Pop Conference: A pre-recorded paper on "I Do the Rock": A Stimulating Study of the Song That Defined the Pop Career of Musical Theater-Turned-Movie Star Tim Curry. More information here.
18.Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (R.J. Cutler)
The rest: Belfast, Censor, Cruella, Days of the Bagnold Summer, Dune, France, House of Gucci, The Humans, In the Earth, In the Heights, King Richard, Last Night in Soho, The Little Things, The Many Saints of Newark, Mass, The Mimic, Nightmare Alley, No Time to Die, Petite Maman, Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, Spencer, The Stairs, Stillwater, The Suicide Squad, The Tender Bar, Test Pattern, tick, tick.. BOOM!, Tiny King: King for a Day, and Woodstock ’99: Peace, Love & Rage.
Shorts:Burrow, Captive Feast, Catman, Chaval, Le Chavalanthrope, Colette, A Concerto Is a Conversation, Do Not Split, The Earth’s Forgotten, Feeling Through, For Gerard, Genius Loci, Hayrides, If Anything Happens I Love you, Kapeamahu, The Last Drink, The Letter Room, A Look at Madness, A Love Song for Latasha, Opera, The Present, The Snail and the Whale, Three Cheers for the Whale, To Gerard, Two Distant Strangers, The Whalers, White Eye, Yes People.
Missed or haven't seen yet:About Endlessness, Agnes, Attica, Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Can’t Get You out of My Head, Cry Macho, El Planeta, I’m Your Man, Jakob’s Wife, Listening to Kenny G, Malignant, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, The Night House, Saint Maud, Space Sweepers, and Street Gang: How
TV:Allen v. Farrow; American Masters: Keith Haring - Street Art Boy, Sammy Davis, Jr. - I Gotta Be Me, Charley Pride - I’m Just Me, and Walter Winchell - The Power of Gossip; Babylon Berlin S1-3; Baptiste S2; Barry S2, Bosch S3-7; Broadchurch S1-3; Call the Midwife S10; Masterpiece: All Creatures Great and Small S1, Beecham House, The Child in Time, Dark Angel, and The Long Song; The Crown S1; Finding Your Roots S6-7; The Good Place S2; Grantchester S6; Hacks S1; Halifax: Retribution; Ken Burns’ Hemingway and Muhammad Ali; Her Effortless Brilliance - A Celebration of Lynn Shelton Through Film and Music; Icon: Music Through the Lens; Law & Order: SVU S23; Lupin S1; Mare of Easttown; Miss Scarlet and the Duke S1; Music Box: Mr. Saturday Night; Night Gallery S1; Perry Mason S1; Philly DA; Professor T (UK version) S1; Q: Into the Storm; Shrill S2-3; Shameless S11; The Sopranos S4-S6; Succession S3; Ted Lasso S1 E1-3; The Underground Railroad; Unforgotten S4; Vienna Blood S1, The White Lotus S1; and Wormwood.
Images:Drive My Car (IndieWire/Janus Films), The Green Knight (A24), Titane (Neon), Downstream to Kinshasa (Icarus Films), and Anna Lucasta (United Artists/Harlem World Magazine).
Endnote: Image of Marlene Dietrich in The Woman One Longs For. By Unknown - http://www.puettner.com/film12.htm, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54103597
Endnote:Anna Lucasta image from DOLA. Rex Ingram as patriarch Joe Lucasta; Eartha Kitt as his daughter, Anna; Sammy Davis, Jr. as her part-time boyfriend, Danny; and Alvin Childress as barkeep Noah.
