Kathleen Edwards - Billionaire

Honestly not all that dissimilar to the one before it - Total Freedom - and if the pleasures here are more in familiarity than in new ground, well they're still pleasures. And what a swing for the rafters that title song is, "if this feeling were currency, I would be a billionaire ...".

Lucy Dacus - Forever Is A Feeling

For mine, Forever Is A Feeling doesn't have many of the obvious high points that appeared in her previous albums - show-stopper "Ankles" and maybe the title track aside - but it reaffirms the feeling I had after listening to 2021's Home Video, which is that Dacus has got the real stuff, and doesn't need the vivid emotional pyrotechnics or big anthems that are clearly also in her kit bag in order to deliver, with elegance, heart and craft.

Margo Price - Hard-Headed Woman

Here Price takes a turn back towards hardcore country and the honky-tonk sound that was more prominent in her first couple of records (Midwest Farmer's Daughter; All American Made) than the more recent two, and what do you know, while it's not quite as fully in my personal sweet spot as what she's done before, it's just as good as each of those previous ones.

Alex G - Headlights

 I like the vibe here - a torch-y heartland rock sound. But it hasn't really hit home somehow.

Brandi Carlile - Returning to Myself

Sturdily, reliably excellent - more quality from Carlile. She's hit a vein these last several years and continues to produce songs that are as enduring as they tend to be immediate, many with the feel of classics. My favourite, I think, is a bit atypical - the late-album mid-tempo drama of "No One Knows Us". Although it's also hard to go past the stormingly anthemic and unmistakeably Brandi Carlile "Human".

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

There's a nice touch to each of these, and if they're pretty big and glossy, well that feels a natural continuation of the style that Rian Johnson brought to his earlier puzzle-boxes (The Brothers Bloom remains close to my heart). Just like the original Knives Out and Glass Onion (which I seem to have missed on this blog but remember enjoying), there's pleasure from the neat, overtly plotted murder-mystery structure, the equally overt social commentary, Daniel Craig's wonderful Benoit Blanc, and a bunch of charismatic others. Probably there's diminishing returns a bit though.

The Witcher season 4

I've always thought there's been a bit of a dynamic with this show around just how seriously it actually takes itself, but maybe that's a bit inherent in the genre and the limitations of tv show budget ... but then there's episode 5 in this season where they do everyone's back-story in a row complete with movie-musical interlude. This season is three parallel storylines following Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri with only one intersection and it remains more-or-less convincing - rarely viscerally, morally or narratively exciting, but never a drag nor jarring to enjoy.

(1&2; 3)

Slow Horses season 5

Maybe a bit of a dip in quality but the built-up goodwill keeps you watching.

(1-3; 4)

Thunderbolts*

Even when they're a bit different, as this one is, there's almost always also a sameyness to these movies. Florence Pugh is fun though.

Someone Like Me edited by Clem Bastow and Jo Case

I found Someone Like Me illuminating and enjoyable (the latter in the sense of the interesting perspectives and overall quality of writing across this collection) - a kaleidoscope of experiences of autism written by women and gender-diverse people. Most came to a realisation - and diagnosis - later in life, reflecting how understanding has advanced in recent years, and reading these pieces repeatedly made me think about what it is to be a 'self', or 'typical', and how the concept of neurodiversity compares with other, older paradigms for understanding identity, behaviour and difference.

"The Playground Project" (Incinerator Gallery)

The history of playgrounds. A topic I've found a bit interesting in the past - even before becoming a parent - especially interventions by artists.

(w/ R, J, H)

Sarah Jarosz - Polaroid Lovers

Nice but too sleekly polished. A handful of more memorable songs.

Valerie June - Owls, Omens, and Oracles

Across a roving, at times meandering, at times rousingly joyous, and even occasionally frankly dull 14 songs, June's voice is always clear and true-feeling, making the whole thing well worthwhile. There's something embracing about this music, something warmly, idiosyncratically, insistently human.

(last one: The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, 2021)

Frances Hardinge - Unraveller

Another good one, curses and all, and filled with strong images and an overall sense of imagination.

Haim - I quit

It could be (probably is?) an illusion but I quit feels like it breathes 'we're doing what we want to', roaming in mellow, tuneful vein across 90s/00s sounds. The Sheryl Crow-ism of "Down to be wrong" stands out and there's plenty of other likeable moments. 

Sharon Van Etten - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory

In which Van Etten leans into the gothy, post-punk strands that have been there at least since Remind Me Tomorrow and goes vibier and more atmospheric, and at the same time (in moments) brighter and clearer, to produce a record that breaks new ground for her. 

Music has a much different place in my life now than in my younger days - but SVE is probably the one artist who I've really come to in the last 10 or so years (actually a bit more than that) whose music has hit me with something approaching the intensity of that very different, earlier time of life. And while this one hasn't shook me as much as that remarkable Are We There - Remind Me Tomorrow - We've Been Going About This All Wrong run, it feels of a piece with them and shares in their power.

Nilüfer Yanya - My Method Actor

Some bright moments of slightly off kilter pop - "Like I Say (I runaway)" and "Call It Love" are both keepers - but the whole doesn't stay.

Black Bag

The cast helps a fair bit and Soderbergh does seem to have a bit of a touch. The spy vs spy + domestic affairs stuff holds the attention and never becomes more ridiculous than it inherently is, though overall it feels minor.

Frances Hardinge - The Lie Tree

The atmosphere is strong - just spooky enough, science and its margins, convincingly Victorian and with a terrific, spiky, sympathetic but not at all a Mary Sue main character in Faith and a deft feminism, including in its final stage reveals and resolutions. A book that reminded me how it feels to read purely for pleasure - including for the quality of its craft.

Tenet

Tenet ... the story mechanics are hard to follow, the emotional core's difficult to find (indeed it's split, between Kat and her child (and Sator), and the Protagonist and Neil) and once it's found it lands more intellectually than in a way that's actually felt ... and the sound mixing doesn't help. There's still something to it, as there is with all Nolan's films but I still think it doesn't quite work. (first watch)