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Alvvays have always reminded me of Beach House. Of course, every dream pop band for the next twenty years will be compared to Beach House, and Alvvays have been time and again. To me, they are not particularly similar in sound, however. Alvvays are far less hazy and dreamy, feeling more propelled and direct. Rather, the reminiscence comes from the relative lack of self-insertion in their work. Aside from a specific self-referential moment on Antisocialites ("Molly Mayhem") Alvvays have maintained a distance. Much like beach house and other contempories in the dream pop genre, they keep their lyrics general enough to apply to any listener, but specific enough to relay the emotion they want people to feel. On Blue Rev , Alvvays break through that barrier, getting more specific and personal lyrically, while also getting stranger and more personal in sound. Even the strange title "Blue Rev" is a personal touch, referencing a brand of Canadian beer. The a...

I hate MMOs. Or rather, I did. I found the grind grating. I found the combat confusing. I found the stories sucked. After spending much of my youth trying to get into WoW, SWTOR, and Guild Wars 2 (to name a few) I simply decided the genre wasn't for me. This was around 2014. I was 18 years old. I have not played an MMO since, swearing off the genre in totality. That was until this year, when 26 year old me decided to embark on a quest, to play all the mainline Final Fantasy games. Originally I had gone into them expecting to write full reviews on each. That was before I stumbled into a roadblock. I finished XV first, finding it an overall pleasant, if somewhat unfinished, experience. I finished I next, appreciating what it did for RPG's as a genre and finding it still holds up. I finished XII (The Zodiac Age) and adored it's expansive world, vast class customisation, and combat.  If you've played or read about Final Fantasy XII you may see where this is going. For those...