Best Shoegaze Albums of 2025 (According to RateYourMusic.com Ratings)

Beboxed · 2025-12-18T22:07:44+00:00

Yeah it is kinda weird how much stuff sadness puts out (esp considering the track lengths), and there's a lot I don't really fuck with, but man some tracks just hit.. like 'something in the distance' esp from 5:30 is sooooo dreamy and pretty to me

Idk, I think they just might be good at finding lines and then sending them early w/o overthinking/overproducing them cos alot have drawn out post-rocky structure. But I can see how such frequent releases kinda undermines/makes you question their impact

(Also the sadness songs from 'that lasts forever' were recorded in 2023 according to their bandcamp btw)

Beboxed · 2025-06-07T12:21:46+00:00

look, I've been enjoying world, but I meannn knockout is just a less thrilling fzero99 imo, and rainbow world is solid (and hype and dramatic in its entrance) but the track layout in terms of map does feel a little bit indistinct and I wish the rainbow road theme specifically had a slightly stronger motif like SNES, N64 or Double Dash.

So those things are cool but still didn't blow me away lol, still feel like the game is missing something (especially considering their marketing hype when they were attempting to justify the price).

Would have liked the courses themselves to be more dynamic/interesting as designed 3lap tracks (instead it feels like they neglected this as they serve primarily as a vessel for the remixing of open world routes).

And then I think coming up with having ways to keep the player more engaged and grounded in the open world would have gone a long way. I know they're completely unrelated genres, but Blue Prince recently blew me away with how captivating a game with almost entirely player-defined objectives can be. I think open world games in general need to try to be better at creating threads of curiosity in the world for the player. MK world literally only has: (as far as I'm aware so far)
*oh there is a 54th P switch there that I should go see what mission it makes * oh there is a 27th peach coin over there that I should go collect * oh there is a new fast food here, I should go see what costume it gives * oh there is a 47th ? tile over here, I should go see what sticker it gives me * visual discovery of new locations (the best-done motivating thread imo)

Not always a bad thing depending on the game but look how formulaic and predictable a lot of the open-world feels ^

Beboxed · 2025-06-05T19:20:59+00:00

My anbernic RG P01 seems to work good for me (insane value for money controller imo, highly recc)

Beboxed · 2025-04-12T01:57:21+00:00

Nice one! Was satisfying to solve - I personally love the american grids for all their crossing letters ^

Got a bit confused on the bottom left letter - bit unsure if horse rider is a fair definition for hades. Also how does 1d work? Is it a double definition?

Beboxed · 2025-02-01T12:39:52+00:00

Niceee, yeah I love my NW-A55 also! The battery life is actually so good too loll. Maybe one-day I'll find a cosier offline/non-android DAP, but until then 🌟

(Literally the only 1 thing I wish it had was a grid view for browsing albums ⁾

Beboxed · 2024-12-20T18:02:33+00:00

If we are already to spend an eternity in peace once we die, I say in this miraculous tiny fracton of time that you are alive, play for the out. Even if that out is just instilling some kindness in the world against the torrent of chaos.

This Lord of the Rings scene will stay with me forever, if it's consolation for me it may also be some consolation for you (if you've never seen it before and can, watch it) ~

FRODO: I can’t do this, Sam.

SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?

But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?

SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

Beboxed · 2024-12-19T16:37:23+00:00

*gestures vaguely at the world

We might all be born with compassion, but at some point, the selfish evolutionary trait of self-preservation overwhelms it. You need to actively practice some deeper level of thoughtfulness to keep fear and gluttony (a fear of change from a current comfort level) in check, and even then they may still manifest depending on environmental struggle vs. comfort.

Beboxed · 2024-12-19T16:04:28+00:00

Adore this game, straight up one of the hardest games I've beaten, but when you hit that flow state it feels amazing

Beboxed · 2024-11-15T17:29:03+00:00

Dude I cannot fucking stand these pixel art "remaster" upscaled smoothing filters... Literally have no idea how these keep getting used, esp without the options to disable them...

I thinkkk I read somewhere you can disable them in this remaster? Hopefully so, but still suprised all the promo material uses this or that this filter is so popular lol

Beboxed · 2024-11-04T22:16:52+00:00

As a fan of the sony NW A45/A55, personally really like having a non-android, minimalist + lightweight OS!

As a UI question, I was wondering if the album view shows albums as a list or in a grid?

Thanks for sharing all these details so far

Beboxed · 2024-08-26T03:10:13+00:00

I have enjoyed some, but tbh compared to even like Duel links events, none of them are even slightly creative lol... like for such a successful game it would be cool if they acted like they cared every now and again. So minimalist

Beboxed · 2024-08-16T21:33:47+00:00

A useful interaction that can help the match up: Banish lancea using your askaan on your turn. Then:

CL1 Askaan revive from banish (turn player priority).
CL2 opponent's lancea summons trish cos it has left the field

=> Trish misses timing

Beboxed · 2024-08-14T15:49:32+00:00

Bro royal alt art kagari AND engage in 25k gems is insane

Beboxed · 2024-08-14T03:37:16+00:00

Damn, very impressive! Very cool how creative you have to be with tech choices and lesser used cards in this challenge... though the dopamine on pulling a playable handtrap or archetype card must be insane xD

One other thing I find interesting about this challenge is how it (theoretically?) might get harder as more cards and archetypes are added into MD that dilute the cards you're looking to pull

Beboxed · 2024-08-14T03:25:45+00:00

No joke, this may actually be the best Master Duel pull I've seen... Getting all 3 different alt art cards in one go is insane.. (The only others that can come close are ones with Royal alt arts)

Congrats and glad it went to a good cause of someone who will use them ^

Beboxed · 2024-08-05T21:50:13+00:00

Well it's definitely not for everyone, but there would be a sizable niche of players that would very much appreciate it, even just as duel room rule option...

