Sunday, February 09, 2025

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 9, 2025

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 9, 2025 

A film's gross for the last seven days, followed by its total worldwide gross. I begin with data from 

Comscore and then pull from every other source available. 


1. Ne Zha 2–$650m / $1.096b worldwide total 

2. Detective Chinatown 1900–$124m / $384m ww 

3. Boonie Bears: Future Reborn–$27m / $87m ww 

4. Dog Man–$25m / $66m ww 

5. Creation of the Gods 2: Demon Force–$24m / $152m ww 

6. Mufasa: The Lion King–$18m / $671m ww

7. Operation Hadal–$13m / $48m ww 

8. A Complete Unknown–$12m / $90m ww

9. Companion–$12m / $27m ww 

10. Paddington in Peru–$11m / $104m ww 

11. Sonic The Hedgehog 3–$16m /$472m ww 

12. Babygirl–$10m / $58m ww

13. Flight Risk–$9m / $34m ww

14. Heart Eyes–$9m ww debut 

15. The Brutalist–$7m / $25m ww 

16. Love Hurts–$7m ww debut

17. Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants–$8m / $86m ww 

18. Conclave–$5m / $92m ww

19. Wicked–$4m / $723m ww

20. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$4m / $54m ww

21. One of Them Days–$4m / $39m ww 

22. Wolf Man–$3m / $33m ww

23. Becoming Led Zeppelin–$3m ww debut 

24. Moana 2–$2m / $1,039b ww

25. Hitman2–$2m / $15m ww 

26. Secret: Untold Melody–$2m / $4m ww 

27. September 5–$2m / $4m ww 

28. Gladiator II–$1m / $462m ww

29. Nosferatu–$1m / $173m ww

30. I'm Still Here–$1m / $22m ww 

31. Better Man–$1m / $20m ww 

32. Presence–$1m / $8m ww

33. The Three Investigators: Carpathian Dog aka Die Drei ??? Und Der Karpatenhund–$1m / $7m ww


Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's a good marker to indicate a big hit. 


ANALYSIS 

The Chinese box office continues to set records. Three different movies have proven big winners: the eleventh in the Boonie Bears animated franchise, the fourth in the live action Detective Chinatown franchise and the animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2. It is now the first film in history to gross $1 billion in one market alone. The previous record holder was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which  grossed $936.7m in North America alone. (That's a good thing since it cost a reported $500mb!) Worldwide it hit $2b in all. Will Ne Zha 2 match it? Unlikely. The original grossed more than $700m in China alone, but in North America it grossed less than $4m. In the entire rest of the world it grossed less than $40m. 

Because it's Super Bowl weekend, not much is happening in the U.S. But next weekend we'll see the worldwide launch of Captain America: Brave New World. Will Anthony Mackie win fans as the new Cap? Early tracking looks good for opening weekend and it sure would help if the movie is actually any good. We shall see. 

While we wait, I'm launching a new permanent feature: a list of the movies that have proven hits from theatrical alone. I'll group them in three categories: big budget ($100m+), mid-sized (hmm, maybe $21mb-$99mb) and small budget ($20mb or less). Blockbusters can get you only so far; for theatrical to succeed, we need all types of movies: low budget horror flicks, mid-sized movies for adults or potential offbeat franchises and would-be blockbusters. 


2025 HIT FILMS

Here's a list of all the hit films making money in 2025. My rule of thumb is that films should gross roughly at least three times as much as their reported budget. Some people now say a movie need only make 2 1/2 times as much as their budget but I'm sticking with the traditional formula. Of course, we don't really know a movie's budget or the cost of advertising or the backroom deals. Remember, just because a movie isn't a hit from theatrical alone doesn't mean they're losing money. Far from it. We can't dive deep into Hollywood accounting. But we can spot the really big hits that will change careers, launch franchises and generally pay the bills. A few international films probably made the cut but since I don't have even a reported budget, I hate to reward them with hit status. Also, I'll include movies from 2024 if they make the majority of their money in 2025. Here goes. 


Big Budget ($100mb+)

Detective Chinatown 1900 ($125mb est) 


Mid-sized budget ($21mb-$99mb) 

Boonie Bears: Future Reborn ($50mb?) 

Dog Man ($40mb) 

Ne Zha 2 ($80mb) 

Nosferatu ($50mb) 


Small Budget ($20mb or less)

Babygirl ($20mb) 

The Brutalist ($10mb) 

Companion ($10mb) 

Conclave ($20mb; must gross $106m to belong on this list) 

I'm Still Here ($?mb but likely less than $10mb) 

One of Them Days ($14mb) 

Presence ($2mb) 


NOTES 

mb = a film's budget in millions of US dollars; ww = worldwide


1. Ne Zha 2–Reported $80mb. Chinese animated fantasy sequel to the 2019 smash which cost about $20m and grossed $743m. A spin-off film Jiang Ziya was hobbled by COVID but grossed $243m. Now the direct sequel Ne Zha 2 cost $80m and our spunky heroine (based on a famed mythological character around for centuries) takes on sea monsters. The series is based on Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin from the 16th century. 

2. Detective Chinatown 1900–$125mb at least? This is the fourth in a wildly popular buddy comedy mystery series. Think oh, Rush Hour? 48 Hours? Each film cost more than the one before and grossed more. Since we're on film #4 and it's a period movie set in San Francisco, it's safe to assume this cost more than #3, which cost $117m and grossed $686m worldwide. I mean, $150mb is probably more realistic, at least. Oh and clues in this one indicate the next film in the series will be set in London. So, Detective Chinatown 1920, here we come

3. Boonie Bears: Future Reborn–$50mb? This once low budget animated franchise keeps getting bigger and bigger at the box office. Film #9 grossed $220m and #10 grossed $270m. 

4. Dog Man–A reported $40mb. It's always good to gross your budget on opening week. Plus, the books are funny, the reviews are good, the audience response is great and it has the rest of the world to open in. So get ready for Dog Man 2. 

5. Creation of the Gods 2: Demon Force–$110mb? Creation of the Gods is a live action fantasy trilogy that was shot all at once over an 18 month period, a la Lord of the Rings. Since the first part cost $110m, presumably parts two and three cost at least as much, though their initial releases were delayed because of time-consuming special effects. And guess what? Like Ne Zha 1 and 2, this too is based on Investiture of the Gods, making Ming dynasty author Xu Zhonglin the hottest scribe in town. Yes, there are a handful of English translations of the tales, but none of a single professional review and only one even has a handful of reader reviews, so I would be wary. And I'm still waiting for a good translation of the epic from which Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was drawn. 

6. Mufasa: The Lion King–$200mb. 

7Operation Hadal–$150mb. In director Dante Lam's Chinese action film, mercenaries have taken over a deep sea platform in Chinese waters and well, the Chinese Navy is not about to take that lying down.  It's a sequel to Operation Red Sea which cost $70m and grossed almost $600m. This cost twice as much and looks like it will struggle to gross half as much. Not good. 

8. A Complete Unknown–$60mb+ for this Bob Dylan biopic? That's a lot of money for a film about Dylan going electric at Newport. I mean, I wanted to see it but then I'm a Dylan fanatic. But $180m worldwide seems highly unlikely to me, if not impossible. (Do other countries give a toss about this? Is Chalamet a big enough draw for this story? I doubt it.) I'm glad it was made, but it was made for too much. Like Gladiator II, this will be seen as a commercial success, but it's not. 

9. Companion–A reported $10mb for this sci-fi horror comedy. Great reviews means this one should have a long run at the box office. 

10. Paddington in Peru–$90mb? Sadly, three times is not the charm artistically for this once-perfect franchise. 

11. Sonic The Hedgehog 3–$120mb 

12. Babygirl–$20mb for this Nicole Kidman sexy drama about a powerful businesswoman finding her kink with a younger, dominating man...her intern, no less! No milk was harmed in the making of this movie. 

