listened to stoner metal. It's good. Riffs are great and the guitar tone is one of the best one I have heard.

7th: Billie Eilish-Hit Me Hard and Soft(Alt-Pop): Billie's best work to this date. FINNEAS is still a goated producer. Also I woke up and the first thing I did was to listen to it when it dropped... I swear every metalhead has at least 1 pop artist that they follow like Christ.

6th: Isis-Panopticon(Atmospheric Sludge/Post-Metal): The entire album feels like getting shot and slowly bleeding out. The first 4 song run in insane, In Fiction has to be one of the best sludge song ever. Probably my only problem with it that sometimes the vocals are sometimes feel somewhat forced. It is definitely an instrumental focused album.

5th: David Bowie-The Rise and Fall of Ziggie Stardust and the Spiders from Mars(Glam/Pop Rock): There's a staaaaaar maaaaan waiting in the skyyyyyyyyyyy!!! It's fucking peak pop rock. Tbh if someone would ask me for an album to truly get into music, then I think this would be a perfect starting point.

4th: Eyehategod-Dopesick(Sludge Metal): This is the largest amount of drugs I have seen getting stuffed into a single album. Compared to the last entry, this requires some homework plus some refined taste to get into in my opinion. (Thinking about that I think I should make a sludge metal flow chart) However if you like hardcore punk or doom metal then this is the sludge metal album for you.

3rd: Crowbar-Sonic Excess in Its Purest Dose(Sludge Metal): Once again compared to the last entry, this is a bit easier to get into. It's more doomy but still, THE LASTING DOSE is probably one of the best sludge metal song ever.

2nd: Melvins-Houdini(Sludge Metal): Buzz Osborne is a national treasure. If Black Flag invented sludge, then the Melvins perfected it. The first time I listened to it, I was a fool who didn't understand shit about music, Bullhead opened my eyes, and Houdini taught me how to see.

1st: Swans-Soundtrack for the Blind(Experimental/Post-Rock): It took me almost 2 years and 5 listening sessions to finally listen through it. This is raw art. It's definitely not an easy listening. However this is worth every second of it.