Thursday, October 26, 2023

Tyler Childers - Rustin' in the Rain

Rustin' in the Rain is a proper good time - country-rock done well, in the vein of old (the first two songs - the title track and "Phone Calls and Emails" - could practically be Gram Parsons numbers, give or take some of the lyrics and the modern production, and both are excellent). Seven songs across less than 30 minutes, with room for a fair amount of variation and two effective covers in "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and S.G. Goodman's "Space and Time". And I suspect I'm maybe even underestimating its quality because of how clear its lineage is.

Laura Cantrell - Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions

Gosh, ten years since her last one! Cantrell was already a real favourite of mine by the time she released No Way There From Here in 2013 and that hasn't diminished despite the lack of new music since. So it's more than fine with me that Just Like A Rose basically feels like picking up where she left off - some subtly different textures, a bit of dabbling in adjacent genres, but all very recognisable and welcomely so. 

The modesty and clarity of her singing is still there, and so's the catchiness of her songwriting - it says something that H, age 2 1/2, was singing along to part of the bridge/chorus of "Brand New Eyes" by the time it repeated on her first listen - and the facility with surprising, pleasing little musical flourishes and turns. There's plenty of yearning, and lively moments too. The melodies feel unforced, but are rarely predictable. Early favourite: "I'm Gonna Miss This Town".

Esther Rose - Safe to Run

It's ok, but nothing like as distinctive as How Many Times.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Fallout & Dead Reckoning Part One

Rewatches of the first two - Rogue Nation and Fallout. And found lots to enjoy in the latest, with some built-up heft thanks to how much prior story and character-through-action it's able to draw on, plus dynamic action, charismatic actors, and some welcome barely-on-the-right-side-of-hokey humour. Plus these days watching a movie like this feels like participating in the culture, somehow.

Regrets

Books I've regretted culling since the great divestment, now that I'm allowing myself a more expansive approach to book-owning again:

Wuthering Heights (maybe I'll never read it again but it was a mistake to get rid of the copy that I'd had since high school)

The Green Wind (same category as Wuthering Heights but from primary school and even more regrettable - getting a small pang thinking about it now, and actually not 100% sure it's gone ... surely I wouldn't have done that?)

All my Terry Pratchett books (I don't miss the other series - mostly fantasy - that I got rid of, and the public library system will provide if I ever want to revisit, but Discworld was in a different category and, while it was a long time ago, not having those books in those matching paperback designs of the time when I was collecting them feels like something lost)

The Sandman series (this had multiple steps - I replaced the original set with the deluxe hard-cover large format set, culled that as unnecessary and disproportionate, and later ended up re-buying the whole original set again)

The Magicians series (these were maybe a bit closer to my heart than I realised at the time)

Fates and Furies (I ended up re-buying it)

Maybe also all those horizon-expanding postmodernist novels from uni today - I've kept a few but most are gone, including some at-the-time big ones like Foucault's Pendulum.

Friday, October 13, 2023

"Beneath the Surface, Behind the Scenes" (Heide)

This was a good one, including contemporary Latin American and Australian artists and with a surprising level of thematic coherence - including an interest in erasure, instability and the marks we leave upon our natural environments.

Andre Komatsu - "Borders_2" (2016) - you can't really see it in the photo but the word "Norte" is written in pencil in the space below where the two sheets intersect, with a diagonal from there to the left

Tatiana Blass - "Teatro #17" (2016) - you have to look closely to see the two (at least I think it's only two) human figures

Elena Damiani - "Excavations" (2014) - digital print on silk chiffon, wood-framed, with white marble pillars installed behind

Ximena Garrido-Lenca - "Lines of Divergence" (2018) - a hypnotic video work shot by an overhead drone and depicting grid lines drawn in the Peruvian desert to demarcate ownership and my favourite of the exhibition

Saturday, October 07, 2023

150 favourite songs

Not quite the 150 songs most meaningful to me, still less those with the strongest emotional associations, but not completely not either of those either. More than ever before I felt the absurdity of ranking songs against each other, even on the completely subjective basis of 'favourites'. It's 150 because that's the round number at which the list felt tight. 

Over 40% from the 90s, five each by Radiohead, R.E.M. and the Cocteau Twins and four by Cat Power, Belle & Sebastian, Aimee Mann and Patty Griffin, and that's a pretty accurate pocket history of the music I've most loved over the journey.