13. Flight Risk–$25mb for director Mel Gibson action film starring Mark Walhberg.

14. Heart Eyes–$18mb for a Valentine's Day-themed horror flick. 

15. The Brutalist–$10mb; Adrien Brody in this architect-as-hero period drama. 

16. Love Hurts–$18mb for action comedy starring Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose. This is no way to follow-up winning an Oscar!

17. Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants–No budget available. A wuxia martial arts period adventure film written and directed by the legendary Tsui Hark. It's based on part of the novel of the same name by Jin Yong. 

18. Conclave–a reported $20mb for this Vatican thriller means this is a hit. I do not see the point in putting it on PVOD and flooding the market with bootlegs while potentially harming box office. This is exactly the sort of film that can play and play in theaters. 

19. Wicked–$150mb for each part, so $300mb total plus beaucoup marketing. It's a big movie! And they're made almost all their money back from the Part One alone. 

20. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$40mb for Gerard Butler action flick. 

21. One of Them Days–$14mb. It's always good to gross your budget during a film's opening week. So yea for producer Issa Rae and this comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA. (What an opening week for SZA! Her movie opened well and she made my list of The 250 Best Albums of the 21st Century...So Far.)

22. Wolf Man–$25mb 

23. Becoming Led Zeppelin–Long-gestating doc breaks into the Top 10 on opening weekend, playing on IMAX  screens only. 

24. Moana 2–Is the budget lower since it was intended for tv, at first? Or higher because they had to rethink everything? Disney says it cost $150mb, just like the original. You can bet Dwayne Johnson gets more than his share of coconuts, but that won't matter with a hit like this.  

25. Hitman2–Korean action comedy. The creator of a webtoon series is derided for the quality of his latest season...until real-life terrorists seem to mirror his storyline and he's suddenly under suspicion by the government. The original film grossed $18m. 

26. Secret: Untold Melody–SK drama remake of a Taiwanese weepie about a pianist whose career is cut short by tragedy...but he finds comfort from a time-traveling woman. 

27. September 5–No reported budget. 

28. Gladiator II–$250mb for Ridley Scott sword and sandals epic. It needed $750m worldwide for me to call it a hit from theatrical alone but $600m would be just fine. It's got swords. It's got sandals. Does it have legs? No, it does not. This is the sort of film that everyone thinks of as a hit, but actually didn't deliver. The talk of Gladiator 3 is nonsense. Maybe many years from now they'll use the name to launch a new franchise, but this is the end for now. 

29. Nosferatu–$50mb for Robert Eggers, acclaimed director of The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman. That had his biggest budget and was not a commercial success. I saw him as more of an arthouse guy. But backers stuck with him, gave him a big budget again and a starry cast for a remake of Nosferatu, which I guess is classier than remaking Dracula but still a hard sell. And on Christmas Day? That's counter-programming I was not behind. Happily, I was wrong and Eggers looks more like the next Peter Jackson/Guillermo Del Toro than a guy given big budgets too fast or for the wrong projects. Good for him.

30. I'm Still Here–this Brazilian Oscar contender has no reported budget. But it's almost certainly a success story commercially for director Walter Salles. However, it's been a hard one to track. Usually, the film's grosses have been less than $1m so it hasn't made my weekly chart. This week, the film expanded in North America and grossed $1m in that market alone. So far in North America it has made $2.6m. Worldwide? Well, Box Office Mojo claims its worldwide gross stands at $22m. Wow. Maybe it's been opening in markets all over the world but never quite at the same time and never hitting big enough numbers to be tracked by ComScore, which only reports on the Top 10 right now.  That seemed like a lot so I jumped to Wikipedia, where some fan links to a story written in Brazilian Portuguese and claims it's hit $99m worldwide. Ha! Uh, no. 

31. Better Man–$110mb!!! I just gasped when I saw the budget. Oh dear. I love the craziness of this movie. But that's a LOT of money for such a nutty idea. And forget the nutty idea. It's a musical biopic about an artist whose music I really like but has virtually no profile outside the UK. For heaven's sake, Queen is one of the biggest acts in the world and their biopic cost literally half of this one. Better Man would have been a big gamble at $30mb. 

32. Presence–$2mb for retired director Steven Soderbergh's first of two movies out in 2025. 

33. The Three Investigators: Carpathian Dog aka Die Drei ??? Und Der Karpatenhund–No reported budget.


THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 


This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else discussing box office. 


ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart


The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever, depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend and focusing on new releases? 


How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through the cracks but we are as up to date as we can be, given our dependence on other outlets for the basic info. 


First, I list box office on every film we can from around the world. Any movie grossing at least US $1 million will be on here if we get info on it. Then I give some thoughts on the box office overall and individual films. That's followed by notes where I give info on each movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can. 


--30--     

THE MOVIES, BOOKS, THEATER, CONCERTS, ALBUMS I'VE SEEN/HEARD/READ SO FAR IN 2025

Updated as of February 8, 2025  


KEY: star rating is on the four star scale
          meaning of "/" or "\"
          *** is three stars out of four
          ***/ is three stars leaning towards  3 1/2
          ***\ is three stars leaning towards 2 1/2


The Movies, Books, Theater, Concerts, CDs I've Seen/Read/Heard So Far In 2025

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS
(Increasingly, I am sampling books, reading 10%, 20% even 40 or 50% before deciding to move on. The books below are only the ones I've read completely. That also explains what looks like generous grading -- more and more, if I sense a book is not going to be among my favorites, I stop reading. Too many books; too little time!)

1. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield *** 1/2 
2. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams *** 1/2 
3. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon ***/ 
4. Monster in the Woods by Dave Shelton *** 1/2 
5. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939) **** 
6. The Sitaford Mystery (1931) by Agatha Christie ** 
7. Orbital by Samantha Harvey ***/ 

8. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) *** 1/2 
9. 


CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS (A strong emphasis on the ones I like, so don't think I love everything I listen to -- I just don't bother really listening to the ones I don't )

