Important Announcement: PLEASE READ!

Hey, everyone. It's been a while. I had to take a good month off from reviews because I had a medical emergency that left me hospitalized with a concussion, temporal fracture, and slight brain bleed (not fun). I had always planned on returning to reviews once my health was back to normal, however, I have been watching all my submissions pile up and more and more time passed, and I realized that, at least temporarily, I did not have the drive, passion, or brain capacity to continue writing in-depth analyses and reviews of music. Most of you are probably unaware that I have been operating my own solo music project for over twelve years at this point, Strangeness In Proportion. I had spent years and years writing and recording my last album, and once it was finally released in August of 2024, I decided I'd take my sights off my solo project and maybe try to give back to the community in different ways. Start a new passion project, still in the same realm, and see what could come out of it! Well, that project turned into CD-ROM Rabbit Hole Inter-Reviews. We made it just over the one-year mark, and in that single year we were able to accomplish so much. I was able to work with musicians I have admired for YEARS and I was also privileged enough to discover so many new artists and make friends with many of them. For that, I cannot even begin to express my gratitude. To celebrate our one-year anniversary, we even got a group of Featured Artists to contribute to a cover compilation where we were able to donate over $200 to Rock To The Future, a nonprofit organization that provides music lessons and instruments to underprivileged or at-risk children. It saddens me deeply that I have to say goodbye to this project, at least for the foreseeable future, but this has been a pressing issue for a while, and I kept trying to push the thought deeper and deeper into the back of my head, but it kept coming back louder. I decided that the healthiest thing for myself right now is to take a hiatus from all my musical projects and try to discover passions for other hobbies and experiences. I will never regret the work I've done for these projects, and I am so unbelievably appreciative to everyone that has read these reviews, submitted their music for review, or discovered some new music from my site! You are all so special and I thank you so much for welcoming my puny little music review site with open arms and really allowed me to embrace this community so fully. To all the artists that have submitted and NOT received their review yet, I apologize, and I will have (hopefully already) reached out to you all directly the explain the situation. I hope you are all understanding of this decision and hopefully it does not ruin the way you view me and my projects. I am absolutely broken up and distraught that I have to take a step back and can't fulfill my prior obligations, and I can't begin to express how sorry I am to everyone and anyone that was waiting for their review. I hope to return SOMEDAY, but there is nothing in my sights for the future as of right now. I'd like to take a moment to shout-out all the bands that submitted songs that did not get a proper review:

The Last Word

Elephant Jake

Tarsals

Twisty Puzzle

Wax Seal

DelCobras

Stanza Lune

Monk Mode

Floating Boy

Please take some time to go support these artists, as well as all the artists I've reviewed in the past. If you're reading this, you are a vital part of the local music scene. Please keep supporting, keep listening, keep following your passions, but know when to take breaks before you burn out like I did.

I'm sorry for this brief message, if you'd like more insight into this decision, you can read my official statement from Strangeness In Proportion, attached below:

2026 is already showing signs of being a really bad year. I wish I was able to articulate myself better, and be more concise, but I don't know if I should be blaming the date on the calendar or if there's something deeper wrong with me that I haven't been able to fully tap into. I have been going back and forth in my head for a LONG time about this project, where it's headed, what I want out of it, etc etc.

Ive been making music as Strangeness In Proportion since 2014. It started as a dumb band of middle school friends and shortly-after became a solo project. Strangeness In Proportion has been so many things to me. It's been an outlet for my thoughts and feelings that can't be expressed in any other way, it's been a vehicle for me to make friends and meet some incredible people, and it's taken me places and given me opportunities that I never could have gotten otherwise, and for that, I am grateful, proud, and appreciative. However, it has also given me plenty of things that are less than positive. I've interacted with some of the kindest, most talented people that have ever existed, and I've also come across a fair amount of absolutely heinous people in the music scene. It has done irreparable damage to how I view myself, what I value and have passion for, and how I go about my day-to-day life. I have always been a naturally codependent person, but I've started to feel like my relationship with Strangeness In Proportion has become parasitic. It feels like my entire life revolves around this THING that I've put so many years, so much money, effort, tears, commitment into, it's really hard to detach myself from it. I've been doing Strangeness In Proportion throughout almost every pivotal and formative year of my life, starting at 14 and I'm 26 now. I've always felt like my eggs were entirely in this basket, and the older I get the more terrifying that sounds. I have absolutely no idea who I am if I'm not Strangeness In Proportion, but honestly, I think it's time I utilize this opportunity to find out.

