My Favorite Movies, Music, and TV of 2023

First of all, hello! I haven’t posted to this blog in just about four years. There are reasons for that. So if you’re reading this, welcome, or welcome back!

I haven’t written for my blog in so long because, well, I haven’t needed to, for one. I have a platform where I write for a living, and I’d rather not do more WordPress posting and editing after a long day of it.

But back in the day this blog was my outlet not to establish a platform but to get my thoughts on the page about anything and everything I had watched, to polish my chops and keep me sharp. I’ve gotten away from that, and I miss that part of it.

Now though, I actually agonized about whether to post anything here at all. Wouldn’t Facebook be just fine? What if some source of mine or my employer got mad because of something I wrote here? Would dredging up this blog and all my bad old takes expose something embarrassing I’d rather not have out there? I genuinely have no idea.

But I still want to share my favorite pop culture of the year. I’m always making lists and want to put my stamp on my favorites in some way for the historical record.

Yet every year I seem to push this off later and later into the year. I’m often embarrassed by comparison to my colleagues who seem to have seen certain films months in advance of me and appear way ahead of the curve, even though I’m still being invited to the premieres of the things. So here I am sitting on December 29th wondering how I can possibly put out a legitimate list that anyone will care about when I still haven’t seen that one that won a prize at Cannes but won’t even be released wide until March 2024. What a joke, amirite?

I’ve also had to accept that I am not a critic any longer and haven’t been for quite some time, so I haven’t flexed this muscle as often as I used to or as often as I should. That’s also giving me anxiety about drawing a line in the sand lest anyone think I’m uncool for my now basic business person tastes. You liked “Barbie?” That’s cool, I guess.

But I still saw about 85 new movies in 2023 and will probably get to 100 once I’m done playing catch up. That’s not too shabby, and my insecurities about this list have as much to do with list making as anything else. Know that these lists are constantly evolving and changing with my preferences in a given moment and my number 5 today could be 25 as early as tomorrow.

Below though are the 15 (plus 11) movies I wanted to write about and would be more than willing to talk with anyone about if given the chance. Of the 15, I have two animated films, a doc, three largely in a foreign language, one that has no distribution, and also the biggest movie of the year. It was that kind of year for the movies, as is every year.

After my movies list, I also took the time to write about my favorite albums and TV shows of the year. More on those in a bit.

The Best Movies of 2023

1. “Oppenheimer”

Christopher Nolan’s breathless pacing seems to carry the weight of the world in every scene. It’s a movie of science, of possibility, and of hubris, and it would be an understatement to say this movie hit me like an atomic force.

2. “Asteroid City”

Who are we? Why are we here on this Earth? What’s the meaning of it all? Are we doomed? How many physicists’ name can you recite in a row from memory? Can you do it in reverse? These are the questions that percolate and fester throughout Wes Anderson’s latest Andersonian odyssey, a delight and a puzzle through and through.

3. “Killers of the Flower Moon”

I waited three and a half hours wondering when Jack White would show up, and there he was, giving a stark reminder that the true crime story Martin Scorsese weaves here involved real people, lives, and consequences for an entire culture that can no longer be erased or forgotten.

4. “Poor Things”

Twisted, silly, and endlessly inventive, Yorgos Lanthimos crafts a story of coming-of-age and female agency in an unexpectedly colorful and engrossing package. Emma Stone gives the best, mostly fully lived-in performance of the year as this most peculiar of Frankenstein monsters.

5. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

It is a miracle that Lord and Miller and the animator team took the first “Spider-Verse” movie that was already perfect and bursting with creativity and somehow made it better and more ambitious. Every frame is a work of art, loaded with attention to detail, rewarding viewing for years to come.

6. “Past Lives”

Celine Song’s debut feature is beguiling, weaving intimate moments of a life that could’ve been and people you thought you knew in a way that feels weightless and out of time. It’s romantic, profound, and a soothing viewing experience.

7. “Barbie”

What I love most about “Barbie” is not that it found a way to package feminism in the biggest and funniest movie of the year but in how silly it makes me look as a straight man, a Ken who has almost certainly gushed about Robert Evans, Stephen Malkmus, or played guitar AT someone.

8. “The Boy and the Heron”

“The Wind Rises” may have felt like a swan song, but “The Boy and the Heron” is the movie Hayao Miyazaki has been building toward his entire career. It has dashes of all his masterpieces and finds him back in anime-action-fantasy form, yet is his most personal film to date. It is thrilling to have a new film from the master.