1. Dizzy Gillespie -- The Complete RCA Victor Recordings 1937-1949 (1995) *** 1/2 
2. Traffic -- John Barleycorn Must Die (1970) ** 
3. Jane Weaver -- Modern Kosmology (2017) *** 
4. The Lijadu Sisters -- Horizon Unlimited (1979) *** 
5. Yes -- Close To The Edge (1972) ** 1/2 
6. Flamin' Groovies -- Teenage Head (1971) ***/ 
7. Giant Sand -- Chore of Enchantment (1999) ** 
8. Liam Bailey -- Zero Grace (2024) *** 1/2 
9. Boards of Canada -- Music Has The Right To Children (1998) ** 1/2 
10. My Bloody Valentine -- mbv (2013) ** 1/2 
11. Liz Phair -- Exile To Guyville (1993) *** 1/2 
12. The Darkness -- Permission To Land (2003) ** 1/2 
13. Ice-T -- O.G. Original Gangster (1991) ** 
14. Goldfrapp -- Seventh Tree (2008) *** 1/2 
15. Napalm Death -- Scum (1987) ** 
16. The Cardigans -- First Band on the Moon (1996) ** 
17. The Notorious B.I.G. -- Ready To Die (1994) ** 1/2 
18. The Rumble -- Stories From The Battlefield (2024) *** 
19. Lady Blackbird -- Slang Spirituals (2024) *** 1/2  
20. Beta Radio -- Waiting For The End To Come (2024) *** 1/2 
21. Fat Boy Slim -- Better Living Through Chemistry (1996) *** 
22. Kelela -- Take Me Apart (2018) *** 
23. Hanoi Rocks -- Back To Mystery City (1983) ** 
24. The Gun Club -- Fire of Love (1981) ** 1/2 
25. Echo and the Bunnymen -- Porcupine (1983) ** 1/2 
26. Ducks Ltd. -- Harm's Way (2024) *** 
27. Charlie xcx -- Brat (2024) ** 1/2 
28. The Softies -- The Bed I Made (2024) *** 
29. Brian Eno x Bloom -- Small World (2024) (Amazon exclusive) *** 1/2 
30. Sabrina Carpenter -- Short 'n' Sweet (2024) *** 
31. Fontaines D.C. -- Romance (2024) *** 
32. The Rifles -- Love Your Neighbor (2024) *** 
33. Future & Metro Boomin -- We Don't Trust You (2024) ** 1/2 
34. Wunderhorse -- Midas (2024) ** 1/2 
35. Doechii -- Alligator Bites Never Heal (2024) ** 
36. Yasmin Williams -- Acadia ** 1/2 
37. Jamey Johnson -- Midnight Gasoline (2024) ** 1/2 
38. Amaia Miranda -- Mientras vivas brilla (2024) *** 
39. Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel -- The Room (2024) ** 1/2 
40. Nils Hoffmann -- Running in a Dream (2024) ** 1/2 
41. Alvaro Diaz -- Sayonara (2024) *** 
42. Shovel Dance Collective -- The Shovel Dance (2024) ***/ 
43. Wishy -- Triple Seven (2024) ** 1/2 
44. Tyla -- Tyla (2024) ** 1/2 
45. Bizhiki -- Unbound (2024) *** 
46. Tierra Whack -- World Wide Whack (2024) ** 1/2 
47. Ivan Cornejo -- Mirada (2024) *** 1/2 
48. Chuck Prophet -- Wake The Dead (2024) *** 1/2 
49. Brittany Howard -- What Now (2024) *** 
50. Silkroad Ensemble & Rhiannon Giddens -- American Railroad (2024) *** 
51. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan -- Chain of Light (2024) *** 1/2 
52. Tyler, The Creator -- Chromakopia (2024) ** 1/2 
53. Trentemøller -- Dreamweaver (2024) *** 
54. Eels -- Eels Time! (2024) ***/ 
55. Ariana Grande -- Eternal Sunshine (2024) *** 
56. Peso Pluma -- Éxodo (2024) *** 1/2 
57. McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson -- Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs (2024/1966) *** 1/2 
58. Cher -- Forever (2024) *** 1/2 
59. Joe Ely -- Honky Tonk Masquerade (1978) *** 1/2 
60. Iron & Wine -- Light Verse (2024) ***/ 
61. Pixies -- The Night The Zombies Came (2024) ** 1/2 
62. Norma Winstone & Kit Downes -- Outpost of Dreams (2024) *** 
63. Laura Marling -- Patterns in Repeat (2024) *** 1/2 
64. Helado Negro -- Phasor (2024) ** 1/2 
65. Amos Lee -- Transmissions (2024) ***\  
66. Sebadoh -- Bubble and Scrape (1993) ** 1/2 
67. Orbital -- Snivilisation (1994) ** 
68. Shack -- H.M.S. Fable (1999) *** 1/2 
69. Cymande -- Cymande (1972) *** 1/2 
70. Metallica -- Metallica (1991) ** 
71. Rumer -- In Session *** 1/2 
72. Robert Palmer -- Sneaking Sally Through the Alley (1974) *** (crappy audio file) 
73. Robert Palmer -- Clues (1980) *** 
74. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion -- Now I Got Worry (1996) ** 
75. The Soft Boys -- Underwater Moonlight (1980) *** 1/2 
76. Screaming Trees -- Dust (1996) *** 
77. 808 State -- Ninety (1989) * 
78. Funkadelic -- Standing On The Verge of Getting It On (1974) **** 
79. Jennifer Warnes -- Jennifer (1972) ***/ 
80. PJ Harvey -- Rid of Me (1993) ***/ 
81. Orquesta Guayacán -- Sentimental de Punta a Punta (1991) *** 1/2 

82. John Moreland -- Visitor (2024) *** 
83. The Runaways -- Queens of Noise (1977) *** 
84. Graham Parker -- Howlin' Wind (1976) *** 1/2 
85. Hugh Masekala -- Home Is Where The Music Is (1972) *** 1/2 
86. Graham Parker -- Stick To Me (1977) *** 
87. White Denim -- D (2011) ** 1/2 
88. The Dandy Warhols -- ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down (1997) ** 1/2 
89. Cymande -- Second Time Around (1973) *** 
90. 



MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES TV MOVIES 

(Not TV movies, of course, but movies and TV shows -- and TV movies if it comes to that. Mostly I only list TV shows when I've tackled an entire season at once or reappraising an entire series after it's over This doesn't really capture my ongoing watching of current TV.)

1. A Complete Unknown (2024) ** 1/2 
2. Nickel Boys (2024) ***\ 
3. Nosferatu ** 1/2 
4. Interstellar (2014) ** 1/2 
5. Wicked (2024) ** 
6. I'm Still Here (2024) (w Luis) *** (great lead) 
7. The Brutalist (2024) (at Lincoln Square w Noam) ** 
8. Myth of Man (at Cinema Village w Karl) ***/
9. My Old Ass *** 
10. A Woman Is A Woman (1961) **** 
11. I Saw The TV Glow (2023) *** 
12. Presence (2024) * 

13. Juror No. 2 (2024) ** 
14. Oscar Best Doc shorts: Death By Numbers ; I Am Ready, Warden ; Incident ; Instruments of a Beating Heart (kid stressing out over school perf) 
** 1/2; The Only Girl in The Orchestra 
15. Oscar Best Live Action shorts: A Lien; Anuja; I'm Not A Robot (Captcha) ***; The Last Ranger; The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent 
16. Oscar Best Animated shorts: Beautiful Men; In The Shadow of the Cypress; Magic Candies (lonely kid) ***; Wander To Wonder; Yuck! ***
17.  




THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS
(The names after the shows are the people who joined me at the performance.)

1. A Guide For The Homesick (w Zoe at DR2) ** 
2. Still (w Melissa Gilbert at Sheen w Noam) ** 

3. 



Friday, February 07, 2025

FILM REVIEW: "A WOMAN IS A WOMAN"

FILM REVIEW: A WOMAN IS A WOMAN 

Film Forum


Long ago, if you asked me to choose between the directors Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut,  I chose Truffaut every time. Truffaut championed others. Godard, to me, put others down. He was a snob, a purist of the worst sort. It's an odd claim to make about someone who helped champion the greatness of Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks, but there you are. 

I heard Godard belittle the cinema of Steven Spielberg and that was when Spielberg was at his peak of greatness. But Godard had no patience for a movie like E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, no matter that it had followed the TV movie Duel and The Sugarland Express and Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Not to mention the fact that E.T. was clearly a masterpiece.) Maybe he was just annoyed that Spielberg asked Truffaut to cameo in Close Encounters of the Third Kind rather than him. But really, if you were going to ask someone to greet aliens arriving on Earth, would anyone choose Godard? If he had no time for Spielberg, I had no time for him. 

The only problem was that I kept seeing his movies. Breathless. Contempt. Bande à part. Again and again I would see his films and again and again I would have to admit, ok, that's genuinely brilliant. Damn him! 

On the plus side, my initial resistance to Godard the man means I get to keep discovering more of the movies by Godard the director. That brings me to A Man and a Woman, the film debut of Anna Karina playing at Film Forum in an impeccably restored print. It's a delight. And few films are so casually charming and wildly radical at the same time. 





The story is simplicity itself. Anna Karina plays Angela, a strip-tease artist who lives happily with Émile but is also openly adored by their friend Alfred. Angela wakes up, decides she wants a baby and plays the two men off of each other until she gets her way. That's when she's not dashing off to a club to perform her strip tease or fantasizing about appearing in a lavish, MGM musical. Since the two men are Jean-Paul Belmondo as the friend Alfred and Jean-Claude Brialy as Émile, the question of who ends up with whom feels rather low stakes, since surely she could be happy with either one of these delightful men and either one of them would be lucky to have her. Or each other, frankly. It's quite the bromance as they occasionally resist her plans by banding together. 

That's it. Two men vie for the affections of a woman while she keeps her eye on the prize of getting pregnant. But as he did with Breathless–though maybe more so–Godard toys with the very idea of movie-making. At every moment he challenges you to remember you're watching a movie. It's artificial, not real. These are actors, not people. It's all made-up and preposterous. Godard practically dares you to care about what's happening. And yet, somehow you do. 

