Title: Past Lives Release Date: June 2, 2023 Director: Celine Song Production Company: CJ ENM | Killer Films | 2AM Summary/Review:
This quiet, intimate film explores the intertwining of two people, Nora Moon (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Tee Yoo). They first meet as preteens in Seoul, perhaps on course to be one another’s first sweetheart but Nora’s family has already planned to emigrate to Toronto. Twelve years later they briefly reunite over long Skype calls, but that fizzles out as neither one is able to make the commitment to visit the other in person. Another dozen years pass and Hae Sung makes a trip to see Greta who now lives in New York City and is married to Arthur (John Magaro). The bulk of the movie documents this visit and the conversations they. Performances are restrained but their buried feelings are not too far from the surface. The movie does an excellent job of balancing the sense of missed opportunities and the question of what one’s life might be if different choices were made while also recognizing that one can still be happy with how life turned out. It’s a very artful debut for Celine Song.
As opposed to my usual Album of the Months posts where I review albums released in the previous month, I went back to listen to a lot of albums I had missed over the course of the year. I perused various end of year Best of 2023 lists from the New York Times, NPR, Paste, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Stereogum, and I reviewed a handful I think are worth checking out. I’m also including a review of Peter Gabriel’s new album which is on no end of year lists since it was just released at the beginning of December.
Album: Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? Artist: Kara Jackson Release Date: April 14, 2023 Label: September Favorite Tracks:
dickhead blues
pawnshop
rat
why does the earth give us people to love?
Thoughts: The debut album from the Illinois-based artist Kara Jackson is rooted in folk traditions. Accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, Jackson sings about love and loss, exploring grief as the cost of loving relationships. Jackson is the former U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate and her story songs reflect a deftness with words and their multitude meanings. Rating: ***1/2
Album: Sundial Artist: Noname Release Date: August 11, 2023 Label: Noname, Inc. Favorite Tracks:
hold me down
boomboom (feat. Jimetta Rose and Voices of Creation)
namesake (feat. Ayoni)
oblivion (feat. Common and Ayoni)
Thoughts:
Chicago’s Noname (performing name of Fatimah Nyeema Warner) draws on her experience in slam poetry to deliver hip hop rhymes supported by silky smooth jazzl and gospel music. Lyrically Noname doesn’t hold back with anti-capitalist and anti-racist themes. She is not afraid to include her own complicity in her criticism.
Rating: ***1/2
Album: I Killed Your Dog Artist: L’Rain Release Date: October 13, 2023 Label: Mexican Summer Favorite Tracks:
Pet Rock
I Hate My Best Friends
r (Emote)
Uncertainty Principle
Knead Bee
Thoughts: L’Rain is the stage name for Brooklyn-based experimental music artists Taja Cheek, which honestly is a cool name already. The experimental sounds sometimes have the edge of guitar rock or vocal R&B, almost enough to sound like something more mainstream. But the collage-like arrangements and odd lyrics will disabuse you of that notion. Rating: ****
Album: I/O Artist: Peter Gabriel Release Date: 1 December 2023 Label: Real World | EMI | Republic Favorite Tracks:
Panopticom
The Court
Playing for Time
i/o
Live and Let Live
Thoughts: Peter Gabriel spent a long time working on this album, his first collection of original music since 2002, which includes tracks he’s first started recording in 1995. And even now he’s still uncertain how he wants to release this music, providing a “Bright-Side Mix” and “Dark-Side Mix” of each of the album’s 12 tracks. I don’t have an ear of an audiophile and usually can’t differentiate the differences of mixes, although I can say the “Dark-Side Mix” sounds more bass heavy. The musical style sounds like it could have been released in the late 90s/early 00s, but it doesn’t sound stale. While there’s no track that stands out as a “hit single,” it is a surprisingly cohesive album for tunes that have been futzed over for decades. The lyrics reflect upon humanity’s relationship with technology and nature, and sees deep flaws in each, but Gabriel’s tone is one of optimism. I don’t know if this will be Peter Gabriel’s final album, but if it is he’ll join David Bowie and Leonard Cohen in finishing their careers with new and complex works. And his voice still sounds great.
Jordanian and English DJ/producer Oun Jweinat’s bass-heavy electronic track “Love We Battle” is featured on By the People, For the People, a compilation to raise money for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
This should be my final song of the week for the year, but look for my annual list of favorite songs just before the New Year.
Panorama of the Mountains 