9. “The Holdovers”

Alexander Payne brings such warmth and detail to “The Holdovers,” I could spend weeks stranded alone inside this movie. Paul Giamatti is a witty and hilarious misanthrope with untold depth, Dominic Sessa is a true discovery as his sharp tongued foil, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph gives the most sympathetic performance of the year.

10. “The Zone of Interest”

Deeply disturbing and otherworldly, it’s not a surprise to say that Jonathan Glazer’s film is a Holocaust movie unlike any you’ve seen. That you can’t look away at the decadence and are made to be complicit with this Nazi family is what makes it so unsettling.

11. “Maestro”

A ravishing, tour-de-force of a movie. Bradley Cooper as a director has a little Fosse, a little Spielberg, a little bit of every master director rolled into one, and he puts it all on screen and holds nothing back, including when he conducts a 6-minute symphony and becomes a sweaty mess in what is one of my more memorable movie moments this year.

12. “A Thousand and One”

A layered, New York character study spread across 20 years that for some reason fast forwards past 9-11, I was floored by the surprise ending and deeply moved by Teyana Taylor’s powerhouse performance.

13.  “The Deepest Breath”

It’s like “Fire of Love” meets “Free Solo” but underwater. It also pulls a daring narrative trick I wouldn’t dare spoil that pays off beautifully.  

14. “The Taste of Things”

Two and a half hours of legit food porn in the 19th century and I loved it. The film is quiet, ravishing, and will make you blush for the curves on both Juliette Binoche and your Christmas ham.

15. “Parachute”

This movie could easily be in my Top 5 but inexplicably doesn’t even have a distributor yet, which makes me worried that I’m the only one who likes it. Brittany Snow’s debut is a stunner of a melodrama about eating disorders but also has a lot of heart and humor.

11 Others Must-See’s

“Mission Impossible 7 – Dead Reckoning Part 1,” “Divinity,” “May December,” “John Wick Chapter 4,” “The Killer,” “American Fiction,” “Bottoms,” “The Eternal Memory,” “Flora and Son,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”

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The Best Albums of 2023

Maybe next year I’ll make the New Years Resolution to listen to fewer sports talk radio podcasts and start discovering more new music when I’m out walking the dog. I still find there’s a lot of good music out there, but my days of seeing 30 shows a year are behind me, as are my days of absorbing every new artist and venturing into new genres. Music is so sprawling that a list of 10 rock records doesn’t even scratch the surface of all that people are talking about, but I still hope people get the same enjoyment out of these albums that I did this year.

1. Boygenius – “The Record”

This album was on repeat for me all year. A supergroup album yes, but one that flexes the best of each of Phoebe Bridgers’ emotional wallop, Julien Baker’s soaring anthems, and Lucy Dacus’ poetry, and it cranked up the volume for all of them. “I can’t hide from you like I hide from myself” is a lyric that will live rent free in my mind for a long time.

2. Foo Fighters – “But Here We Are”

The death of Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl’s mom lingers over Foo Fighters’ latest, and Grohl manages to deliver his best song writing in a decade for some pummeling, uplifting, and invigorating bangers. I even asked Grohl back in February 2022 before Hawkins’ death if they had an endlessly long, sludgy jam in them, and turns out they did.

3. Olivia Rodrigo – “GUTS”

Guys, why did no one tell me this was a rock record? Or that Olivia Rodrigo loves everyone from Bikini Kill to the Go Go’s and has a mentor in St. Vincent? It’s the hookiest pop record of the year but is loaded with riffs and swagger and made me want to pick up the guitar.

4. Wednesday – “Rat Saw God

I confess, I discovered this band only weeks ago after I saw them atop several critics’ Best Of lists, and then I heard Karly Hartzman scream her fucking head off on “Bull Believer” and became a believer myself. Holy shit.

5. Sufjan Stevens – “Javelin”

Sufjan has a way of doing that thing where he plays like one chord on a keyboard and I’m instantly sobbing? Does that happen to anyone else? But rather than just more “Carrie & Lowell,” this is him straddling that line between sobering songwriter folk and explosive freak out synth weirdness. It really works.

6. Palehound – “Eye on the Bat

El Kempner’s socially awkward songwriting combined with riffy shoegaze found a new gear on “Eye on the Bat.” It’s exactly the sort of indie rock I’ve gravitated towards of late in this era of lo-fi indie girl rockers making meat and potatoes jams.

