Albums, books, and products. Reviews that examine creative work and technology through a critical, editorial lens.
~Music
The best music in 2026 isn't coming from some corporate playlist machine. It bleeds out of Oslo basements and Brazilian farewell stages where humans still plug guitars into amps and scream like they mean it. This week brought proof in stereo: Norwegian hardcore punks Draümar announced their self-titled
~Culture
Meta Killed Its Metaverse. Star Trek Knew Better All Along. Meta killed Horizon Workrooms, and the timing couldn't be more perfect. While Mark Zuckerberg's virtual office fades into the digital void, Paramount+ drops Star Trek: Starfleet Academy into our laps like the universe saying "maybe
~Music
The kid from Oklahoma dropped a bomb on the music industry's glass jaw. Zach Bryan, that gravelly-voiced prophet of the working class, released an acoustic version of his entire new album With Heaven on Top shortly after the original dropped, and his reasoning cuts deeper than any Nashville
~Technology
The greatest trick LEGO ever pulled was convincing the world that plastic bricks were about architecture when they were really about possibility. Now, at CES 2026, they've done it again, embedding a computer smaller than a single LEGO stud inside what looks like an ordinary 2x4 brick. The
~Music
Grammy-winning artist Brandi Carlile has announced her latest album, "Returning to Myself," set for release on October 24, 2025. What distinguishes this project is not merely its musical content but its production architecture: Carlile has enlisted a deliberately diverse team of collaborators including The National's Aaron