2023 Music Reconciled: Jenny From Thebes

The Mountain Goats – Jenny From Thebes

One of the fonder music memories I have from 2023 was finally sitting in on one of KEXP’s in-studio sessions when I was in Seattle for the summer. The session I managed to see was for The Mountain Goats, a band that I had a lot more enthusiasm toward hearing than the group of friends I was with.

This seems to speak to the fact that The Mountain Goats appeal to a very particular type of obsessive fan, which I apparently am, having heard probably at least a dozen of their albums. However, the band kind of lost me in the course of their last few releases. They were always a very prolific band, but freed from an equally active touring life, it seems like the pandemic compelled John Darnielle to write even more songs than usual, many of which failed to hook me all that much. This is why I barely recognized any of the songs The Mountain Goats played during their KEXP session, since they were mostly from recent albums that I’d probably give a listen or two at most. Continue reading →

2023 Music Reconciled: Water Made Us

Jamila Woods – Water Made Us

Ah, relationships and heartache. Two topics that never seem to grow old in the realm of pop music, and the topics that seem to be most abundant on Jamila Woods’ latest album Water Made Us. To call Water Made Us a concept album feels like a bit of a stretch, but its depictions of break-ups, moving on, and finding yourself lend it to a thematic cohesion at the very least. This was also an attribute of Woods’ last album Legacy! Legacy!, whose songs were inspired by iconic Black cultural figures in varying ways. Though here, she’s turned her gaze inward, and in the process creates something more personal while retaining her inscrutable cool. Continue reading →

2023 Music Reconciled: Valley of Heart’s Delight

Margo Cilker – Valley of Heart’s Delight

Well, we’ve once again reached the point in the year that feels like a long slow march toward posting our Top Tens of the year in January. However, as far as December goes each year, I usually take this time to look back at a bunch of albums I haven’t really talked about in reviews or Little Picks on our podcast. Because I’ve been taking a more leisurely approach to reviewing albums, usually in one long monthly or seasonal post, it’s been pretty easy to keep up with talking about the albums that have impressed me this year. However, there have been a few from the last few months that I’ve been enjoying that I haven’t written about yet, and who knows, maybe there’ll be some albums from earlier in the year that I end up checking out and enjoying as various publications’ end-of-the-year lists start to trickle in. Continue reading →

Shocktober: The Pope’s Exorcist

The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)

The Russell Crowe funny accent era is here and I love it. Just a little while ago, Crowe was cast in Thor: Love and Thunder to play Zeus with the same vaguely English accent he used in Gladiator a couple decades ago. Crowe protested this and eventually got his way by agreeing to shoot every scene in the movie twice, once with a “faux upper-class” accent and once with an hilariously over-the-top, effete Greek accent. Boy, sure sounds like the production of that movie went great, doesn’t it? Anyway, he won in the end and I guess not satisfied with one huge swing, Crowe went and made another one: he gave himself just two months to perfect an Italian accent for The Pope’s Exorcist. And that performance once again elevates an otherwise forgettable film.

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Shocktober Day 14: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

A few Shocktobers ago, I was particularly taken with the first Conjuring movie, enough that I eventually sought out the sequel, despite not being someone who seeks out horror sequels very frequently. So I was happy to catch up with the Warrens again, even if I’m still very behind on catching up with the larger Conjuring universe that has developed over the past decade. While The Devil Made Me Do It isn’t a complete revitalization of the series or anything (though it does pivot slightly away from ghost stories), it still leaves me curious to check out whatever Annabelle and that Nun are up to, perhaps against my better judgment. Continue reading →

Shocktober Day 13: Talk to Me

Talk to Me (2023)

It’s funny that the whole idea of doing “Possession” films for this year’s Shocktober was inspired by Exorcist: Believer when there were so many other (better) possession films released this year. I loved Evil Dead Rise, and I haven’t seen The Pope’s Exorcist yet (Expect a review from Sean later this week) but even its unimpressive 48% RT score is double Exorcist: Believer’s paltry 22%. Then there’s Talk to Me, a low budget, Australian Indie from a pair of YouTube creators, and it’s arguably the best horror film of the year.

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Shocktober: The Last Exorcism

The Last Exorcism (2010)

The second half of my PG-13 horror week is 2010’s The Last Exorcism directed by Daniel Stamm. A German filmmaker, Stamm directed this and another low budget indie found footage movie before he kind of disappeared in Hollywood. The Last Exorcism‘s success cast Stamm into M. Night Shyamalan’s orbit just as the cinematic universe trend was taking off, setting in motion the now familiar story of the low budget filmmaker suddenly thrown into a massive studio opportunity. In this case, he was to direct “Reincarnate,” a movie that would have formed the middle chapter of “The Night Chronicles” a series that apparently began with Devil, the scary elevator movie also from 2010. Except “Reincarnate” never got off the ground (although also it apparently hasn’t officially been cancelled) and instead Shyamalan had to make a bunch of movies to rehabilitate his own reputation, leaving Stamm to spend last decade plus grinding it out.

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