January 2025 Reviews

These are the
reviews and  
other projects
I'm working
on this month.

Seattle Film Blog: Bei, Bei, The Issue of Mr. O'Dell, and Warrior Women, Alan Rudolph's Choose Me [Blu-ray] and Bob Clark's Deathdream [Blu-ray].

Uproxx: music poll ballot (link to come).

Video Librarian: Babylon Berlin - Season Four [three-Blu-ray set], The Day of the Locust [Blu-ray], and Weird Science [Blu-ray].

Unassigned: Apple Seed [Blu-ray], Barbarella [Blu-ray set], The Bat [Blu-ray], Blood Money: $10,000 Blood Money, Find a Place to Die, Vengeance is Mine, and Matalo! [Blu-ray set], Borsalino [Blu-ray], The Cat and the Canary: Special Edition [Blu-ray], Fighting Back [Blu-ray], Full Body Massage [Blu-ray], Horrible History: Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion, and Four Riders [Blu-ray set], The Iron-Fisted Monk [Blu-ray], Kill Butterfly Kill [Blu-ray], Last House on the Left [Blu-ray/UHD set], The Last Starfighter [Blu-ray], Lion-Girl [Blu-ray], Long Arm of the Law: Parts I and II [Blu-ray set], My Love Affair with Marriage [Blu-ray], New Fist of Fury [Blu-ray], The Only Way [Blu-ray], The Postman Fights Back [Blu-ray], The Prodigal Son [Blu-ray], Running on Karma [Blu-ray], Savage Guns: Four Classic Westerns: El Puro, Four of the Apocalypse, I Want Him Dead, Wrath of the Wind [Blu-ray set], Suburra [Blu-ray], Super Spies and Secret Lies: The Golden Buddha, Angel with the Iron Fists, and The Singing Thief [Blu-ray set], The Sword [Blu-ray], Taxi Hunter [Blu-ray], The Warriors [Blu-ray/UHD set], Waterworld [Blu-ray/UHD set], Witness [Blu-ray/UHD set], Wrong Reasons [Blu-ray]. 

 

Image of Leslie Ann Warren in Choose Me from the IMDb. 

Songs for Cineastes: 2024 Edition

Click here 

for the 

2023 edition. 

A shorter list than usual. I heard a lot of good stuff this year, but I watched so many movies, it didn't leave a lot of time for music. It probably doesn't help that I'm still listening to podcasts in the mornings before work rather than new music, which was my method for years (blame the pandemic, which upended the ways I do some things). Also, I didn't compile a list of reissues, because I didn't listen to enough to make it worthwhile, though I included two, Broadcast and Margo Guryan, in my top 10. And much like last year, I only went to one concert: Air performing Moon Safari. Totally worth the exorbitant price, especially since they played other material during the three encores. That said, I'm sorry I missed Meshell Ndegeocello at Jazz Alley. No guarantees, but I'll try to do better next time.

All links lead to Bandcamp pages.  

Top 10 

1. La Luz - News of the Universe (Sub Pop) 

2. somesurprises - Perseids (self-titled) 

3. Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More (4AD) 

4. Meshell Ndegeocello - No More Water: 

    The Gospel Of James Baldwin (Blue Note) 

5. Margo Guryan - Words And Music (Numero Group) 

6. Broadcast - Spell Blanket - Collected Demos 2006-2009 (Warp) 

7. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee (Realistik Studios) 

8. Tierra Whack - World Wide Whack (Universal) 

9. Kim Gordon - The Collective (Matador) 

10. Mary Timony - Untame the Tiger (Merge) 

This is the same top 10 I submitted to the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Rip-Off Poll and Uproxx polls, plus five songs (see below), two album covers: Broadcast and Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom, and three videos: Sade's "Young Lion" (Sophie Muller), Tierra Whack's "Shower Song" (Alex Da Corte), and Floating Points' "Key103" (Akiko Nakayama).

Runners-up 

11. Various Artists - TRAИƧA (Red Hot) 

12. Can - Live in Paris 1973 (Spoon-Mute) 

13. Can - Live in Aston 1977 (Spoon-Mute) 

14. The Mountain Movers - Walking After Dark (Trouble in Mind) 

15. Hinds - Viva Hinds (Lucky Number) 

16. Ty Segall - Three Bells (Drag City) 

17. Redd Kross - Redd Kross (In the Red) 

18. Sault - Acts of Faith (Forever Living Originals) 

19. Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement (Young) 

20. BadBadNotGood - Mid-Spiral (XL Recordings) 

I still have to check out Can's Live in Keele 1977, which also saw release this year. I'm likely to enjoy it as much as their other live releases. 

21. Kendrick Lamar - GNX (Interscope) 

22. James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg - All Gist 

      (Paradise Of Bachelors) 

23. SZA - SOS Deluxe: Lana (Top Dawg-RCA) 

24. LL Cool J - The Force (LL Cool J, Inc) 

25. Jim White and Marisa Anderson - Swallowtail (Thrill Jockey) 

26. Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn - 

      Quiet in a World Full of Noise (Merge) 

27. Linda Sikhakhane - ILadi (Blue Note) 

28. Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom - A Peace of Us (Carpark) 

29. Jlin - Akoma (Planet Mu) 

30. English Teacher - This Could Be Texas (Island) 

31. BEAK> - >>>> (Invada) 

32. The Smile - Wall of Eyes (Self Help Tapes-XL) 

33. The Messthetics - The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (Impulse!) 

34. Jack White - No Name (Third Man) 

35. Miranda Lambert - Postcards from Texas (Vanner-Republic) 

36. Wussy - Cincinnati Ohio (Shake It) 

37. MIZU - Forest Scenes (NNA Tapes) 

38. Jane Weaver - Love In Constant Spectacle (Invada) 

39. St. Vincent - All Born Screaming (Virgin) 

40. Amy Rigby - Hang In There With Me (Tapete) 

Top Songs 

1. Mavis Staples - "Worthy" 

2. Kim Deal - "Crystal Breath" 

3. Tierra Whack - "Shower Song"

4. Goat - "Ouroboros"

5. Nilüfer Yanya - "Like I Say (I Runaway)" 

6. Nia Archives - "So Tell Me" 

7. LL Cool J - "Black Code Suite" feat. Sona Jobarteh 

8. Shabazz Palaces feat. Lavarr the Starr - "Take Me To Your Leader" 

9. English Teacher - "The World's Biggest Paving Slab" 

10. Suki Waterhouse - "Supersad"

Top Score

Eiko Ishibash - Evil Does Not Exist (Drag City)

Images from Sub Pop Records (La Luz) and Bandcamp (Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom - A Peace of Us album cover by Marco Papiro).