How does this happen? The subversion of movie-making is easy, actually. The actors break the fourth wall and address the camera. Dialogue includes people in a cafe wondering if Truffaut's Jules and Jim is any good. And sound! Godard pulls the rug out from under us time and again. When Angela is walking down the street, the sound might switch from naturalistic (we can hear the cars and noise of the city around her) to just the sound of her shoes clacking on the sidewalk to a soaring soundtrack of music to nothing at all. 

When Angela is at her club performing a strip tease to a song, we hear the musical buildup until she begins singing...and then the other sound in the film drops away and all we hear is the voice of Anna Karina. Again and again, Godard tweaks us on the nose: it's a movie, he says! It's not real. You know this and I won't let you forget it. The actors bow to the audience watching the movie, pause for a cigarette and goof around in a thousand subtle ways. 

The club where Angela performs is surely the craziest cabaret/strip joint in history. The women performing have elaborate costumes and musical numbers, each one prettier than the next. Angela dashes in for her one number and then dashes off again. How many performers would they need in a day? Fifty? A hundred? And who are these delightful creatures performing for? A nearly empty cafe, with a handful of men usually sitting alone, smoking, reading and often barely looking up. (Unless they're whipping out binoculars.) Even when Anna Karina is performing? I'm gay and I'd stand in line to watch that act. 

Among the many highlights include musical interludes, Émile bicycling around the apartment and the "battle of books" between Angela and Émile. When they're in bed but not speaking to each other, they communicate by rummaging through the books in their apartment and then simply point at the titles they've chosen to make a statement or counter an argument. I've no doubt moviegoers tried to duplicate this oh so chic way of fighting when they got home. 

How can we care about the fate of these people when Godard insists on reminding us again and again that it's all make believe? It helps to have actors of such immense charm. Belmondo's askew boxer nose and rakish charm put New Wave on the world map with Breathless. Brialy had even more substantial credits to his name by this point and his deadpan nature and willingness to be silly makes it clear why Karina's character never truly wavered from him. Belmondo is cooler than cool, but silliness beats cool anytime in my book. In her film debut, Karina is effortless and winning, making it obvious why Godard married her and showcased Karina in eight of his best films. (And why they were eight of his best films.) 

Godard's looseness in scripting and shooting and especially the post-production toying with sound and editing and the like seem obvious ploys now. But few did it before him and no one could really do it that much after him because, well, he'd done it. What more is there to say about the making or watching of a movie that isn't said here? Whether you want a delightful romantic comedy or a film master's essay on cinema, A Woman is A Woman fits the bill. 

Thursday, February 06, 2025

THEATER REVIEW: "STILL"

THEATER REVIEW: STILL

Sheen Center For Thought and Culture 

Through March 23

When the play ended, my guest said, "I didn't know my bucket list included watching Melissa Gilbert clumsily play the ukulele and sing Elvis Presley's 'Can't Help Falling In Love.' But apparently it did and now I can cross it off." 

That's the pleasure of live theater. A modest play with modest ambition is enlivened by two pros like Melissa Gilbert (of Little House on the Prairie fame) and Mark Moses (who had roles in not one but two key TV dramas:  Mad Men and Desperate Housewives). And a sweet, unexpected moment–like Gilbert's musical offering late in the show–will make an entire evening worthwhile. 


[MELISSA GILBERT and MARK MOSES. Photo by Jeremy Daniel]


In this romantic two-hander by Lia Romeo, old friends (and old flames) named Helen and Mark meet at a hotel bar to catch up. The conversation follows the usual pattern: they catch up on careers and family and health. They laud each other's work; hers as a successful author and his lucrative job as an attorney. They flirt, both openly and indirectly. They reveal thoughts and feelings about their relationship long ago and why it ended. They're both single now. Hmmm. 

He kisses her. She kisses him. They tumble upstairs to his hotel room. They have enjoyable sex. And then they discuss politics. Oops.  I thought the play came more alive when the left/right divide reared its head. But then, I like a good argument so your mileage may vary. 

This isn't a charming Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn sort of argument, a la Adam's Rib. It's more fundamental. Can you have a satisfying relationship with someone who doesn't share your core values? Should you even try? I say no.  But they're not as sure as I am and the play is open to at least the possibility of this night being the beginning, rather than a sad end. 

But the essential weakness of Still is that their political debate is too familiar. What you remember is the scene early on when they try to one-up each other with signs of aging. "I have hair on my shoulders," says Mark. "I have three fake teeth," says Helen. "I have arthritis in my knees," he counters. "I'm missing the nail on my right big toe." "I have a spare tire." "I have kidney stones." 

Naturally, they're soon making out. And a physical bit of business when they head to his hotel room also endears. The set revolves from the hotel bar to the bedroom while Gilbert and Moses are making out and then quickly disrobing. But not that quickly. The set is revolving, for one thing and people in their 60s (just barely, Melissa, I know!) don't do acrobatics. They're both a little deliberate when undressing and laying their clothes down, just as older people do. You don't want to fall, after all.

That modest cautiousness may just be a practical choice. But it says more about where these two characters are at this stage of life than any dialogue. Gilbert and Moses create some much-needed chemistry and believability that these two people maybe were and are and just might be right for each other. (Or left!) And then she plays the ukulele and sings and you forget everything else in the world and decide he'd be a fool not to switch political allegiances just to have a chance. 


[MARK MOSES and MELISSA GILBERT in STILL. photo by Maria Baranova]

Their earlier scene of "anything you can do, I can do better" is echoed at the end. Mark wonders if they might at least have dinner the next time he's near her town. Traffic? Parking? A decent restaurant? Every obstacle she suggests, he counters with a solution. Or at least the possibility of a solution. Maybe they can overcome their political divide? Maybe it doesn't matter that much? Still....

Monday, February 03, 2025

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 2, 2025

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 2, 2025 

A film's gross for the last seven days, followed by its total worldwide gross. I begin with data from 

Comscore and then pull from every other source available. 


1. Ne Zha 2–$446m worldwide debut 

2. Detective Chinatown 1900–$260m worldwide debut 

3. Creation of the Gods 2: Demon Force–$128m ww debut 

4. Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants–$78m ww debut

5. Boonie Bears: Future Reborn–$60m ww debut 

6. Dog Man–$41m ww debut  

7. Operation Hadal–$34m / $35m ww total

8. Mufasa: The Lion King–$26m / $653m ww total 

9. Paddington in Peru–$20m / $93m ww

10. Sonic The Hedgehog 3–$16m /$463m ww

11. Companion–$15m ww debut 

12. Moana 2–$11m / $1,037b ww 

13. Babygirl–$11m / $48m ww

14. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$10m / $50m ww

15. One of Them Days–$10m / $35m ww

16. Flight Risk–$9m / $25m ww 

17. Hitman2–$9m / $13m ww

18. Nosferatu–$6m / $172m ww

19. The Brutalist–$6m / $18m ww 

20. Conclave–$5m / $87m ww

21. Dark Nuns–$5m / $13m ww

22. A Complete Unknown–$4m / $78m ww

23. Presence–$4m / $7m ww 

24. Octopus With Broken Arms aka Wu Sha 3 (Manslaughter 3)–$3m / $133m ww

25. Wicked–$2m / $719m ww 

26. Honey Money Phony–$2m / $64m ww

27. Wolf Man–$2m / $30m ww 

28. Finist. The First Warrior–$2m / $26m ww

29. Better Man–$2m / $19m ww

30. The Three Investigators: Carpathian Dog–$3m / $5m ww total

31. Secret: Untold Melody–$2m ww debut 

32. Gladiator II–$1m / $461m ww

33. Big World–$1m / $110m ww

34. Harbin–$1m / $32m ww

35. Brave The Dark–$1m / $4m ww 


Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's a good marker to indicate a big hit. 