The Rest:16 Bars, Adriana's Pact, Always Shine, Amazon Women on the Moon, The Ape, Aristotle's Plot, Baby Bump, Bay of Silence, Bei Bei, Ben Blair, Betty: They Say I'm Different, Beyond the Lights, Blank Generation, Brewster McCloud, Brief Crossing, Butter on the Latch, California Split, Candyman, The Carter, Caught Up, The Cement Garden, César et Rosalie,Charlotte For Ever, Christmas Holiday, Clifford, Come and See / Idi i Smotri, Conscience Point, Crafting an Echo, The Creator / Le Createur, The Cube, Daisies / Sedmikrásky, Death Laid an Egg / La Morte Ha Fatto l'Uovo, Deepstar Six, Def by Temptation, Dial Code Santa Claus / 3615 Code Père Noël, Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler / Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, Drifting, The Eiger Sanction, Evil Under the Sun, Fattitude, Fairytale / Favola, Ferat Vampire / Upír z Feratu, Final Cut: Ladies & Gentlemen / Final Cut: Hölgyeim és Uraim, Friday After Next, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Front Page, The Fourth Man / De Vierde Man, Get Crazy, Girl with Hyacinths / Flicka Och Hyacinter, Go Go Mania aka Pop Gear, Goodbye, 20th Century! / Zbogum Na Dvaesettiot Vek!, Hardware, High Strung Free Dance, His Girl Friday, Ice Thickeners, An Impudent Girl / L'Effronte, In God We Tru$t, The Intrigue, It Comes at Night, It's Alive III: Island of the Alive, It's Trad, Dad, James White, Jennifer's Body, Kansas City, Knockoff, The Laughing Woman / Femina Ridens, Lick the Star, Mad Max, The Majesty of the Law, Malcolm, Man of Erin, Mary, Queen of Scots, Messiah of Evil, Monster Dog, My Name Is Pedro, Night Games / Nattlek, Nymphomaniac: Vols. I and II, Ode, Old Boyfriends, One Hundred Men and a Girl, The Other Side of the Underneath, The Other Side of the Wind, Out of the Blue, Outside the Law, Penitentiary, Penitentiary III, Pepi, Luci, Bom, Play Misty for Me, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, Red Cow / Para Aduma, Return to the Andes, Rituals, River of Grass, Ruth Weiss: The Beat Goddess, Santa: The Fascist Years, Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes / Le Père Noël a les Yeux Bleus, Serendipity, Shanghai Triad / Yáo a Yáo, Yáo Dào Wàipó Qiáo, Shutter Island, Siesta, Silent Running, Singled [Out], Sixteen Candles, The Slit / Die Spalte, Small Town Ecstasy, Sol Alegria, Star Time, Stop, Storefront Hitchcock, Streetwise, The System, Teenage Superstars, Closeness / Tesnota, The Things of Life / Les Choses de la Vie,Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, Time Piece, Tremors / Temblores, Unspoken, Vashti Bunyan: From Here to Before, Waging Change, Walking the Streets of Moscow, The War of the Worlds: Next Century, Watch List, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Watermelon Woman, Welcome Home Brother Charles, Welcome II the Terrordome, What Are You?, What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael, The Whistleblower, Witch Hunt, and Wolf's Hole / Vlčí Bouda.
Short Films:;), Adspace, Alex, Chill, Fish Fish Bish, Joy Ride,
Lucky Girl, Niyayesh, The Orchard, Rated B for Black, Sleep Paralysis, Tattwo, Ultimatum, Unveiled, Wish Upon a Snow-
man, Ter, A Bold Experiment, Coup d'etat Math, Just Hold On,
The Paint Wizzard, Talk Outside, Time Piece, Zoey and Hanh.
TV:American Masters S32: Mae West - Dirty Blonde, Baptiste S1, Black Mirror S3 - "San Junipero," Bosch S1-2, Cher S1-2, Cobra S1, Endeavour S7, Frontline S39: "Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos," "America’s Great Divide: From Obama to Trump," and "United States of Conspiracy," Grantchester S5, Howard's End, I May Destroy You, The Queen's Gambit, Halt & Catch Fire S1-4, Law & Order: SVU S22, Press, Roadkill, Sanditon, Tiger King, The Trouble with Maggie Cole, Van der Walk S1, The Vow S1, World on Fire S1.
Endnote:House of Hummingbird image from MUBI, Lovers Rock from Amazon, Possessor from Neon, The Exorcist from Warner Home Video/Shudder, and The Point! from MVD Entertainment Group.
