{"id":8,"date":"2026-01-02T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:00:02","slug":"2026-01-23-what-im-listening-to-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/2026-01-23-what-im-listening-to-january-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"What I&#8217;m Listening To: January 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"341\" src=\"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1024x341.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-102\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1024x341.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-300x100.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-768x256.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1536x512.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image.jpeg 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In 2026, I&#8217;m making a concerted effort to listen to more music and find new artists. As part of that, I&#8217;ll write about two albums that are new to me and one classic I&#8217;m revisiting each month.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tommy heavenly6 &#8211;&nbsp;<em>Tommy \u2661 Ice Cream Heaven \u2661 Forever<\/em>&nbsp;(2013)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What a ridiculous name for an album. I&#8217;m not gonna type it out every time. From now on I&#8217;m calling it&nbsp;<em>Ice Cream Heaven Forever.<\/em>&nbsp;I&#8217;m a bit of an outsider to Tomoko Kawase&#8217;s cinematic universe, but I think the gist of it is that she releases music under two different personas: Tommy heavenly6 for edgier rock music and Tommy february6 for upbeat pop. This seems to be the last solo release she&#8217;s done as either, and her band went inactive shortly after as well. So what does her swan song release leave us with? It&#8217;s a spooky Halloween type beat. From vampire themed love songs to listing generally frightening entities Jay-Z style, the entire album is a bit comically themed, but she delivers each song with enough confidence that it&#8217;s a whole lot of fun to listen to. Well over half of the lyrics are in English, too, making it pretty easy to get into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musically, I&#8217;d describe&nbsp;<em>Ice Cream Heaven Forever<\/em>&nbsp;as if there were a third band sitting between Black Stones and Trapnest in the Nana universe. If you don&#8217;t understand those words, I guess I&#8217;d describe it as uhhh&#8230; Paramore with a dash of Evanescence? I dunno man, I&#8217;m a fucking weeb through and through. While there&#8217;s nothing groundbreaking happening in any of the songs, there&#8217;s a fun variety of sounds to keep things moving. From &#8220;LOVIN YOU&#8221;&#8216;s romp through a graveyard in a zombie flick to &#8220;Ash Like Snow&#8221;&#8216;s tragic love story, just about every track vividly projects an early 2010&#8217;s music video into your head. Yeah it&#8217;s pretty corny music, but I&#8217;m sick of pretending that corny rock doesn&#8217;t kick ass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Favorite Track: RUBY EYES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tommy heavenly6  - RUBY EYES\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Dce-xpSlJL8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Parannoul &#8211;&nbsp;<em>To See the Next Part of the Dream<\/em>&nbsp;(2021)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s the first post and I&#8217;m already cheating a bit. Truthfully, I liked this album when it was new enough to buy it off Bandcamp. Then I somehow forgot to listen to it for a few years. So we&#8217;re gonna pretend it&#8217;s new to me. Don&#8217;t worry about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hailing from South Korea, Parannoul&#8217;s music is probably best described as shoegaze. But if you&#8217;re like me and saw one too many shitty local shoegaze bands in the 2010&#8217;s and swore off the genre, don&#8217;t worry. This shit is a breath of fresh air.&nbsp;<em>To See the Next Part of the Dream,<\/em>&nbsp;their debut album, is certainly dripping with the dream-like atmosphere shoegaze often delivers. However, it&#8217;s got garbage can cymbals to keep you from dozing off and bright synth lines to stop you from drowning in a sludge of gloomy guitar riffs. The lofi sound can a bit off-putting at first, particularly the aforementioned dumpster drum set and tinny vocals, but by the time you&#8217;re a few tracks in, you&#8217;ll be fondly remembering the days where 100 kbps was nothing to take for granted or when your brother discovered he can fit over 100 MP3s onto a single iTunes data CD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feelings of yearning and incompleteness lend themselves well to shoegaze, and this album is no exception. While