7. Mitski – “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We”

From making operatic grandness on simple, sparse acoustic tracks like “Bug Like an Angel” to sweeping twang on “Heaven,” not to mention certified TikTok crooners like “My Love Mine All Mine,” Mitski remains rock’s most versatile chameleon.

8. Ratboys – “The Window”

Recommended by Steven Hyden as simply “good ass indie music,” Ratboys certainly live up to that moniker with a catchy and fuzzy bunch of bangers. Notch an extra point for being a Chicago band.

9. The National – “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” & “Laugh Track”

Hyden also mentioned how this year’s National albums were each uneven and should’ve been one, and I tend to agree, though I also can’t get enough of “Frankenstein” opener “Once Upon a Poolside” and even have a soft spot for their Taylor collab “The Alcott.” Many of these tracks sounded great live and they remain my favorite artist for a resaon.

10. Feeble Little Horse – “Girl with Fish”

More indie shoegaze goodness that has left little earworms like “Steamroller” lingering in my head for days.

5 More to Check Out

Lifeguard – “Dressed in Trenches” EP, JW Francis – “Swooning,” Wilco – “Cousin,” Arlo Parks – “My Soft Machine,” 100 Gecs – “10,000 Gecs”

“The Bear” Season 2/FX

The Best TV of 2023

Every year I feel like I watch a lot of TV. Too much TV. Way too much. Not included on here are the countless hours of “Survivor” and “The Challenge” for which I’ve now become consumed thanks to my wife’s nudging. And despite all the hours spent, I get to the Emmys and there are still a dozen dramas and miniseries that have been on for seven years that I’ve still never watched and for which I feel some gigantic blind spot. There’s too much TV. That appears to be changing soon in industry terms, but it will never feel that way in terms of real life terms. So there’s a chance if your favorite show is not on this list it’s because I haven’t seen it, not because I didn’t like it. But if you’re not watching at least a handful of these shows, what are you even doing?

1. “The Bear”

“The Bear” was already incredible but found a new gear in Season 2, revealing how our anxieties are not just a product of our environment but of our choices and the time we make for ourselves and others. Yet it’s still hilarious and thrilling and never homework. It is a masterful, savory meal AND a deep dish Pequod’s pizza all in one.

2. “The Last of Us”

You can suspend all your expectations about what a video game adaptation can be. “The Last of Us” is very faithful to the PS3 game, down to the look and sound of the clickers, the plot beats, and the accent in Bella Ramsey’s voice as Ellie. Yet it adds such depth and substance to make for an experience even more sobering than the game. All those newcomer bandwagon fans are going to be floored by Part 2.

3. “Succession”

It couldn’t have ended any other way. The smartest show on television still found a way to surprise with the shocking end for Logan Roy to the devastating emotion at his funeral. It will live forever in memes but those will never do justice to the brilliant writing and performances that have kept this so consistently great.

4. “Barry”

“Succession” was awesome all season long, but was the “Barry” finale even better than “Succession’s?” Bill Hader played with incredible structural twists, more surreal and formally daring turns, just as many gut busting, laugh out loud moments, and an ending that encapsulates everything “Barry” has been.   

5. “Jury Duty”

It’s a miracle this show exists and is as funny as it is. Constantly you’re wondering how they did it, how can things possibly go horribly wrong, and then they give you the opportunity to see just how brilliantly it all came together. Good luck doing a Season 2 though.

6. “The Curse”

I’m still only halfway through the series, and it’s maybe not as pound for pound hilarious as Nathan Fielder’s “Nathan for You” or as formally brilliant as “The Rehearsal,” but the slow burn awkwardness and strangeness of “The Curse” is on another level. Emma Stone has a twofer of great performances this year, here playing the perfect paragon of liberalism and all the baggage that comes with that.

7. “Only Murders in the Building”

Three seasons in, “Only Murders” has cemented itself as one of the consistently great comedies on TV. It’s so good people have started to turn against it and Martin Short. But if the murder mystery itself didn’t have the same intrigue, it made up for it in sheer showmanship of its songs and one-liners.

8. “Schmigadoon”

Maybe I have a soft-spot for musical comedies this year, but what started as a cute trifle in its first season became an underrated gem in its second. “Schmigadoon,” now “Schmicago,” swapped musical eras and came away with one catchy, hilarious song after another.

