Sharon Van Etten - We've Been Going About This All Wrong

I don't know, has Sharon Van Etten ever been more lush and more epic than she is here? 

She's written stunning album openers before, but "Darkness Fades" is right up there, reminiscent of the Cranberries - and rounded off in similar spacious dream-pop style at the end by "Far Away". Also on We've Been Going About This All Wrong are two of her hookiest earworms so far - if not the two hookiest - in "Headspace" ('baby don't turn your back on me') and "Mistakes" ('even when I make a mistake ... it's much better than that') and a bunch of deeper cuts that more than hold their own. 

There's texture and clarity throughout, all confirming that SVE is possibly the best, and definitely my favourite, of the current crop of excellent singer-songwriters drawing from what used to be called 'indie' and before that 'alternative'.

Miranda Lambert - Palomino

Palomino feels like a throwback to an earlier phase of Lambert's career - a more straight-up country-rock-pop record than either Wildcard or The Weight of These Wings, but benefiting from the refinement of her songwriting that's happened over the years. It's not one of my favourite of hers, and not many songs stand out - the brightest is probably the produced-up version of "Waxahachee" from last year's Marfa Tapes - but still good.

Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve & Ocean's Thirteen / The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum & Jason Bourne

A pair of 2000s series, both of which I'd mostly if not entirely watched before, both featuring Matt Damon prominently and also Vincent Cassel as a murderous bad guy. Best watched with critical brain disengaged.

The Beths - Auckland, New Zealand, 2020

Sounds the way you'd expect a live Beths album to sound.