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.

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 though, I think, is a bit atypical - the late-album mid-tempo drama of "No One Knows Us".

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 Blanch, 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.