9. “Abbott Elementary”

Technically we got only half a season’s worth of content within the confines of 2023, but “Abbott” just two seasons in already has enough episodes with characters so familiar that it feels like a mainstay that’s been on for a decade. With any luck, Season 3 will elevate this show into All-Timer territory.

10. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

There’s no denying that this show is not what it was in its first two Emmy-winning seasons, and you may have given up a while ago, but the fifth and final season of “Maisel” was easily its best since then. The show re-framed itself from a journey of IF Midge would make it to HOW, and it allowed the show to focus on the characters and the familial bonds it does best.

Some Others to Check Out

“I’m a Virgo,” “The Afterparty,” “Lessons in Chemistry,” “Party Down,” “All the Light We Cannot See,” “Quarterback”

The Best Movies of 2019

How do you juggle a Best of the Decade List, a hectic awards season, having a life and a best of 2019 list? You do one of those things late. So yes, it’s 2020 now, but the year isn’t over until the Oscars, which happens thankfully a lot earlier this year.

These are the 10 movies I couldn’t stop thinking about in 2019 and want to see again as soon as possible.

Parasite
Neon

1. Parasite

The first time I saw “Parasite,” I was struck by the meticulous construction of its devilish con game and the cynical bite of its commentary on class inequality. The story felt like Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters” if it was told by Bong Joon-ho, a Korean family drama with a far bleaker and negative outlook of the world. The mid-film twist was jaw-dropping, and the ending was hypnotic. It was clear then this was the best movie of the year. The second time I saw it, the dupe of the gullible family was just the set up, an amusing game as juicy as a peach. What stood out were the more human moments mixed in with Bong’s stylized set pieces, like the nightmare of watching the protagonists’ home flooding because they live literally below the poverty line. And instead of the violent, bloody conclusion, the more powerful, lingering moment was “Parasite’s” touching coda and family reunion. Bong’s film isn’t a masterpiece because it’s so “metaphorical.” It’s a sobering story about how having a plan for the future can make all the difference in the world.

Continue reading “The Best Movies of 2019”

The Best Albums of the 2010s

Arcade Fire, Japandroids, The National and St. Vincent make up some of my 10 favorites of the decade

I liked a lot of music before this decade, but the 2010s was the decade I actually started listening to it. This was the decade I developed a taste and really drilled down on what I liked. In the 2010s I saw just under 200 concerts (I have a running list). The previous decade I could count on two hands the number of shows I’d seen. This was the decade I got an iPod Classic, and I’ve made sure that device outlived when Apple ultimately discontinued it.

Though on many top 10 lists I’ve seen, some don’t even have a single rock record on them. Music is diverse and distinctive in a way movies and TV are less so. And maybe in the next decade I’ll be able to expand my horizons to genres I only dabbled with this decade.

So you’ll forgive me for not listing each of the most important pop, rap, country and metal stars of recent memory. You don’t need to come to me to read about why Kendrick Lamar is so great. Rather, these are the 50 albums and artists (I only picked one album per artist/band) that meant the most to me this decade, the ones that constantly soundtracked my life these last 10 years.

Continue reading “The Best Albums of the 2010s”

The Best TV Shows of the 2010s

From Barry to Bojack, from Midge Maisel to Eleven, these were my 10 favorite shows this decade

Here’s the thing about TV: Ok there’s actually a couple of things about TV that make it complicated for me to write about it.

I once did a handful of TV reviews for TheWrap, including one about a season of “Bojack Horseman.” I adore that show, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s damn near impossible to really describe. But here I am trying to make “Bojack” Season 5 make sense for anyone who might click on it. It was clear this season had some incredible highs, but also some uncharacteristic lows, and I didn’t have the words to say why I was giving it a good review while also trying to say how weird and frustrating a season it was. Suffice it to say, the whole thing did not go well.

But here’s another thing: I probably watch more TV than the average person, but I also have a ghastly number of blind spots, and no, I will not be sharing what they are. I almost refuse to truly binge a show in the way most do, and I’d rather catch up on old movies rather than six seasons of some cultish sitcom I keep hearing about.

TV is also inherently hard to pin down. Saying a show is the best of the decade by no means makes it perfect. Individual episodes of some of these shows are straight up bad, if not entire seasons! Others have not been on the air long enough to really have those problem episodes that will change the perception of the show over time, but they feel like important statements that will last even if they ended today.

So these are the 10 shows, in alphabetical order, that meant the most to me this decade and ones I know I’ll come back to time and again.