Other than a Wye Oak concert preview for The Stranger, which didn't run due to pandemic-related cancellation, I stopped writing about music in 2020. Then again, that depends on how you define such things. I still write about film and some of those films revolve around music and musicians. In 2020 alone, I reviewed Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind, The Point! (twice), Kansas City, Times Square, 16 Bars, Betty Davis: They Say I'm Different, Go Go Mania aka Pop Gear, Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something, The Soul of the Midnight Special, and nine-disc Time/Life set The Best of Cher. So, technically speaking, I didn't stop writing about music, though not one of those films centered on new music. I hate to pitch, but I did send exactly one music pitch...
and never received a response, so that's it for me for the time being.
As ever, there are a number of records that probably would've appeared on this list if I'd known about them or taken the time to listen during the calendar year, like...the Avalanches' We Will Always Love You. If you see something missing that you think I'd enjoy, feel free to let me know in the comments. It's never too late to get caught up.
Top 10
1. Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven - We're New Again:
A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven (XL Recordings)
2. Tie: Sault - Untitled (Black Is) and Rise (Forever Living Originals)
3. Aoife Nessa Frances - Land of No Junction (Ba Da Bing!)
4. Delphine Dora - L'inattingible (Three:Four Records)
5. Cindy Lee - What's Tonight to Eternity (Maple Death)
15. Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song (Smalltown Supersound)
16. Open Mike Eagle - Anime, Trauma and Divorce (Auto Reverse)
17. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways (Columbia)
18. Molly Joyce - Breaking and Entering (New Amsterdam)
19. Stephen Malkmus - Traditional Techniques (Matador)
20. Shopping - All or Nothing (Fat Cat)
21. Ambrose Akinmusire - on the tender spot of every calloused moment (Blue Note)
22. Jim White and Marisa Anderson - The Quickening (Thrill Jockey)
23. Shirley Collins - Heart's Ease (Domino)
24. Songhoy Blues - Optimisme (Fat Possum)
25. Brigid Dawson and the Mothers Network - Ballet of Apes
(Castle Face)
26. Oh Sees - Protean Threat (Castle Face)
27. The Necks - Three (Northern Spy)
28. Khruangbin - Mordechai (Dead Oceans)
29. Horse Lords - The Common Task (Northern Spy)
30. Anna von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly (Southern Lord)
31. Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure? (Universal)
32. Margo Price - That's How Rumors Get Started (Loma Vista)
33. Idles - Ultra Mono (Partisan)
34. Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death (Partisan)
35. Tricky - Fall to Pieces (False Idols)
36. U.S. Girls - Heavy Light (4AD)
37. Deerhoof - Love-Lore (Joyful Noise)
38. Caribou - Suddenly (City Slang)
39. Elvis Perkins - Creation Myths (MIR-Petaluma Records)
40. Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders (Ghostly International)
Songs & Singles
1. Sault - "Free" (Forever Living Originals)
2. Caribou - "Home" (City Slang)
3. Songhoy Blues - "Happy" (Fat Possum)
4. Gorillaz - "Désolé" ft. Fatoumata Diawara (Parlophone-Warner)
5. Run the Jewels - "Ooh La La" ft. Greg Nice and DJ Premier
(Jewel Runners)
Reissues & Compilations
1. Pylon - Box (New West Records)
2. Bobbie Gentry - The Delta Swete (UMC) [UK]
Note: Shortest list ever, but the depth and quality of both releases makes up for it.
Endnote: Like many reviewers, I enjoy ranking the things--or the kinds of things--that I write about, but the placements above are somewhat arbitrary. I start compiling my music list the minute I hear something that catches my ear. Then it's a matter of adding, subtracting, and shifting things around, but I would rank some of these records differently now than I would have just a few months ago.
I write about popular music and film and the relationship between the two. I'm Irish on one side, Italian on the other—British on both. I was born in Connecticut (Far From Heaven), raised in Alaska (Northern Exposure), and I've lived in Seattle, WA (Trouble in Mind) since 1988.
