Chiffon may have turned 70 this year, but he's still a 16-year old girl inside. And streaming music has liberated her from the tyranny of critical gatekeepers. Rolling Stone reviews once determined what records she would buy with her allowance and Baskin-Robbins 31 Flavors income; now she simply clicks on Apple's "New Music Daily" playlist and downloads what she likes--277 songs and 64 albums this year--based on sound only, baby (SOB).
Last year I managed to distill my favorites to 25 unusually diverse choices. My year-end playlist now has doubled in size, reflecting a resurgence in rock (Inhaler and The Struts) and legacy acts (Iggy Pop, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Robertson, Noel Gallagher, Shania Twain and Dolly Parton) as well as "Barbie." IMHO, that soundtrack contributed mightily to the movie's success.
A loud shout-out to Jessie Ware, too, whose body of disco-inspired work gets better and better: "That! Feels Good!" is her best album yet and she's just as fabulous in concert. This old queen thought he'd died and gone to heaven when she encored with a cover of "Believe," from the balcony of Washington, DC's Lincoln Theater bedecked in a boa and evening gown.
If I had to pick a favorite 2023 release it would be a fight-to-the-death battle between the cool and uncool: Post Malone's "Chemical" vs. Lewis Capaldi's "Heavenly Kind of State of Mind," both of which deserve to be heard speeding along the autobahn at 160 km per hour. But Capaldi wins in the end: oxycontin, the subject of "Chemical" simply can't compete with romantic love, now matter how cheesy in Chiffon's world view!
As for lyrics, Chiffon asks: "Who's better than Tay Tay?"
'Cause she's the kind of book that you can't put down
Like if Cleopatra grew up in a small town
And all the bad boys would be good boys
If they only had a chance to love her
And to tell you the truth, sometimes I wish I was her
"Pearls" by Jessie Ware
"Just To Keep You Satisfied" by Inhaler
"Heaven" by Niall Horan
"Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.?" by Lana del Rey
"Living in the past" by Pet Shop Boys
"Heartbreak in the Making" by Dagny
"Inhale/Exhale AIR" by Shania Twain
"Acrostico" by Shakira
"New Atlantis" by Iggy Pop
"Ant Pile" by Dominic Fike
"Revolve Around You" by Lola Young
"Family" by the Weeknd & Suzanna Son
"Heavenly Kind of State of Mind" by Lewis Capaldi
"rock hudson" by Kelly Clarkson
"Can't" by ANOHNI
"Man I Am" by Sam Smith
"Your Spit" by IAN SWEET
"Elevator Eyes" by Tove Lo
"When Emma Falls In Love (Taylor's Version)" by Taylor Swift
"Red Horse" by Corinne Bailey Rae
"So Right" by Carly Rae Jepson
"Think of a Number" by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Circus
"pretty isn't pretty" by Olivia Rodrigo
"More" by Madeline Edwards
"Paint My Bedroom Black" by Holly Humberstone
"Still Standing" by Robbie Robertson
"Pretty Vicious" by The Struts
"Wrecking Ball (featuring Miley Cyrus)" by Dolly Parton
"One Last Try" by Romy
"Fever Dreamer" by SG Lewis, Charlotte Day Wilson & Channel Tres
"Stop The Bleeding" by Baby Rose
"Dance The Night" by Dua Lipa
"Your Mind Is Not Your Friend (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)" by The National
"Jersey Giant" by Elle King
"It Never Went Away" by Jon Batiste
"Killing Me" by Conan Gray
"Amandla" by Sun-El Musician & Msaki
"Sunrise (featuring Ocean Vuong)" by Gus Dapperton
"Chemical" by Post Malone
"Pride" by Joy Oladokun
"Summertime/Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" by Mahalia Jackson
"Higher Than Ever Before (Barry Can't Swim Remix)" by Disclosure
"Fall In Love" by Icona Pop
"Close" by Dizzy
"Modern Loneliness" by LAUV
"I Remember Everything (featuring Kacey Musgraves)" by Luke Bryan
"Beast" by Idina Menzel
"These Lips" by Jessie Ware
"You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" by Sigala & Adam Lambert
"Where The Wild Things Are" by Luke Combs
Books (26)
Thank you Colm Toibin and Edward White for sending me back to Thomas Mann and Alfred Hitchcock, the respective masters of their domains, but Tom Crewe wrote my favorite book of the year, a riveting historical novel that captures an era when sexual self-expression demanded lonely courage. Meanwhile, Jac Jemc prompted a spontaneous pilgrimage to Bavaria with her delightful take on royal cousins, one of whom built the fairy-tale castle that Walt Disney appropriated for Cinderella.
Movies (95)
Like every other movie maven in America, I embraced "Barbenheimer" after an exceedingly long and unsatisfying spate of IP-driven dreck, but more germane to the development of this list were the imminent demise of DVD.com, which had me ransacking the films of my youth, and Ferrari, Michael Mann's late-breaking capstone to an illustrious career that proves 80-year-old white guys still have testosterone-filled moves. I LOVED it, as much for the thrilling camera work and superb performances as a screenplay that expects viewers to connect the dots AND go along for the sensational (and horrifying) ride.
Theater (10)
Would you believe that I saw Hamilton for the first time this year and didn't give it five stars? Chalk up the near-miss to the fact that the influence of the once-in-a-generation hit over the past decade has been so pervasive that it seems slightly stale, notwithstanding the excellence of the current production.
Honorable mention goes to Stereophonic, an overlong, four-star drama about the difficulty of artistic collaboration with terrific performances all around and amazing music by Will Butler.
Streaming
It's ironic that I don't rate the form of entertainment that occupies more time than any other but I do have an off-screen life, however diminished by age. Cue the melancholy bagpipes: The Crown, Peter Morgan's unparalleled exercise in truthful imagination, is finally finished, like QEII herself. No pleasures are guilty and I ate up every episode (and dress) of The Gilded Age. Beef, Reservation Dogs and especially The Bear elevated my appreciation for unfamiliar cultures, and giving Euphoria a second chance proved that addiction stories could be given a new spin. The latter also excavated a heretofore unknown musical treasure: Mahalia Jackson's seamless medley of a show tune by George Gershwin (portrayed in Good Night, Oscar, above) and a mournful African American spiritual. Finally, A Small Light added an ancillary dimension to Anne Frank's story, one that reminds us of a time when younger progressives were more likely to sympathize with Jews than castigate them.
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