ANALYSIS 

It's the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Snake is is supposed to be inauspicious. But a snake may become the new mascot for the worldwide box office thanks to the massive wave of moviegoers in China. From Wednesday January 29 through Sunday February 2, the Chinese box office alone grossed almost $1 BILLION. To be exact, it hit $965.4m. Wow. True, the Chinese gov't subsidized ticket sales by $83m, but that's less than 10% of the total gross over five days, so it was money well spent. 

And they did it the old fashioned way: lots of sequels! The third in the animated Ne Zha-verse, the fourth in a buddy comedy series, the second in a fantasy trilogy shot all at once a la Lord of the Rings, a fantasy based on a classic tale and the eleventh in the Boonie Bears kiddie franchise. This is very good news for the moribund Chinese box office; let's hope it keeps going.

Back in Hollywood, we've got an original film: the animated family flick Dog Man. Well, yes, it's based on a series of graphic novels (14 and counting) and yes it's a spin-off of the Captain Underpants graphic novels and yes that led to a hit film and a TV series and yes, it's true Dog Man has also spun-off another series of graphic novels called Cat Kid Comic Club and yes, you'd be placing a losing bet if you said they'd surely never turn that into a movie. But still, it's an original film! Sort of. Anyone who thinks Hollywood makes too many remakes and sequels and spin-offs based on pre-existing stories or that people are tiring of them need only refer to...the entire history of Hollywood, including the silent era. 

For Oscar hopefuls, The Brutalist and A Complete Unknown and Conclave are capitalizing on their nominations. Maybe Emilia Pérez is as well, but we won't know it's streaming numbers leading up to the Oscars for a few weeks. 

Oh and box office doesn't just come from massively budgeted tentpole films. A lot of smaller films are scoring at the box office, proving the talent of directors, building stars, giving a boost to writers and so on. Those numbers add up. So high praise for Dog Man grossing its budget on opening week, Paddington in Peru approaching $100m, Companion proving a commercial and artistic hit, Babygirl making clear it will triple its budget as it continues to play around the world, One of Them Days proving the same and Nosferatu and The Brutalist and Conclave and Soderbergh's Presence all proving hits. 

A Complete Unknown isn't there yet, but it's doing well and all of these films will over-perform once they hit the homes via streaming and rental and cable and on demand and yes BluRay and the like. Mid-sized and small budget movies are crucial to a healthy box office. Captain America: Brave New World will open strongly on Valentine's Day, but the box office isn't just sitting around waiting for a new blockbuster. It's revealing talent, creating hits and priming the pump for home entertainment. Anyone looking to shrink windows even further is being foolish. And anyone spending $100mb to make a movie and not giving them a theatrical release is losing out. Now let's wake up India and Korea!


NOTES 

mb = a film's budget in millions of US dollars; ww = worldwide


1. Ne Zha 2–Reported $80mb. Chinese animated fantasy sequel to the 2019 smash which cost about $20m and grossed $743m. A spin-off film Jiang Ziya was hobbled by COVID but grossed $243m. Now the direct sequel Ne Zha 2 cost $80m and our spunky heroine (based on a famed mythological character around for centuries) takes on sea monsters. The series is based on Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin from the 16th century. 

2. Detective Chinatown 1900–$125mb at least? This is the fourth in a wildly popular buddy comedy mystery series. Think oh, Rush Hour? 48 Hours? Each film cost more than the one before and grossed more. Since we're on film #4 and it's a period movie set in San Francisco, it's safe to assume this cost more than the #3, which cost $117m and grossed $686m worldwide. I mean, $150mb is probably more realistic, at least. Assuming this doesn't collapse in week two, $500m and profitability is assured. Oh and clues in this one indicate the next film in the series will be set in London. So, Detective Chinatown 1920, here we come

3. Creation of the Gods 2: Demon Force–$110mb? Creation of the Gods is a live action fantasy trilogy that was shot all at once over an 18 month period, a la Lord of the Rings. Since the first part cost $110m, presumably parts two and three cost at least as much, though their initial releases were delayed because of time-consuming special effects. And guess what? Like Ne Zha 1 and 2, this too is based on Investiture of the Gods, making Ming dynasty author Xu Zhonglin the hottest scribe in town. Yes, there are a handful of English translations of the tales, but none of a single professional review and only one even has a handful of reader reviews, so I would be wary. And I'm still waiting for a good translation of the epic from which Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was drawn. 

4. Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants–No budget available. A wuxia martial arts period adventure film written and directed by the legendary Tsui Hark. It's based on part of the novel of the same name by Jin Yong. 

5. Boonie Bears: Future Reborn–$50mb? This once low budget animated franchise keeps getting bigger and bigger at the box office. Film #9 grossed $220m and #10 grossed $270m. 

6. Dog Man–A reported $40mb. It's always good to gross your budget on opening week. Plus, the books are funny, the reviews are good, the audience response is great and it has the rest of the world to open in. So get ready for Dog Man 2. 

7. Operation Hadal–$150mb. In director Dante Lam's Chinese action film, mercenaries have taken over a deep sea platform in Chinese waters and well, the Chinese Navy is not about to take that lying down.  It's a sequel to Operation Red Sea which cost $70m and grossed almost $600m. This cost twice as much and looks like it will struggle to gross half as much. Not good. 

8. Mufasa: The Lion King–$200mb 

9. Paddington in Peru–$50mb? I'm just guessing. (That's sort of midpoint between the original and Paddington 2.) Sadly, three times is not the charm artistically for this once-perfect franchise. This week the film had conflicting info. Comscore says the film grossed $6m this weekend...but the movie's overall take jumped by $23m from $60m to $83m? Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo claim its total jumped $13m to $73m. That extra $7m from Monday to Thursday is more believable so I'll go with that for now.

10. Sonic The Hedgehog 3–$120mb 

11. Companion–A reported $10mb for this sci-fi horror comedy. Great reviews means this one should have a long run at the box office. 

12. Moana 2–Is the budget lower since it was intended for tv, at first? Or higher because they had to rethink everything? Disney says it cost $150mb, just like the original. You can bet Dwayne Johnson gets more than his share of coconuts, but that won't matter with a hit like this.  

13. Babygirl–$20mb for this Nicole Kidman sexy drama about a powerful businesswoman finding her kink with a younger, dominating man..her intern, no less! No milk was harmed in the making of this movie. 

14. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$40mb for Gerard Butler action flick. 

15. One of Them Days–$14mb. It's always good to gross your budget during a film's opening week. So yea for producer Issa Rae and this comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA. (What a week for SZA! Her movie opens well and she makes my list of The 250 Best Albums of the 21st Century...So Far.

16. Flight Risk–$25mb for director Mel Gibson action film starring Mark Walhberg. 

17. Hitman2–Korean action comedy. The creator of a webtoon series is derided for the quality of his latest season...until real-life terrorists seem to mirror his storyline and he's suddenly under suspicion by the government. The original film grossed $18m. 

18. Nosferatu–$50mb for Robert Eggers, acclaimed director of The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman. That had his biggest budget and was not a commercial success. I saw him as more of an arthouse guy. But backers stuck with him, gave him a big budget and a starry cast for a remake of Nosferatu, which I guess is classier than remaking Dracula but still a hard sell I thought. And on Christmas Day? That's counter-programming I was not behind. Happily, I was wrong and Eggers looks more like the next Peter Jackson/Guillermo Del Toro than a guy given big budgets too fast or for the wrong projects. Good for him! 

19. The Brutalist–$10mb; Adrien Brody in this architect-as-hero period drama. 

20. Conclave–a reported $20mb for this Vatican thriller means this is a hit. It's at $60m and still going strong, with a boost from potential Oscar noms. I do not see the point in putting it on PVOD and flooding the market with bootlegs while potentially harming box office. This is exactly the sort of film that can play and play in theaters.  

21. Dark Nuns–Korean supernatural thriller w two nuns working together to save a boy seemingly possessed by a demon while protecting the sanctity of their order. It's a spin-off of The Priests aka Black Priests, which came out in 2015 and grossed $36m. Why it took a decade to capitalize on the first film is a mystery itself. 