Continue reading “The Best TV Shows of the 2010s”

The Best Movies of the 2010s

Featuring films by Richard Linklater, Terrence Malick, the Coen Brothers and Greta Gerwig

As I’m writing this, a huge swath of the Internet has attempted to gaslight the entire country into believing that “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is a bad movie. Countless fanboys and dude bros have spent enough time decrying this movie as a failure and the movie that killed the franchise that if you admit you actually like or even love “The Last Jedi,” you won’t escape all the outraged haters letting you know how wrong you are. Preferring “Rogue One” or Baby Yoda are just the norm now.

The 2010s were the Twitter Decade, where every discussion about politics, sports or pop culture was filtered through what a bunch of people who spend way too much time online are saying about it. Anything that tried to be sincere was dead on arrival, and movies were judged based on how many memes or gifs they generated and how they seeped into the “cultural conversation” that is toxic Internet discourse.

So when I sat down to make my list of the 10 Best Movies of the Decade, I really had to step outside myself and figure out, “What do I actually think about these movies?” Not “what did they say about this decade” or “how important were they?” I tried not to care what the Reddit mob thinks. But of course, I didn’t have time to rewatch many of the movies I’ve loved and remembered over the last 10 years, so this list is as unfiltered as I can be.

Also, if you don’t feel like reading, please check out this podcast I recorded going over my Top 10 films. Zach Dennis and I got the band back together for a special reunion podcast of The News Reel, which you can listen to below.

 
Continue reading “The Best Movies of the 2010s”

The Best Movies of 2018

“A Star is Born,” “Black Panther,” “First Reformed” and “Cold War” are all among Brian’s best movies of 2018

The films released in 2018 are all firmly in the Trump era. If the best movies of last year were the ones that were either shockingly relevant to the times (“Get Out”) or were enough pure adrenaline escapism (“Baby Driver”) to provide a distraction from the barrage of noise and conflict going on in the real world, then the most effective movies of this year were the ones that managed to do both. They’re timely and don’t ignore the world around them but also were wildly entertaining and richly cinematic.

Films as diverse as Spike Lee’s hyper-political genre film “BlacKkKlansman,” the tear jerking documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” Marvel’s racially-charged superhero epic “Black Panther” and the delightful fable “Paddington 2” were able to be in the same conversation as movies that say as much about life in 2018 as they are fun to watch. Though maybe that’s the key for any year and not just years in which every push notification and tweet brings an absurd amount of anxiety. The best movies are ones that have something to say, that make you think and that you want to watch again.

These were the 10 (okay, 11) movies that did all of the above this year: Continue reading “The Best Movies of 2018”

The Best Albums of 2018

“I’m so glad I came but I can’t wait to leave,” St. Vincent sings on “Slow Disco.” In two different remixed versions of her ghostly, neon-tinged anthem originally heard on last year’s “Masseduction,” she reveals both the rousing elation and haunting melancholy of the same line. My favorite version though is this year’s “Fast Slow Disco,” along with the accompanying music video. Annie Clark moshes among a rambunctious, sweaty mass of burly men dressed in leather and bondage in a gay club. She conveys a liberating celebration while acknowledging how fleeting the sensation can be. “Don’t it beat a slow dance to death?”

This is one of the songs that spoke to me the most this year, along with the arresting contrast of party rhythms and aggressive beats in the explosively topical “This is America” by Childish Gambino, and the enormous, rising wave when I heard Lady Gaga belt out “Shallow” in “A Star is Born.”

But “Fast Slow Disco” in particular made me think of my own concert going and listening this year. I still can’t think of a better feeling than hearing great music at a live show, but I’ve started to notice some of my fatigue. I listened to less new music this year, and I’m starting to be more selective in what concerts I spend my time and money. It could just be this year in music, in which the most important albums of the year were far more divided among critics, and the culture gravitated toward these often meme-worthy tracks and videos more so than a single artist or album.

Or it could be a sign of how my listening might look going forward. So this year, you’ll find a lot of my old favorites, all organized alphabetically, with the exception of my one big new discovery this year.  Continue reading “The Best Albums of 2018”

Every Mission: Impossible Movie Ranked, From Worst to Best

Where does Tom Cruise’s latest, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” rank among the six films?