 

 

2013 top 200

2006
top 100

2000 top 100

1

Useless Desires

Patty Griffin

2004

2

Hyper-ballad

Björk

1995

25

2

19

3

Fade Into You

Mazzy Star

1993

3

3

66

4

Lazy Line Painter Jane

Belle & Sebastian

1997

1

1

5

Love Will Tear Us Apart

Joy Division

1980

2

13

6

Can't Be Sure

The Sundays

1990

22

19

7

Ceremony

New Order

1981

4

8

Wrecking Ball

Gillian Welch

2003

16

6

9

Hold On, Hold On

Neko Case

2006

29

26

10

Lorelei

Cocteau Twins

1984

39

9

11

Paranoid Android

Radiohead

1997

6

8

7

12

Teardrop

Massive Attack

1998

7

31

33

13

Just Like Heaven

The Cure

1987

17

30

17

14

You're In A Bad Way

Saint Etienne

1993

15

14

15

Wise Up

Aimee Mann

1999

9

18

16

Sometimes

My Bloody Valentine

1991

14

20

17

Ashes To Ashes

David Bowie

1980

20

18

Dirty Dream Number Two

Belle & Sebastian

1998

19

Little Bombs

Aimee Mann

2005

21

37

20

Spark

Tori Amos

1998

28

21

5

21

Torn

Natalie Imbruglia

1997

36

57

89

22

Crush In The Ghetto

Jolie Holland

2006

19

23

Heroes

David Bowie

1977

44

49

24

Strong Enough

Sheryl Crow

1993

142

25

Pink Orange Red

Cocteau Twins

1985

31

33

26

Bachelorette

Björk

1997

32

27

No Bad News

Patty Griffin

2007

40

28

Heaven Or Las Vegas

Cocteau Twins

1990

80

42

29

Return of the Grievous Angel

Gram Parsons

1974

61

30

Just Like Honey

The Jesus and Mary Chain

1985

24

5

31

Body's In Trouble

Mary Margaret O'Hara

1988

115

32

Save Me

Aimee Mann

1999

75

41

33

Roads

Portishead

1994

47

27

34

El President

Drugstore feat. Thom Yorke

1998

11

28

45

35

Everlong

Foo Fighters

1997

87

36

Be Mine

R.E.M.

1996

27

62

37

Dreams

The Cranberries

1993

172

38

This Love

Craig Armstrong feat. Liz Fraser

1998

5

10

39

I Know I Know I Know

Tegan and Sara

2004

48

96

40

Cornflake Girl

Tori Amos

1994

64

85

8

41

Last Goodbye

Jeff Buckley

1994

49

48

42

Under The Milky Way

The Church

1988

92

43

Us

Regina Spektor

2003

82

44

What You Said

Laura Cantrell

2005

46

45

How Soon Is Now?

The Smiths

1984

175

80

2

46

On The Beach

Neil Young

1974

43

50

47

The State I Am In

Belle & Sebastian

1996

84

39

48

Karma Police

Radiohead

1997

35

62

49

Cowgirl In The Sand

Neil Young

1969

37

27

50

Losing My Religion

R.E.M.

1991

155

7

12

51

Gorecki

Lamb

1996

12

22

52

Little Stars

Lisa Miller

2003

33

48

53

Like A Rolling Stone

Bob Dylan

1965

162

17

54

Where Is My Mind?