22. A Complete Unknown–$60mb+ for this Bob Dylan biopic? That's a lot of money for a film about Dylan going electric at Newport. I mean, I want to see it but then I'm a Dylan fanatic. Off to a very good start and star Timotheé Chalamet is sure to get an Oscar nomination, so it should keep going. But $180m worldwide seems highly unlikely to me, if not impossible. (Do other countries give a toss about this? Is Chalamet a big enough draw for this story? I doubt it.) I'm glad it was made, but it was made for too much. Like Gladiator II, this will be seen as a commercial success, but it's not. 

23. Presence–$2mb for retired director Steven Soderbergh's first of two movies out in 2025. 

24. Octopus With Broken Arms aka Wu Sha 3 (Manslaughter 3)–Chinese drama about businessman's daughter kidnapped from his home. 

25. Wicked–$150mb for each part, so $300mb total plus beaucoup marketing. It's a big movie! 

26. Honey Money Phony–Chinese rom-com about young woman suddenly burdened with debt who falls for a (very handsome) young con man. Will he go straight for her or teach her his wicked ways so she can get out from under this financial disaster? 

27. Wolf Man–$25mb 

28. Finist. The First Warrior–a Russian fantasy film starring actor Kirill Zaytsev as "the strongest, most agile, and handsome hero of Belogorye," according to Wikipedia. Zaytsev certainly fits the bill, though since Belogorye currently has fewer than 3000 people, that may not be such a major claim. Russians are surely starved for homegrown cinema; it's been a while since Russian films made the charts. But I couldn't even find a trailer for it on YouTube.

29. Better Man–$110mb!!! I just gasped when I saw the budget. Oh dear. I love the craziness of this movie. But that's a LOT of money for such a nutty idea. And forget the nutty idea. It's a musical biopic about an artist whose music I really like but has virtually no profile outside the UK. For heaven's sake, Queen is one of the biggest acts in the world and their biopic cost literally half of this one. Better Man would have been a big gamble at $30mb. 

30. The Three Investigators: Carpathian Dog–This German light mystery is the second live action film in a reboot of the teen investigators that are perennial favorites in kids lit in that country. It's spun-off from the series of books published in the 1960s-1980s in the US, all branded as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" but created by Robert Author, with the first nine books of 40+ in all also written by him. Basically, it's the Hardy Boys but with three kids instead of two. The series remains well known in Germany, where even more books were written to meet demand. And now it's a film series. 

31. Secret: Untold Melody–SK drama remake of a Taiwanese weepie about a pianist whose career is cut short by tragedy...but he finds comfort from a time-traveling woman. 

32. Gladiator II–$250mb for Ridley Scott sword and sandals epic. It needs $750m worldwide for me to call it a hit from theatrical alone but $600m would be just fine. It's got swords. It's got sandals. Does it have legs? No, it does not. This is the sort of film that everyone thinks of as a hit, but actually didn't deliver. The talk of Gladiator 3 is nonsense. Maybe many years from now they'll use the name to launch a new franchise, but this is the end for now. 

33. Big World–$29m ww debut. Chinese drama starring pop star and actor Jackson Yee as a young man living with cerebral palsy. Yee has gone from boyband TFBoys to having the Mandarin song of the year in 2017 to success in TV and film. How's his English, asks Hollywood? 

34. Harbin–A South Korean historical drama set in the early 1900s about rebels fighting against the Japanese occupation of Korea. When one rebel leader shows mercy to Japanese prisoners and his men pay the price, he vows to redeem himself by assassinating the first Prime Minister of Japan. So this one will probably not have a good run in Japan. 

35. Brave The Dark–no budget for presumably very low cost faith-based indie film about the importance of performing arts programs? 


THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 


This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else discussing box office. 


ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart


The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever, depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend and focusing on new releases? 


How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through the cracks but we are as up to date as we can be, given our dependence on other outlets for the basic info. 


First, I list box office on every film we can from around the world. Any movie grossing at least US $1 million will be on here if we get info on it. Then I give some thoughts on the box office overall and individual films. That's followed by notes where I give info on each movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can. 


--30--     

Friday, January 31, 2025

THE ULTIMATE GRAMMY PREVIEW: THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2024

THE ULTIMATE GRAMMY PREVIEW: THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2024 

Every year, I put out my best of the year list right before the Grammys hand out their awards, including Album of the Year. Why? It gives me an extra few weeks to listen to music, gather my thoughts...and catch up on the albums I missed on other people's lists that all came out by December 31. Sneaky! 

I check out the British mags to see what reissues they're touting or what new act they're hyping to kingdom come. I read U.S. reviews and keep an eye on the charts. But I also rely on the marvelous music blog, Burning Wood, where my friend Sal offers up a wide-ranging, entertaining take on classic music, new releases, songs and albums of the day, deep dives on artists he loves and every once in a while an excerpt from a terrific musical memoir he's penning about growing up in NYC. He's even polite about my sometimes quixotic taste. Check it out!

So, yes I listen to a lot of music. This year, I listened to more classic albums than ever before. I have about five ongoing projects: listening to every album The Penguin Guide to Jazz ever named to its All Time List, a dive into Nat "King" Cole and Mel Tormé catalogs and numerous other acts, a wonderful side trip into the world of ambient music after stumbling onto an excellent best-of list and pretty much anything else that caught my fancy. In all, I listened to more than 800 (!) different albums I'd never heard before, not to mention replaying stuff I know and love. That is a record for me; streaming may have its downsides, but like access to your local library, it's pretty awesome that most of the great music ever made is just a click away. 

Hopefully, you'll scan this list and discover an act you enjoy put out new music and you didn't even realize it. Even better, maybe you'll read about an act, become intrigued and give them a listen. If you discover some new music you love, my work here has been worth it! And let me know what albums I should have included but didn't. My Best of the Year lists aren't written in stone. I'll remove albums that fall out of favor and–more often–add in an album that grows on me or escaped my notice. 

If you want to know more, here's more: 

The Best Albums of the Year–1924 to the Present! 

(My favorite album from each year for the past century (!), followed by my lists of the best albums from each and every year.) 

My Music Library From A-Z, including Christmas Music, Soundtracks, Cast Albums and Compilations!

(Album reviews arranged by artist, from ABBA to ZZ Top)

Below, I list all my favorite albums and then offer a breakdown of what I found special for the Top 10. Give 'em a spin! So here we go. The best albums of 2024 are...

THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2024 


THE SMILE -- Wall of Eyes / Cutouts 
THE LEMON TWIGS -- A Dream Is All We Know 
LINDA THOMPSON -- Proxy Music 
MANU CHAO -- Viva Tu
GREEN DAY -- Saviors 
LADY BLACKBIRD -- Slang Spirituals 
NICK CAVE -- Wild God 
BILLIE EILISH -- Hit Me Hard and Hit Me Soft 
ELLIOTT BROOD -- Town and Country  
BEYONCÉ -- Cowboy Carter


GRUPO FRONTERA -- Jugando a Que No Pasa Nada 
THE CURE -- Songs Of A Lost World 
CHER -- Forever 
RICHARD HAWLEY -- In This City They Call You Love
BRIAN ENO -- Soft Edges ep / Small World (w Bloom) 
WILLOW -- Empathogen 
RICHARD THOMPSON -- Ship To Shore 
ESLABAN ARMADO -- Amor Perdido
PAUL KELLY -- Fever Longing Still 
CHUCK PROPHET -- Wake The Dead 


KACEY MUSGRAVES -- Deeper Well 
JONTAVIUS WILLIS -- West Georgia Blues 
BRIGHT EYES -- Five Dice, All Threes 
MARCUS KING -- Mood Swings 
GEPE -- Undesastre 
STURGILL SIMPSON -- Passage du Desir
M. WARD -- For Beginners: The Best of M. Ward 
KALI MALONE -- All Life Long 
JACK WHITE -- No Name 
THE HENTCHMEN -- Hentch-Forth 