Did anyone ever expect the “Mission: Impossible” franchise to have this much longevity? In every movie, Tom Cruise dons a ridiculous prosthetic mask, pulls off an impossible heist and even ends up forking over the thing he just stole to the very person he’s trying to keep it from in the first place. But across 22 years, six films and five directors, each “Mission: Impossible” movie has varied wildly in tone, style and cast while pushing the limits of wacky, action set pieces and preserving the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the original TV series. With “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” the sixth film in Cruise and Paramount’s franchise hitting theaters Friday, we chose to accept this nearly impossible mission of trying to decide which ones we like best. This list will self destruct in five seconds. Continue reading “Every Mission: Impossible Movie Ranked, From Worst to Best”

The Best Movies of 2017

Brian reflects on the year in film, with a year end list of the Best Movies of 2017 that includes “Baby Driver,” “Dunkirk,” “Detroit,” and more.

I have no interest in making a year end list that speaks to life under Donald Trump or that reflects the cultural consciousness of 2017.

These are among the more tiring of critical, shorthand cliches for summing up the year in movies. And bold-faced political films like “Get Out” and Americana rich dramas like “Three Billboards” and “The Florida Project” all perform very well in that context. But I don’t want to read the analysis for what “The Shape of Water” has to say about healthcare any more than I want to pretend as though that’s how I shaped my list.

The other cliche is the critic who wants to recommend as much as possible. News flash: there are a lot of good movies readily available at your fingertips, but you know as well as I do that there are only so many hours in the day. Critics often bemoan these lists as pointless and would rather devote their column inches to movies that won’t appear elsewhere. But if I can be the umpteenth person to say you should really see “Lady Bird,” hey, maybe you should really see “Lady Bird.”

So here’s what I’ve come up with instead: the movies on my Best of the Year List are ranked based on what I’d most want to watch again right now. And in my book, there are about 18 truly great movies I saw in 2017 that stand above the rest. These are the ones I’ve most wanted to tell people to see, the ones that have lingered in my mind for weeks and months and have made me want to revisit them. Isn’t that enough? Continue reading “The Best Movies of 2017”

The Best Albums of 2017

First, a few words about Arcade Fire.

I never thought the day would come that I would be ashamed to like this band. 2017 in music proved that possibly only Beyoncé is sacred. Anything that you liked yesterday could just as well be fodder for infinite Internet memes today and tomorrow. If you’re not saying or doing something important right now, do you even still matter? Just ask Taylor Swift.

With their fifth album “Everything Now,” Arcade Fire sought to satirize and critique that Internet culture. And where Father John Misty succeeded and generated the right kind of controversy, Arcade Fire’s album rollout was hindered by a marketing campaign in which the band issued phony reviews and literal fake news. At one point they halted the sale of “Everything Now” fidget spinners because they had their own fidget spinners to sell. And every Internet gimmick that in one artist’s hand would be genius in another would be U2 dumping “Songs of Innocence” on your iPhone.

Arcade Fire may have been good once, but they’re now in the same cultural doghouse as U2, Coldplay and even Nickelback, undisputed fair game for whatever labels and jokes you want to assign. I don’t know whether Arcade Fire was ever “cool.” Hipsters certainly do not like them anymore. But “Everything Now” was an excuse for all the haters to come out of the woodwork. “This band has been bad since “The Suburbs!” And they’ve always been overrated!”

The problem is that the music itself didn’t rise above the online reaction and marketing rollout. “Everything Now” is their worst album, and on the whole, it’s not especially good. The lethargic reggae beat of “Chemistry,” the arrhythmia that is “Peter Pan,” the generic punk and country of both “Infinite Content” tracks: this is the worst stretch this band has ever recorded. And yet as I’ve sat with this album more, it’s grown on me. Songs like “Put Your Money On Me” and “We Don’t Deserve Love” are dreamy earworms that linger in your mind, but they’re not the soaring rock anthems that have traditionally served as Arcade Fire album finales. The title track and “Creature Comfort” are two of the best singles of the year, the first an upbeat indie dance jingle with melancholy lyrics about media saturation, and the second a violent track with a club beat and a message about suicide.

So it pains me when I have to pretend as though I’m wrong to call Arcade Fire my favorite band, as though they belong to some other cultural entity that isn’t woke to what’s actually good. Arcade Fire were great before, and they can be great again, but it doesn’t mean they’re worth ignoring now.

As for what I most enjoyed in music this year, I’m not a good enough judge of what’s fashionable to know whether any or all of these artists are actually cool or important, but I refuse to be ashamed about any of them. These are the Best Albums of 2017.  Continue reading “The Best Albums of 2017”