Pixies

1988

104

52

55

Breakfast In Bed

Dusty Springfield

1969

85

65

56

Sea Of Love

Cat Power

2000

34

47

57

Today

Smashing Pumpkins

1993

133

86

24

58

September Gurls

Big Star

1974

8

23

59

Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops

Cocteau Twins

1984

90

83

60

You May Know Him

Cat Power

1998

132

61

Right In Time

Lucinda Williams

1998

54

40

62

Marquee Moon

Television

1977

127

46

63

Ride The Wind To Me

Julie Miller

1999

45

54

64

Talulah Gosh

Talulah Gosh

1987

88

65

Top of the World

The Chicks

2002

60

66

Wide Open Road

The Triffids

1986

119

93

67

Goodbye

Emmylou Harris

1995

131

68

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Neutral Milk Hotel

1998

18

45

69

Glory Box

Portishead

1994

74

10

70

Judy And The Dream Of Horses

Belle & Sebastian

1996

52

71

Faster

Manic Street Preachers

1994

98

72

Deathly

Aimee Mann

1999

135

73

Walk In The Park

Beach House

2010

74

Wuthering Heights

Kate Bush

1978

151

76

75

Greenville

Lucinda Williams

1998

76

If It Makes You Happy

Sheryl Crow

1996

168

77

Out Loud

Mindy Smith

2006

56

78

Seven Year Ache

Rosanne Cash

1981

79

American Flag

Cat Power

1998

89

34

80

Portions For Foxes

Rilo Kiley

2004

76

81

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

The Smiths

1986

152

32

23

82

The Killing Moon

Echo & The Bunnymen

1984

83

Once In A Lifetime

Talking Heads

1980

84

Back To Black

Amy Winehouse

2006

139

85

Mimi On The Beach

Jane Siberry

1984

121

79

86

100 Million Little Bombs

Buddy Miller

1997

87

Via Chicago

Wilco

1999

70

88

This World Can Make You Happy

Amaya Laucirica

2010

94

89

Lucky

Radiohead

1997

77

35

90

What's The Frequency, Kenneth?

R.E.M.

1994

78

76

91

Fall At Your Feet

Crowded House

1991

145

95

92

Travelin' Soldier

The Chicks

2002

93

Florida

Patty Griffin

2004

94

Bizarre Love Triangle

New Order

1986

14

95

Slow Show

The National

2007

41

96

Afraid Of Nothing

Sharon Van Etten

2014

97

Musette And Drums

Cocteau Twins

1983

164

55

98

What's Up?

4 Non Blondes

1992

83

99

Seal My Fate

Belly

1995

102

25

100

Hot Burrito #1

The Flying Burrito Brothers

1969

109

101

14th Street

Laura Cantrell

2005

171

102

Maps

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

2003

199

74

103

With Every Heartbeat

Robyn

2005

184

104

Charlotte Sometimes

The Cure

1981

143

105

Happy & Sad

Kacey Musgraves

2018

106

Distant Sun

Crowded House

1993

189

107

Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Radiohead

1995

108

Monkey Gone To Heaven

Pixies

1989

159

109

23

Blonde Redhead

2007

23

110

Bloodbuzz Ohio

The National

2010

50

111

Berlin Chair

You Am I

1993

112

Passionate Kisses

Lucinda Williams

1988

113

Communication

The Cardigans

2003

130

114

Traveling Alone

Jason Isbell

2013

115

Fake Empire

The National

2007

79

116

Common People

Pulp

1995

117

Like A Prayer

Madonna

1989

118

Dreams

Fleetwood Mac

1977

119

The Bleeding Heart Show

The New Pornographers

2005

91

120

Everybody Here Wants You

Jeff Buckley

1998

10

12

121

Vice

Miranda Lambert

2016

122

One

U2

1991

40

123

Nothing Compares 2 U

Sinéad O'Connor

1990

112

124

Talk Show Host

Radiohead

1996

13

15

125

Dancing On My Own

Robyn

2010

126

Orange Crush

R.E.M.

1988

25

127

There Is An End

The Greenhornes feat. Holly Golightly

2002

55

72

128

Shivers

Boys Next Door

1979

118

16

32

129

With Or Without You

U2

1987

20

130

Good Woman

Cat Power

2003

68

84

131

Sunny Came Home

Shawn Colvin

1996

132

These Days

Powderfinger

1999

177

94

133

The Ship Song

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

1990

51

44

134

Everybody Hurts

R.E.M.

1992

21

135

Pictures Of You

The Cure

1989

11

136

1979

Smashing Pumpkins

1995

79

137

I Don't Ever Give Up

Patty Griffin

2007

169

138

Runnin' Just In Case

Miranda Lambert

2016

139

Ohio Clouds

Laura Veirs

2003

107

140

Jolene

Dolly Parton

1973

141

Godspell

The Cardigans

2005

111

142

All Too Well

Taylor Swift

2012

143

Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd

1975

56

15

144

Lovefool

The Cardigans

1996

97

145

Better

Regina Spektor

2006

146

Debaser

Pixies

1989

190

147

Si Tu Disais

Françoiz Breut

2000

186

148

Daisy Glaze

Big Star

1974

57

61

149

Nobody 'Cept You

16 Horsepower

2000

129

150

Waiting For The Sun

Powderfinger

2000