New Short Fiction: “If Alton Park Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats”

Up now on Just Keep Up Magazine is my latest piece, “If Alton Park Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats.”

This one is a lovely bit of near-future paranoia about AI, creativity, and the urgent need to keep some things safe and separate from the all-devouring maw of the collective regurgitation machine. It’s called “If Alton Park Was A Gunslinger, There’d Be A Whole Lot Of Dead Copycats”, which of course is a spin on something nice Mingus once said of The Bird. Also as I read through it again I realize I put one of you in as a background character.

You can find it here:

The Soft Pink Truth – Can Such Delightful Times Go on Forever?

The Soft Pink Truth

Can Such Delightful Times Go on Forever?

Released January 30th, 2026 on Thrill Jockey Records

From Spectrum Culture:

The Soft Pink Truth’s sixth album is as far removed from a house music album as you could imagine. The electronics are still there, but they’ve been woven subtly into an experience whose compositions blend modernity with cinematic gestures that stretch back decades into the pre-color past.

Read More on Spectrum Culture

Poppy – Empty Hands

Poppy

Empty Hands

Released January 23rd, 2026 on Sumerian Records

From Spectrum Culture:

Poppy has always been one to incorporate metal into her weird pop ideas, but on Empty Hands it often feels as though her own concepts take a backseat to shiny radio metal necessities.

Read More on Spectrum Culture

Searows – Death in the Business of Whaling

Searows

Death in the Business of Whaling

Released January 16th, 2026 on Last Recordings on Earth

Searows’ latest album can be harrowing in the best way, but it can occasionally slip into run-of-the-mill indie folk tailored for playlists.

Read More on Spectrum Culture

Megadeth – Megadeth

Megadeth

January 23rd on BLKIIBLK

Dave Mustaine takes his veteran thrash metal band out doing what they do best, but not without some unnecessary score-settling.

Read More on Spectrum Culture

Sleaford Mods – The Demise of Planet X

Sleaford Mods

The Demise of Planet X

January 16th, 2026 on Rough Trade Records

Some groups have a particular tone they mine for their careers. Other groups just do the same thing repeatedly. Sleaford Mods fall into the latter category.

Honestly though, haven’t we heard this one all before? Haven’t we all heard this one done better?

Lost Ghosts – Get a Top Seller Now!

Lost Ghosts is #54 in Genre Anthologies on Amazon today! If you haven’t gotten ahold of this dark anthology of decay and despair, get your Kindle copy today!

Fucked Up – Grass Can Move Stones Part 1: Year of the Goat

From Spectrum Culture:

The story is the main draw on Year of the Goat, the thread that ties the constantly shifting, often meandering musical elements together.

Love – Forever Changes

From Spectrum Culture:

The summer of 1967 – the “Summer of Love” – featured one of the largest youth movements in history, when the hippies came in droves to San Francisco to turn each other on, tune into their inner psychic frequencies and drop out of regular society, and countless more who did the same thing across North America. It’s a star in the crown of Boomer memories, a sometimes-literal orgy of delights soundtracked by the likes of the Who, the Animals, the Dead and Jefferson Airplane. The album that saw through to the heart of the micro-era, though, was really none of these staples of classic rock radio. That nod goes to Forever Changes, the third album from L.A. psychedelic pop band Love.

Top Albums of 2025

In the grand scheme of years in history, 2025 wasn’t too bad, was it? I mean, it wasn’t 536 CE, after all. We didn’t face mass crop failures and famines. We will, down the road, but we didn’t this year. It wasn’t the year of the Plague of Justinian in 541 CE or the Black Death of 1347. Hell, it wasn’t even the covid pandemic of 2020. Sure, there was geopolitical instability, genocide, the arrival of fascism in the West again, the 1968-style flu epidemic, the onrushing apocalyptic climate crisis, and the nagging idea that bird flu is waiting to make all this seem like a lark. No nuclear weapons detonated, though. An asteroid didn’t collide with the planet. The theme for the year could be summed up succinctly as this: 2025 – It Could Be Worse.

As usual, of course, there was some great music that was put out, regardless of what your dumb drunk uncle told you. They have made great music after 2000, and contained herein are 100 examples of this. This could easily have been 300 examples, but anything over 100 is a list comprised mainly of madness. These are the top albums of 2025, and the cut off has to go somewhere. Regardless, beyond the top albums of 2025, there are piles of new music released every week that deserve your attention. Below are five albums that almost made the cut, but didn’t – honourable mentions, if you will. After, follow the link to begin the top albums of 2025 proper.