And Now...My Favorite Movies of 2023

I had a very hard time deciding what to put on my year-end favorite movie list this year.  In a lot of ways, i feel like i failed to see some stuff that i would certainly enjoy (think "Godzilla Minus One" or "Poor Things"), and i also crammed as many movies into my eyeholes as possible the last week that i was unable to catch in theaters earlier in the year.  Anyway, i think these 15 are the best i can assemble for now.  I don't believe i have a favorite, and these are presented alphabetically, but i do think it's something that the whole "Barbenheimer" event from this summer actually churned out two of the best flicks of 2023.  So without further ado, here are my favorite films of the year...

1. Barbie

2. Beau Is Afraid

3. Brooklyn 45

4. The Creator

5. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

6. The Fall of The House of Usher

7. Infinity Pool

8. John Wick 4

9. The Killer

10. Killers of The Flower Moon

11. May December

12. Oppenheimer

13. Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain

14. When Evil Lurks

15. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

And that's that.  Happy New Year!

And Now...My Favorite Movies of 2023 (That Didn't Come Out in 2023)

I feel like i probably watch more movies than the average bear.  Not uber-cinephile levels or anything, but i watch a movie (or more) almost every single day.  Even then, i somehow manage to miss things that i should have seen years ago.  And since COVID made working from a home (most of the time) a thing for me, i've been trying to rectify some of these misses of the last three and a half years.  Here are 10 that i really liked in 2023.

1. After Hours (1985)

2. Blue Collar (1978)

3. Body Heat (1981)

4. Body Parts (1991)

5. California Split (1974)

6. Cop Land (1997)

7. The Last Detail (1973)

8. The Manitou (1978)

9. Matewan (1987)

10. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

I probably could have put more on this list, but i'm tired and need to put some thought into my favorite movies released this year.  I'm going to try and squeeze a few more in before New Year's Eve.  Be on the lookout for my favorite movies of 2023 in a week or so.

And Now...My Favorite Songs of 2023 (That Didn't Come Out in 2023)

I really do love finding old music that knocks my socks off.  That rush that comes from discovering some dusty, old nugget is one of the best things about being a music collector.  And this year proved fruitful as always, giving me a dreamy '90s Japanese mix of psych folk, space rock, and shoegaze (probably my favorite thing i heard all year, new or old), UK psych organs, old soul, German psychedelic fusion, more psych rock, space rock, Canadian proto-punk, 80's synth pop, disco, and a Depeche Mode side project that for some reason i never paid attention to before.  Check it out below.

1. Shizuka - Plan for Solitude

2. Arzachel - Queen St. Gang

3. Lee Moses - What You Don't Want Me To Be

4. The Motherhood - Soul Town

5. Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera - Dream Starts

6. Dunebug - Speeed

7. Simply Saucer - Bullet Proof Nothing

8. Escape from New York - Save Our Love

9. Tommy Seebach - Bubble Sex

10. Recoil - Bloodline

And there you go.  Tune in tomorrow for some first-time movie watches for me from this year.

And Now...My Favorite Songs of 2023

I don't think i have a favorite song for the year.  Rather, i guess i have 50.  So here are 50 songs from 2023 that the year would have sucked without.  Check 'em out.

1. The Lost Days - Outro

2. Deary - Fairground

3. Algiers - I Can't Stand It

4. FVNERALS - For Horror Eats the Light

5. Frank Ene - I Always Meant to Do You Harm

6. M83 - Laura

7. Kosaya Gora - Te Slova

8. Allison Lorenzen & Midwife - Glycerine

9. Bono / Burattini - Trick or Chess

10. Harp - I Am the Seed

11. DAIISTAR - Tracemaker

12. Angel Olsen - Nothing's Free

13. Waste Man - White Horse

14. Troller - Gore

15. Bodywash - No Repair

16. Vanity Mirror - Tuesday's News

17. The Waeve - Kill Me Again

18. The Lemon Twigs - What Happens to a Heart

19. Dorotheo - Las Nubes

20. Sofie Royer - Mio

21. Ty Segall - Void

22. Kite - Remember Me

23. White Beast - Fencewalker

24. Estrella del Sol - Figura de Cristal

25. Animal Piss, It's Everywhere - Dream of No Alarm

26. Slowdive - Chained to a Cloud

27. Drab Majesty - Vanity

28. Mammatus - Expanding Majesty

29. Mandy, Indiana - Sensitivity Training

30. Model/Actriz - Mosquito

31. Portrayal of Guilt - I (One Last Taste of Heaven)

32. Tombstones in Their Eyes - We Are Gold

33. Mondo Drag - Passages

34. Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - A Fresh Dawn for North Cheshire