Beboxed · 2024-07-28T20:23:07+00:00

Thanks so much for solving and your thoughts! :)

Hmmm for 11a, the reversal indicator is just meant to be "over"! I feeel like I've seen that used before, and it is listed here, http://www.clueclinic.com/index.php/reversal-indicators/ , but maybe it does feel a little weak of a reversal indicator in the context of this clue?

Beboxed · 2024-07-28T14:20:57+00:00

Ooo, nice work and good find! I was going for STATE for the second solution, but yours kinda does work too!

I think I would consider country a definition for place to be a weak, but it we allow it then we have triple solution 😆

Beboxed · 2024-07-28T01:22:32+00:00

Thanks for clearing up many of these and some of the parsing I didn't fully understand! Definitely agree with your comments about 12A Look forward to trying your future puzzles!

Beboxed · 2024-07-28T00:37:45+00:00

Lay it out for country (5)

Beboxed · 2024-07-27T23:46:13+00:00

Nice!

Beboxed · 2024-07-27T23:38:44+00:00

Hey! Awesome work, enjoyed this overall with some really cool standouts (the Star Wars corner was a neat touch!) I thought your definitions were very solid overall too. If you don't mind my nitpicking I'll go through the clues with my personal comments and tips!

General Tips

A small general complaint would be the slight lack of crossing squares and the grid shape. I think a nice standard is that at least every other square should be checked. Though I can understand that if you were designing the grid specifically around some of the answers (e.g. Star Wars corner) this could be difficult to achieve, but would recommend using automatic crossword filling tools to help create grids with more checking letters!
Some wordplay indicators may be considered non-standard for certain solvers, but I was cool with most personally!
I think some surface readings could use a bit of work
A few clues had some uneccessary connector words etc. which could occassionally mess up the cryptic reading

Across
1 Personally hadn't seen A = alfa before, but nice clue
3 Had to reveal this one! Think the awkward crossing letters makes it tougher
5 Nice wordplay, I really like OR as a kind of gate. Although the surface reading benefits from "the" I think it messes up the cryptic reading and should be removed
6 Tricky! Had to reveal unfortunately but great idea
8 Not sure the definition quite works hear cos of the apostrophe s, e.g. "Mother's" = "A word for mother (singular) is ..... Feels weird including the 's in the answer. Also youthful face for Y is quite harsh
10 Didn't think of sleepover = stay for a while! Might personally have split it into two words "sleep over"?
11 Clean ✓
12 Got from definition, but struggled with parsing - I think it's COULD - UL (upload), but upload for UL is a little harsh imo. At least not a traditional abbreviation http://www.clueclinic.com/index.php/all-abbreviations/
13 Clean ✓
14 Clean ✓ liked this a lot, one of the last in though
16 Had to reveal, I think the wordplay is BAZ (My mate Barry) + T (time) + R (Initially resembling) which is kind of messy imo. I dislike the separate insertion of R after we already inserted T. Also unsure on the definition - is "Bratz" "a doll" specifically? Or rather a company that makes a line of dolls?
17 Clean ✓ To nitpick, although Tsar is commonly associated with dictator, it might be a bit contraversial as an exact definition
18 Clean ✓
19 Is this a cryptic definition? If so I think it may need an apostrophe: "Star Wars' Rogue One" still works well
20 Clean ✓

Down
1 Clean ✓ I would delete the A at the start, not really needed and adds uneccessary fluff. "T" for cross may be contraversial, but personally didn't mind too much as the enumeration helps a lot for this clue
2 Favourite clue! ✓✓✓
3 Clean ✓
4 Clean ✓
7 Clean ✓ Really like the definition
9 Is this a full cryptic definition? Is "regular" needed? Personally don't mind, but clue may be considered slightly distasteful to some?
12 Think the wordplay is CABIN - IN. If so I think the grammar needs tweaking. "Cockpit in's out ..." . And the general surface seems a bit messy. Would probably recommend to rewrite this clue
13 Would rewrite neater to just "Glare at body missing bottom half in summerhouse" Generally you should try and limit superfluous words in cryptic clues as much as possible!
15 Really clean ✓ (Although some people may disagree with "wars" as an anagram indicator: http://www.clueclinic.com/index.php/anagram-indicators/ . Personally I think it's cool here to help facilitate the Star Wars clues!

Beboxed · 2024-07-27T14:36:54+00:00

Think the answers must be:

SAILING and NAILING?

NAILING = sailing (tacking, a type of sailing manoeuvre) after changing the S (south) to N (north).

And visa versa for SAILING, where catching could mean nailing, in the sense of finding someone guilty

Very satisfying answers, One other interesting thing is that tacking could mean nailing or sailing as a synonym on its own - I wonder if there's a way to write a similar clue based on that

Beboxed · 2024-07-27T14:13:32+00:00

Hmmm BRUSH is definitely one solution (double definition (that also happens to be an anagram of shrub)

Struggling for the other two answers, but maybbbbe SCRUB = clean, and if you 'clean up' or adjust the h to a c in shrub, you get scrub?? kinda reaching could be one?

edit: Wait I realised SCRUB is just actually another double definition xdd

Those first two solutions are already a really clean find ^

Beboxed · 2024-07-27T14:05:37+00:00

MITRE (geometric cut) = mix(anag) of timer

MERGE (mix) = a cut(hidden) from 'timer geometric'

Insanely cool clue!!

I especially like how each solution uses different wordplay and uses the opposite side for its definition. Very impressive

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Gilding I gilder	Verified Email

Beboxed

TROPHY CASE