A lot of the time I feel very useless. I get way too in my head about numbers and how many people listen to my songs or like my posts or come to my shows, and of course that ultimately makes me look inward and start beating myself up, thinking I'm not good enough, questioning my skills and taste, and so much more negativity. I'm always comparing myself to other people and it's an incredibly terrible habit; but I've noticed that 99% of my comparisons all stem from music-related aspects. I absolutely have an unhealthy ratio of "I am so grateful for this opportunity" to "nothing I create is any good and everyone hates it" and I hate that I've grown to have these feelings. Every musician nowadays understands that it feels like we have to be our own everything. We have to be musicians, managers, content creators, tour bookers, merch designers, and everything else, and I'm not saying anything groundbreaking by acknowledging that, it's fucking exhausting. I feel like for the last twelve-ish years my life has been fully consumed by this musical project; I can never live in the moment or be present because I'm always thinking about and stressing about all these ideas I have for new music, new merch, new instagram fucking reels, and all that. There are SO MANY THINGS in my life that should be more important than my music, but I fear they've been taking the back burner for too long. I'm a dumbass straight white man, my music is LITERALLY not that important LOL, I do not need to be putting my music before my physical and mental health. I want to spend more time with my family, my friends, my pets. I want to see what else is out there that I've never gotten to experience because I've been too wrapped up and overwhelmed by my music.

I'm sure a lot of people can relate to the "I just need to... and then I'll be happy!", and I always have so much planned for my music and I'm constantly coming up with so many new ideas that it's just impossible to ever catch up, and a lot of the time it feels like I've put in all this work for nothing. I know that's not true, and I know I'm not special for feeling that way, but it still takes a big toll regardless. Almost 2 years ago, I released an album called "Anything More Than Fractional", and it's all about how people grow and change, and how we define growth and change and if we can ever fully remove pieces of ourselves. I had so much planned for this album; it took me around 4 years to fully write and record it, and I was planning on releasing a couple of EPs of bonus tracks, I even wanted to put out a "Gameboy Edition" of the album, consisting of 8-bit iterations of every song from the album. And all of those ideas sound cool and grand and wonderful, or whatever, but I cant keep burning myself out waiting for the LAST THING to finally set me free. I have had so much on my plate the last few years, between Strangeness In Proportion as my main project, Fish Zoo being a absolute puss-filled pimple on my ass, and CD-ROM Rabbit Hole Inter-Reviews taking so much work, I've stretched myself way too thin and I just need all of it to disappear for a while, maybe forever.

I have so many thoughts and feelings about this decision, but I've probably rambled more than enough already. I don't know exactly what this means for the future of Strangeness In Proportion, to be honest. I have some prior commitments for live shows this year that I plan on upholding, and my girlfriend and I just worked so hard making a bunch of new merch that will be available on my Bandcamp soon. I'll still take show opportunities here and there, so feel free to reach out, but definitely less frequently, and I think I definitely need to take some time away from writing and recording.

It seems pretty silly for me to have written this long winded essay just for the conclusion to be "yeah I dunno, I'm quitting the band but also I'm still gonna play shows and maybe I'll be back with new music someday!" The irony is not lost on me. But I truthfully don't know what will happen, all I know is I need some serious time off. And I felt that I owed this project, a huge chapter of my life, a better farewell than just fading off into obscurity unannounced. This project has been with me for the majority of my life, and I will always cherish that. Thank you to everyone that has ever listened to my music. Thank you to everyone that has ever come to one of my shows. Thank you to all the amazing people I've met and friends I've made along the way. I can't express to you my gratitude for every experience I've been privileged enough to have. Until next time, "There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness within the proportion."

Thank you,

-Sean, Strangeness In Proportion

Thank you all again for all your love and support. Rest in peace CD-ROM Rabbit Hole.