I&#8217;m at a stage in my life where the lyrics of self-loathing, nihilism, and disillusionment don&#8217;t hit quite as hard as they once would have (don&#8217;t worry, I&#8217;ve got plenty of time to return to that), some of the songs still hit plenty hard. If you can believe it, &#8220;Analog Sentimentalism&#8221; is particularly targeted towards me. The opening of Extra Story probably best summarizes the band&#8217;s disposition towards life (translated lyrics from their Bandcamp page):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>And 21 years old, I experience frustration for the first time<br>23 years old, there&#8217;s nothing left<br>25 years old, I surrender to the world<br>27 years old, just like the others<br>29 years old, I live in exhaustion<br>31 years old, my childhood self<br>33 years old, only traces of alcohol and cigarettes in the clothes<br>35 years old, I&#8217;ve already forgotten it<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the hopeless attitude of the writing, the overall composition and hopeful end to the album lift the overall message to something a bit less depressing. It&#8217;s easy to look back and realize you&#8217;ve been near catatonic since entering adulthood, but eventually, you&#8217;ll see the next part of this dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/parannoul.bandcamp.com\/album\/to-see-the-next-part-of-the-dream\">Available on Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Favorite Track: Age of Fluctuation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\ud30c\ub780\ub178\uc744 (Parannoul) - \uaca9\ubcc0\uc758 \uc2dc\ub300 (Age of Fluctuation)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V_MjqvCpC50?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Justice &#8211;&nbsp;<em>A Cross the Universe<\/em>&nbsp;(2008)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>First off, if you haven&#8217;t listened to Justice&#8217;s&nbsp;<em>Cross<\/em>, what the fuck are you doing? Go do that right now. I&#8217;ll wait. Jesus Christ&#8230; Released a year after&nbsp;<em>Cross<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>A Cross the Universe<\/em>&nbsp;is a live album accompaniment to a documentary of the supporting tour. I&#8217;ll be honest, I&#8217;ve never watched the documentary. But god damn is the album good. This is the live album that convinced me live albums can be worthwhile (please understand, I would not hear Alive 2007 until several years later). I&#8217;ve longed to see Justice perform since the day I first heard this album, but I&#8217;ve yet to do so. Please don&#8217;t die, Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The beauty of&nbsp;<em>A Cross the Universe<\/em>&nbsp;is how perfect a snapshot in time it captures. It&#8217;s 2008 again, mother fucker. Apart from a couple of tracks,&nbsp;<em>Cross<\/em>&nbsp;has aged unbelievably well. Almost unfairly so.&nbsp;<em>A Cross the Universe<\/em>, however. That&#8217;s a fucking 2008 album. Listening to it now, you realize it&#8217;s kinda ass to throw a shitty Metallica riff or Beastie Boys sample over some of the best electronic songs of all time. But in 2008? Everyone fucking loses it. I think I would have shit my pants. Most of the set holds up incredibly well, though. It has what I legitimately consider to be the best version of Stress, and just about every favorite from its source has been amped up with even dirtier saws. How did they do that? I&#8217;m getting my synth out of the closet right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A Cross the Universe<\/em>&nbsp;is also a great example of how getting away from music streaming is beneficial to your health. &#8220;NY Excuse&#8221; from the show&#8217;s encore is no longer available for streaming. It&#8217;s greyed out. But I&#8217;ve still got the same MP3 files I bought in 2014. They can&#8217;t take them away from me. I&#8217;m highlighting them in a file browser. I&#8217;m spinning them around. They&#8217;re mine. Seriously, you&nbsp;<em>can<\/em>&nbsp;stop using Spotify. You can buy one album by a favorite artist off Bandcamp each month and pirate everything else and still contribute more to artists&#8217; livelihood than a thousand listens on streaming ever will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/etjusticepourtous.bandcamp.com\/album\/a-cross-the-universe\">Available on Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Favorite Track: Phantom Part 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Justice - Phantom Pt. II (Live Version) [Official Audio]\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3YFNpO2iMt4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3 albums I&#8217;ve been listening to this month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103,"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}