FANTASTIC CAT -- Now That's What I Call Fantastic Cat
JAY WHEELER -- Música Buena Para Días Malos 
BUZZARD BUZZARD BUZZARD -- Skinwalker 
SHOVEL DANCE COLLECTIVE -- The Shovel Dance 
THE AVETT BROTHERS -- The Avett Brothers  
LIAM GALLAGHER AND JOHN SQUIRE -- Liam Gallagher and John Squire 
PESO PLUMA -- Éxodo
WILLIE NELSON -- The Border 
PET SHOP BOYS -- Nonetheless 
X -- Smoke & Fiction 


THE BLACK CROWES -- Happiness Bastards
THE JOHN SALLY RIDE -- Melomaniacs 
LAURA MARLING -- Patterns in Repeat
ROSIE TUCKER -- Utopia Now! 
IVAN CORNEJO -- Mirada 
BETA RADIO -- Waiting For The End To Come 


REISSUE: LONE JUSTICE -- Viva Lone Justice (reissue?) 
REISSUE: VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Uptown Top Ranking: Trojan Ska & Reggae Chartbusters 
REISSUE: MCCOY TYNER & JOE HENDERSON -- Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs 
REISSUE: NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN -- Chain of Light 


THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2024 -- THE EXTENDED CUT


THE SMILE -- Wall of Eyes / Cutouts 

Not one but two great albums this year? Radiohead is dead. Long live Radiohead. I mean, The Smile! Actually, they're not quite Radiohead by another name. But this trio clearly gives Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood the freedom to create without the burden of being Radiohead and that's freed them up to deliver some great music. Their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention (2022) is also excellent. And boy, does recording under a different name help! I was barely aware of these albums for months while a new Radiohead album would have been inescapable. However, it's hardly a country album or folk music side project. So for heaven's sake, enjoy. 


THE LEMON TWIGS -- A Dream Is All We Know 

Okay, the lads are really coming into their own. This duo of 70s obsessed rock n rollers are delivering the power pop/AOR/Todd Rundgren-ish/rock n roll of our dreams. Eccentric enough to not just be aping their elders, The Lemon Twigs are the real deal. They soak up their influences and then craft their own original, brilliant version. But really, they'd be awesome openers for Rundgren. From a Beach Boys rip-off so good Brian W. should sue them to "Church Bells" or the opener "My Golden Years," it's one killer after enough. Just drop the needle anywhere and enjoy. The more you play it, the more you love it and can't quite believe they're not dominating the charts. Hat tip to the music blog Burning Wood for touting the band, deservedly so. 


LINDA THOMPSON -- Proxy Music 

I was wary of Linda Thompson's latest album. The medical condition that plagued her voice–one of the great instruments in popular music–seems to have precluded any more singing whatsoever. So Thompson wrote a clutch of songs and invited friends and family to perform them. So it's not really a Linda Thompson album (she doesn't sing on it at all), but it's not quite a tribute album either. What the hell is it? Well, it has an amusing title, a great "taking the piss" cover and to my astonishment, it magically feels very much like a new Linda Thompson album. Yes, other people sing on it, people like Rufus Wainwright and Dori Freeman and Eliza Carthy. But Thompson's songwriting is so strong, her worldview so well captured in both the songs themselves and the performances by her friends that it's just...a Linda Thompson album, through and through. It's really quite remarkable and wonderful, an act of communal creation that is fairly unique, I'd say. It's strong from start to finish, but John Grant's performance on "John Grant" is even more head-spinning than the album as a whole, with Linda getting deep inside Grant himself with her lyrics...and then asking him to sing it. And that sneaky Teddy Thompson is no fool. With family and friends as gifted as Kami Thompson and The Rails and the Wainwrights, he cowrites four songs, produces and saves the hilarious and wonderful closing track "Those Damn Roches" for himself. 


MANU CHAO -- Viva Tu

Where have you been, Manu Chao? It's been 17 years since one of the most exciting artists of the 21st century put out an album. I wouldn't have minded if this politically minded artist became mayor of Paris or the leader of France. Indeed, I'm not sure what he's been up to but I'm sure it was meaningful and joyous, because that's what his music has always been like. Viva Tu doesn't miss a beat, continuing Chao's exploration of human connection and what really matters in songs that feel ready to be sung by others in  a way his earlier, more production-focused albums perhaps have not. A man and a guitar is the vibe here. Plus, Willie Nelson! Chao peaked with 2001's Proxima Estación: Esperanza, which to use a term some dislike is world music of the best sort. Rock n roll? Absolutely. He's passionate, socially conscious and catchy as hell, a Bob Marley who sings in Spanish, French, English, Italian, Arabic, etc etc etc. See what I mean? The return of an old friend who has great stories to tell and remains just as committed to change. Thank goodness. 


GREEN DAY -- Saviors 

Green Day stumbled for a moment after the extraordinary critical and commercial peak of American Idiot. Their follow-up 21st Century Breakdown was terrific, actually, but they didn't want to be The Who 2.0 for the rest of their career. The triple threat of Uno! Dos! Tres!–three albums all at once–proved a rare stumble for this consistently good to great act. But they've been in top form ever since. Like clockwork, they've delivered an excellent album every four years. Revolution Radio, Father of All Motherfuckers and now Saviors are smart, politically incendiary and catchy as hell. Turns out they were The Clash more than The Who, after all. And how have I never seen them live? 


LADY BLACKBIRD -- Slang Spirituals 

The first track on Lady Blackbird's second album–"Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)"–begins and you sit up. The huge choir, the anthemic melody, the surging and spiritual lyrics. She's not messing around. By the time of the delicate, lovely fourth track "Man on a Boat," you're sitting back, relaxed because you know that excellent opener wasn't a fluke. This is the real deal. I really enjoyed her debut but came to it late. From an intriguing talent, Lady Blackbird has grown into a major talent, a (it's impossible to avoid the comparison) Nina Simone-like magnetic presence. She's vulnerable, wise and wonderful with a collection of romantic tunes, sometimes old school, sometimes expansive and slippery (like "When The Game Is Played On You") and always in command. LaBelle? Jill Scott? Now, Lady Blackbird. 

She's another act I discovered thanks to the excellent music blog Burning Wood. Check it out!


NICK CAVE -- Wild God 

Bruce Springsteen has a bit he does in concert, preaching to the crowd about the glories of rock 'n' roll. But Nick Cave really preaches, offering a show that's half tearful embrace, half ecstatic reaching towards a higher plane and half raucous revival meeting. His new album is Wild God and this G-d is scary and awe-inspiring in its indifference to us. This G-d is Nature unbounded, a G-d that neither cruelly delights in our misery nor shares the burden, anymore than the sea sympathizes with the ship that founders. The sea just...is. But we can sympathize and share the burden and joys of life, a communal coming together Cave offers in concert, on his marvelous email newsletter The Red Hand Files and on this album that begins at a peak and then builds from there. Ecstatic stuff. 


BILLIE EILISH -- Hit Me Hard and Hit Me Soft 

I had my money on Lorde (and I know, it's not a competition). But it's the mumbly, soft-spoken Billie Eilish who keeps delivering the goods. Three albums and she hasn't missed a beat yet. Plus, she makes me blush when Eilish sings she finds someone so appealing that "I could eat that girl for lunch." Heavens! Now, that's rock n roll to me: honest, sexy, edgy and catchy as hell. 


ELLIOTT BROOD -- Town and Country  

I've been a fan of this Canadian rock band since I stumbled on them in a bar in Toronto way, way, way back when. They were self-distributing their music, brandishing a banjo long before Mumford & Sons and writing some great songs. Who are these guys, I wondered, a la Butch and Sundance. Throughout the years, they've been signed to record labels, been nominated and won Junos (Canada's top music award), toured and achieved the dream of making music their life. Recent albums moved me with their journeyman embrace of the hard work of doing all this and long past expecting the cover of Rolling Stone or streaming hits a la Adele. Now, out of nowhere, they released two short albums/eps of eight tracks each. One called Town and the other called–no points for guessing–Country. Then they combined both albums, trimmed one track from each and called the result Town and Country. It's the best album of their career. Mature, still raucous, wise and heartening. Well into their careers, they swung for the fences artistically and delivered. This is Americana, or perhaps Canadiana, from the road song opener "Rose City" (they're great at open-road songs) to the infectious "Bluebird Wine" and the gorgeous closer "French Exit." Think Gram Parsons or Jason Isbell. Think Elliott Brood. 