35. Full of Hell & Nothing - Spend the Grace

36. Large Plants - Tendril

37. Retep Folo & Dorothy Moskowitz - The Awakening of Love in the Spring

38. Forever Pavot - Les Amants

39. Sexores - Magallanes

40. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes

41. Melody Fields - Jesus

42. Arianne Churchman - The Luminous

43. Body / Negative - Everett

44. Billy Woods & Kenny Segal - Face Time

45. Depeche Mode - My Cosmos Is Mine

46. Wurld Series - Alive with Flies

47. Jay Royale - The Wise and Lakid

48. Sunlotus - Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me

49. Adam Miller - Everybody's Been Burned

50. Sprain - Margin for Error

Be back tomorrow for 10 older songs i got into this year.

And Now...My Favorite Albums of 2023

Here we go again.  It seems like i was just doing this, but another year, another list of albums that got me through it all.  Sometimes, i have a big, long spiel i give here, but let's just get to the list.  No bullshit.  As per usual, these are in alphabetical order.  And away we go...

1. Algiers - Shook

The Atlanta band has been one of the more interesting projects out there since their debut back in 2015, and their latest finds them firing on all cylinders with a slew of guests from rapper Billy Woods to Rage Against The Machine's Zack De La Rocha.  And i got to see them perform during SXSW back in March.  They were fire!

2. Animal Piss, It's Everywhere - S/T

The band with the strangest name on the list make old school country music to drink away your pains to.

3. Bono / Burattini - Suono In Un Tempo Trasfigurato

Inspired by the avant garde films of cinematographer Maya Deren, the band's experimental electronic textures feel like the accompaniment to some grand art installation.

4. deary - S/T

Dreamy shoegaze pop to float away to.

5. Depeche Mode - Memento Mori

The best album Gore and Gahan have made since 1996's "Ultra" that also serves as a tribute to the late, great Andrew Fletcher.

6. Franke Ene - Cruel A L'Amour

Moody, brooding, romantic synth pop that got into my veins and stayed there.

7. FVNERALS - Let the Earth Be Silent

The band's mix of metal, doom, drone, and post rock is the perfect soundtrack to accompany a gray, dreary day...or maybe the apocalypse.

8. Harp - Albion

Former Midlake singer Tim Smith's new project pairs the sounds of British folk with dreamy, airy new wave synths to wistful, delirious effect.

9. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes

Two of the most unique rappers around get together to make some wild music and scare some hoes.

10. Large Plants - The Thorn

Fuzzy psychedelic rock that sounds like it's always just been there.

11. The Lemon Twigs - Everything Harmony

The Lemon Twigs have always pulled from retro influences to make their art, but on their latest, it feels like they took an entire decade of AM sounds and distilled it to its purest form.  Just wonderful.

12. The Lost Days - In the Store

Short and sweet lo-fi folk to hum along to on a breezy afternoon.

13. Mammatus - Expanding Majesty

The album cover alone tells you everything you need to know.

14. Model/Actriz - Dogsbody

Probably the coolest act i saw during SXSW, Model/Actriz make a kind of industrial art rock that's absolutely intoxicating.

15. Portrayal of Guilt - Devil Music

The Austin metal band present five tracks in a more traditional hardcore black metal form followed by those same five tracks accompanied by orchestral arrangements that sound like just about the most evil thing you've ever heard.

16. Slowdive - Everything Is Alive

One of my favorite bands of all time continues their late era shoegaze Renaissance.

17. Sprain - The Lamb as Effigy

It's hard to describe the sheer immensity of this album.  Post punk and noise rock play along side post rock and the avant garde.  It's a huge and dense listen, but totally worth every second.

18. Troller - Drain

Austin gothy darkwave band make good on the Relapse debut.

19. Various - When the Frog from the Well Sees the Ocean (Reports from English UFOlklore)

The good folks at Folklore Tapes compiled one of the coolest albums of the year, full of old folk music, radio waves, occult vibes, psychedelia, mysteries, myths, nature, topography, and strange phenomena.  Fans of Trish Keenan and Broadcast should dive right in.

20. Billy Woods & Kenny Segal - Maps

Billy Woods is quickly becoming my favorite rapper, and his latest continues that trend.

So there you have it.  Do yourselves a favor and seek all of these out, and then come back tomorrow for my favorite songs of 2023.