2023: "Not strong enough"

2023 soundtrack - on spotify. Not a banner year for music for me, but plenty of catchy songs and records in my existing lane, often by acts already very familiar.

1. It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody - Weyes Blood
And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow (Sub Pop, 2022)

2. County Road - Margo Price
Strays (Loma Vista, 2023)

3. Not Strong Enough - boygenius
the record (Interscope, 2023)

4. 80's Movie - Morgan Wade
Psychopath (RCA Nashville, 2023)

5. Rustin' in the Rain - Tyler Childers
Rustin' in the Rain (Hickman Holler, 2023)

6. King of Oklahoma - Jason Isbell
Weathervanes (Southeastern, 2023)

7. Brand New Eyes - Laura Cantrell
Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions (Propeller Sound, 2023)

8. French Restaurant - Lydia Loveless
Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again (Bloodshot, 2023)

9. get him back! - Olivia Rodrigo
GUTS (Geffen, 2023)

10. White Horse - Chris Stapleton
Higher (Mercury Nashville, 2023)

James Han Mattson - Reprieve

Neat enough in how it lays out the layers of racial, cultural, capitalist, patriarchal and other forms of exploitation that comprise the real horror of the plot, but a bit overly programmatic for me. I would've liked it more if it were wilder and perhaps leaned more into its genre trappings.

Rebecca Solnit - Men Explain Things To Me

Rebecca Solnit is remarkable for many things - the clarity of her writing, her facility with the memorable meaningful image, the intellectual and ethical sophistication of her thought, the way she brings those all together. And all that's on display in this set of essays on the theme of feminism, patriarchy and female experience, where she's consistently light and somehow humble despite the weight of what she's saying and the force with which she says it.

Get Smart

Silly but charming enough.

Don't Worry Darling

Overly familiar premise maybe but done with a bit of style and some nice layers to Florence Pugh's performance.

Now You See Me

A lightweight entertainment that I've seen before.

boygenius - the rest

The ep that follows the record. For an outfit made up of three established artists each with their own distinctive voice, boygenius are impressively identifiable in sound.

Chris Stapleton - Higher

I wonder whether it's easy for Stapleton to write songs like these. They have an easy, classic feel to them that sometimes slips into being overly generic but just as often lands - as on songs like "What Am I Gonna Do", "The Fire" and "White Horse".

(Traveller)

"Connection" (THE LUME Melbourne)

A moving experience - art by First Nations artists projected onto the large gallery walls and floors (some static, others animated presumably for this exhibition), soundtracked by the same and themed as 'land Country', 'water Country' and 'sky Country'. Big names and emerging artists alike. 

I wrote down the names of Charmaine Pwerle, Jeannie Mill Pwerle and (in very different vein) Lin Onus, but could just as easily have written many more.

More quietly, in the small side rooms, other lovely discoveries - especially the 'infinity room' installation of a series of Emily Kame Kngwarreye panels.

(w/ 54r)

Ocean's 8

Pleasant diversion. What I said last time.

Mr & Mrs Smith

Kind of a silly movie, but not offensively so, and feels like it knows it.

Mary Gentle - Ash: A Secret History

This is one of the very few genre novels - among not many novels full stop - that actually blew my mind a bit when I first read it, however many years ago (pre-extemporanea, so probably about 20 or so years back), specifically its ending. The canny melding of 15th century historical/military/fantasy thrills with its contemporary framing device and how they interact was just something else, especially having picked it up without an inkling of where it was going. Re-read today, it's still an impressive and immersive experience, though the thin-ness of the characterisation is an issue - except, to some degree, the three central (female) characters from the main narrative.

Lydia Loveless - Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again

Lydia Loveless started strong, but I wouldn't have bet that eight years on from when I first encountered her, she'd still be releasing music that I'd be enjoying this much - but here we are. This is a muscular, chiming rock record that's exactly as concise and as expansive as it needs to be - at times positively new wave in its precision, with hooks, melodies and personality to burn. Right on!

Olivia Rodrigo - Guts

For me there are four stand-outs on Guts and they're maybe the four with the most strongly idiosyncratic personalities: "All-American Bitch" and its smashing pop-punk chorus, the topsy-turvy energy of "Bad Idea Right?", the epic that is "Vampire" and, most of all, "Get Him Back!", sung-spoken verse and classic chorus. And then a strong second tier that includes "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" (the most convincingly alt-rockish number on the album), "Making The Bed" (ballad), "Love Is Embarrassing" (appropriately giddy) and "Pretty Is Pretty" (riding those Wish-era Cure guitars and a melody that wouldn't have been completely out of place on that record either - shades of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart too).

There are things that they all - and the other songs on Guts - have in common: the specificity of the lyrics, the sharpness and precision of the attitude, the way the omnivorous mingling of musical influences is unified by both of the above (apart from the two I've already mentioned, artists that it's brought to mind at various points include Avril Lavigne, the Pipettes, Lily Allen, the Offspring and Sia, along with plenty of other sounds and styles). Taken all together, this is a major step up from Sour and probably my favourite pure-ish pop album for some time - though I guess with the caveat that genres are probably less and less relevant these days and maybe especially when it comes to interfaces with 'pop'.

Justin Lee Anderson - The Lost War

A good diversion with a neat twist that didn't feel like a cheat.

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.

"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

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

2013 top 200; 2006 top 100