What’s On The Shelf | Games, Music & Culture

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  • Monster Hunter Rise – If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

    Capcom’s Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak keeps the hunt thrilling with slick mobility, loyal Palamutes, and big-setpiece brawls. Not a revolution—just refined, addictive fun.

  • Lost Kingdoms (Day 4) – Castle Doctrine

    Katia stomps through Castle Grayl’s armor-lined hallways, detonates one too many Will-o-Wisps, and duels a hooded runestone bearer with main-character energy.

  • If We Were Vampires — Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit vs. Noah Kahan & Wesley Schultz

    Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit turn mortality into urgency on If We Were Vampires — spare, tender, and quietly devastating. Noah Kahan and Wesley Schultz respond with a luminous, harmony-first duet. In this Cover Up, we compare confession vs. glow and pick a winner.

  • The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of 2025 – A WOTS Year in Review

    In WOTS’ first year back, we’ve seen indie bangers, expanded our Chillers playlist, watched the industry chew up its workers, and stared at a never-ending sea of 8/10 review scores. Here’s the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of 2025 from the Shelf’s point of view.

  • 1913 Massacre – Woody Guthrie

    The first entry in Lyrics of Labor digs into Woody Guthrie’s “1913 Massacre,” a stark retelling of the Italian Hall disaster in Calumet, Michigan. We walk through the lyrics, the strike behind the song, and how one Christmas Eve tragedy became a lasting indictment of corporate power.

  • Piano Man – Billy Joel

    Billy Joel’s Piano Man blends shared misery, nostalgia, and barroom storytelling into a timeless portrait of lives stuck in place.

  • A Love Letter to Civilization VI

    Late to the Civilization party, I found myself falling hard for Civ VI — the game that made “just one more turn” a lifestyle. Even as Civ VII stumbles, my heart belongs to its predecessor.

  • Lost Kingdoms (Part 3) – Sewer Sludge and Snowy Peaks

    Katia trudges through one of FromSoftware’s most obnoxious sewers, hunts a not-that-Mind-Flayer, and then gets sent to play fantasy DoorDash in the snowy mountains of Rohbach—all in search of her missing father.

  • The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – The Band

    A powerful yet complicated folk-rock classic, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” reflects on loss, pride, and the lingering weight of history in the waning days of the Civil War.

  • Feels So Good – Chuck Mangione

    Chuck Mangione’s “Feels So Good” is a warm blend of jazz fusion, Latin rhythm, and pure musical joy. A soaring flugelhorn leads a track that’s impossible not to sway to, earning its place as a timeless feel-good classic.