The Fool Fantastic

My Top 250 Songs Part 10 (#25-1)

25. David Bowie – “Life on Mars?” (1971)from the album Hunky Dory Key lyrics:“But the film is a saddening boreBecause I wrote it ten times or more” David Bowie was an alien among men. At least, that’s what he wanted us to believe, and works like “Life on Mars?” did a convincing job. Lyrically, this is an evisceration of popular culture, where cartoon idols are propped up and all art is a…

My Top 250 Songs Part 9 (#50-26)

50. LCD Soundsystem – “Someone Great” (2007)from the album Sound of Silver Key lyrics:“And it keeps coming and it keeps comingAnd it keeps coming and it keeps comingAnd it keeps coming and it keeps comingAnd it keeps coming ‘til the day it stops” Of the many songs about death, few capture the initial numbness as well as “Someone Great.” Though ostensibly a synth-pop track, the opening…

My Top 250 Songs Part 8 (#75-51)

75. The Jesus and Mary Chain – “Just Like Honey” (1985)from the album Psychocandy Key lyrics:“Walking back to youIs the hardest thing thatI can do” The noise pop sound of The Jesus and Mary Chain borders on paradox. As the band sifts through heavy guitar feedback, they somehow capture an understated calm. Part of this is in the droll vocal stylings of Jim Reid, singing half-energetically as if…

My Top 250 Songs Part 7 (#100-76)

100. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Bellbottoms” (1994)from the album Orange When we talk about great works of art, there is an overemphasis of the influencers at the expense of the experimenters. Those who arrive first garner more attention than those who perfect. In many cases, the originators are exceptional – no one would follow directly in their footsteps if what they stumbled upon did…

My Top 250 Songs Part 6 (#125-101)

125. Dead Kennedys – “Holiday in Cambodia” (1980)from the album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables Key lyrics:“Don’t forget to pack a wife” Ramones achieved their signature sound by playing rather ordinary songs twice as fast. The hardcore punk movement then came along saying that was not fast enough. There is something raw, almost animalistic that makes hardcore punk hit different than other…

My Top 250 Songs Part 5 (#150-126)

150. Lana Del Rey – “Video Games” (2011)from the album Born to Die Key lyrics:“He holds me in his big arms,Drunk and I am seeing starsThis is all I think of” A couple years before Lorde took melancholy pop mainstream, Lana Del Rey was already crooning from her preemptive deathbed. It’s not that “Video Games” has particularly depressing subject matter, but rather that Lana Del Rey sings with a…

My Top 250 Songs Part 4 (#175-150)

175. The Knife – “Silent Shout” (2006)from the album Silent Shout Key lyrics:“In a dream I lost my teeth againCalling me woman and a half manYes in a dream all my teeth fell outA cracked smile and a silent shout” House is a genre that I tend to associate with, if not warmth, at least relative frivolity. This is a genre made for clubs, places to escape from the stress of everyday life. “Silent…

My Top 250 Songs Part 3 (#200-176)

200. Kendrick Lamar – “i” (2014)single, alternative version featured on the album To Pimp a Butterfly Key lyrics:“I love myself” Kendrick Lamar is among the most socially conscious artists working today. good kid, m.A.A.d. city and To Pimp a Butterfly especially paint powerful, sometimes overwhelming portraits of modern life as an African American. While many of his songs find him putting on a…

My Top 250 Songs Part 2 (#225-201)

See #250-226 here 225. Elliott Smith – “Waltz #2 (XO)” (1998)from the album XO Key lyrics:“I’m never gonna know you nowBut I’m gonna love you anyhow” Elliott Smith’s music tends to embody raw human emotions, largely at their lowest points. “Waltz #2” in particular paints such a singular image. A feuding couple at karaoke sing pointed breakup songs at one another while Smith appears to look on,…

My Top 250 Songs Part 1 (#250-226)

A little over a decade ago, I started really getting into popular music. And, for anyone who knows me, that means a big list soon followed. I started with a simple top 250, which has grown to a ranked list of 3000 I update annually. Yet, with all that, I have never sat down and written about this music. I’ve always wanted to explore why these songs click with me so much, to prove some sort of…

The Greatest Games: BioShock (2007)

BioShock (2007) Developed by 2K Boston (Irrational Games) and 2K Australia

Would you kindly give me a moment to reflect before diving into BioShock itself?

And so, I finally reach the end of this project. I don’t think I realized what I was setting myself up to do when I established a goal of writing a minimum of 500 words for each game. With 100 games and 500 words being the equivalent of…

The Greatest Games: Persona 4 (2008)

Persona 4 (2008) Developed by Atlus

Playing Persona 4 back in 2008 was a major revelation. Being my first Shin Megami Tensei game, it surprised me that a traditional turn-based RPG could be truly challenging from the very beginning. But the truly mind-blowing element was the unique formula with which the Persona series tells its stories and the story this specific entry chose to tell.

As I…

The Greatest Games: Life is Strange (2015)

Life is Strange (2015) Developed by Dontnod Entertainment

Greatness does not mean without flaws. While most of my favorite games achieve this status by juggling several strong ideas without notable hiccups, Life is Strange has some obvious issues. Namely, this is a Telltale-style adventure game with some stilted dialogue. A narrative-focused video game with questionable writing should be a…

The Greatest Games: Mass Effect 2 (2010)

Mass Effect 2 (2010) Developed by BioWare

Being the middle episode of a planned trilogy can come with some issues. The first episode gets to capture our imaginations with whatever new world the story is introducing to us, while the third will hopefully be able to tie together all those concepts established in the earlier entries. The second entry is essentially the load-bearing beam, sometimes…

The Greatest Games: Super Metroid (1994)

Super Metroid Developed by Nintendo R&D1 and Intelligent Systems

While Metroid Prime was a nearly perfect transition into the third dimension, I have to give a slight edge to the previous entry. The Metroidvania genre has largely stuck within the 2D realm because it’s a perfect twist on the traditional platformer. Despite its quality, Metroid Prime can be a bit unwieldy – Nintendo is at their…

The Greatest Games: Dark Souls (2011)

Dark Souls (2011) Developed by FromSoftware

According to legend, Dark Souls is a relentlessly brutal video game experience that will punish the player for the slightest error. People shudder in fear at the thought of losing all their currency by dying once and failing to get back to the same spot…almost as if they’ve forgotten that many other video games completely wipe your progress since the…

The Greatest Games: Metroid Prime (2002)

Metroid Prime (2002) Developed by Retro Studios

Nintendo sometimes insists on certain terminology for their games. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an ‘open-air’ game, whatever that means. Metroid Prime, meanwhile, is not a first-person shooter, despite being in the first person and involving shooting. No, no, Metroid Prime is a first-person adventure.

Genres themselves are…