BEYONCÉ -- Cowboy Carter

Some critics love to be contrary. "Oh, everyone loves Taylor Swift? Not me, boyo! Over-rated!!!" Etc. That's not my style. If I don't like someone, well, I don't. However, there are acts I can sort of see the appeal but simply don't vibe with. Not my thing, but I don't want to pick a fight. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are two of the dominant artists of the past 25 years...and by and large they do little for me. I enjoyed the video album Lemonade more than the audio album alone. Swift's Red was my favorite of hers and even that didn't make my best of the year list. Given the serious critical acclaim and massive popularity, I think, gee, maybe it's me. I listen to the albums, keep an open ear, enjoy certain songs and wonder if I'll ever get on the bandwagon. Turns out it was a chuckwagon. I'm delighted I can really get behind Beyoncé's new country album: it's catchy, wide-ranging and bold. Beyoncé is too cool to do the usual genuflecting others might do, like obvious pairings with established country superstars. I mean, she has Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton on the album to voice approval, but they're just on the album to give their blessings, which is pretty damn nervy. She's not asking permission. She's not trying to win them over. This Houston, Texas native says uh-uh, this is my music too, baby, so step aside. Actually, a lot of it is more country adjacent than pure country (whatever that means in an era of "bro country" and country-rap), but who cares? While friends of mine can knowledgeably dissect the album's many nods to history and its complex undercurrents, I just enjoy songs that don't have the usual freight (train) of grand statements Beyonce's often trafficked in on previous works. It's a hoedown! For a change, I can enjoy the party. 




GRUPO FRONTERA -- Jugando a Que No Pasa Nada 

This Texas band is only two albums in. They're still finding their voice here, branching out from the first (excellent) album's more traditional vibe to embrace pop and r&b and other strands, without losing what made their debut special. They could go anywhere after this and I'm excited. Note to self: see them in concert, pronto. 


THE CURE -- Songs Of A Lost World 

I don't think I'm a big fan of The Cure. I've never seen them in concert. I've rarely thought about them. Back in the day, I rather dutifully bought their 1986 compilation Staring At The Sea aka Standing on a Beach because I thought I ought to, due to the rave reviews...and then discovered it really was pretty great. But in that pre-streaming era where listening to more albums meant a serious investment of $15 or so per CD, that was as far as it went. But darned if their 2008 album 4:13 Dream didn't wow me and now 16 years later hearing Robert Smith's ever-complaining vocals on Songs of a Lost World is like hearing from an old (kvetchy) friend. Maybe I really am a big fan of The Cure and I just didn't know it. When I get the chance, in 2025 I'll start from the beginning with them. 

CHER -- Forever 

I mean, damn. This greatest hits compilation comes in two packages. Forever contains 21 tracks, Forever Fan contains 40 hits and they still omit quite a few Top 40 records. The single disc set concentrates on mostly the "recent" hits from the past few decades, including her 2023 gem of a Christmas song. The two disc set also includes key Sonny & Cher tracks, making it pretty damn definitive. It is an impressive string of hits covering almost 60 (!) years with songs written by Sonny Bono ("The Beat Goes On") to just Bono ("I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." I'm not surprised by the enduring appeal of "Believe" and "If I Could Turn Back Time" and "Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves" and on and on. But I was surprised by the strength of the (many) songs I didn't know, even on the deluxe version. Irresistible. 


RICHARD HAWLEY -- In This City They Call You Love

I am late to the game in appreciating this British musician, who's enjoyed success with the band Longpigs, touring with Pulp, collaborating with others and a string of solo albums this century. He's a classic rock n roller in the singer-songwriter vein, leaning on strings, ballads and some old school rave-ups to deliver this wistful gem. For the adults, though kids who enjoy a world-weary vein should check it out too. 


BRIAN ENO -- Soft Edges ep / Small World (w Bloom) 

I dove into the deep end of ambient music this year, checking out Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green, Tangerine Dream's Phaedra, Japanese compilations and other terrific stuff. But mostly, I listened to Brian Eno. I love Eno, one of the most important figures in popular music. But he's so prolific, I realized I had a lot of catching up to do. So I listened to Eno and more Eno and still more Eno. And most of it was great, including his new ambient works Soft Edges and Small World, which is credited to Eno x Bloom. And if you're interested in checking out ambient, you should definitely start with the album that gave the genre its name: Ambient 1: Music For Airports. In all, I listened to 16 albums by Eno. I gave eleven of them 3 1/2 or a perfect four stars. 


WILLOW -- Empathogen 

I'm only human. The daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith is putting out an album? I'm both open-minded and cross-armed, meaning I'll give it a listen but I'm not gonna grade on a curve. It didn't take long to realize Willow is the real deal, debuting with an album that proved she's not just legit, but an artist. 


RICHARD THOMPSON -- Ship To Shore 

Hey, I'm not just tough on famous offspring. Richard Thompson is one of my favorite artists of all time, delivering great music with Fairport Convention, then-wife Linda and for 40+ years as a solo artist, collaborator and film composer. But he's so consistent and I like him so much, that I am pretty tough on him. I expect so much and I'm so wary of liking him by default that each new album must earn my trust. His most recent gem 13 Rivers took over a year to convince me it wasn't just another good Richard Thompson album, but a great one. Ship to Shore? One play and I found myself falling hard. Brilliant guitar work, caustic and clever lyrics, classic themes of dashed dreams with a side of despair? It's all here, shot through with humor, insight and melodies that lodge into your brain and take up residence. Consistently lauded, he's probably under-appreciated, nonetheless. 

ESLABAN ARMADO -- Amor Perdido

This fantastic California band delivers "regional Mexican music," a dumb industry term I'm gonna re-dub "Mexicana."  The music is fresh, wonderfully arranged and embraces elements of traditional Mexican folk, but this ain't your parents' norteño music.  Catchy, sexy, danceable (indeed, try not to sway along), I caught onto them when their 2022 album Nostalgia debuted on Billboard's Top 10 and clued me into this whole genre. This may be their final album for the indie label DEL, which discovered and signed them. I'm not sure if I'm more sad about them moving on or excited about where a major label might take them next. 


PAUL KELLY -- Fever Longing Still 
CHUCK PROPHET -- Wake The Dead 

Two veterans deliver the goods. Paul Kelly is an Australian institution. I caught on to his greatness with the 2019 greatest hits set Songs From The South: 1985-2019, a 43 track compilation that will blow you away with a never-ending stream of one great track after another. It's like suddenly stumbling across the best of John Hiatt or John Prine and wondering how the heck you missed him all these years. His latest album Fever Longing Still maintains that standard. 

Chuck Prophet is a journeyman rocker who gets better and better. After decades with the band Green on Red and solo work, he's really come into his own in the past 10 or 15 years. Wake The Dead finds him collaborating with cumbia band ¿Qiensave? and it works a treat. Prophet has a wry sensibility, a way with words and a voice that confides with confidence, knowing you'll hear and understand. Life ain't easy, he knows, but it's easier with music like this. 




KACEY MUSGRAVES -- Deeper Well 

I've enjoyed Kacey Musgraves since her debut Same Trailer, Different Park in 2013. So it was a little disconcerting when this country act turned pop on Golden Hour, the whole world embraced it commercially and she won the Grammy for Album of the Year. I was delighted for her and yet...didn't really love it. Happily, this followup also has a pop vibe, especially the hazy sound of the 1970s and this time I dig it. Don't ask me to explain why or how, but I do. 


JONTAVIUS WILLIS -- West Georgia Blues 

Electric blues, delivered with relish. What more do you need to know? 


BRIGHT EYES -- Five Dice, All Threes 

Bright eyed and bushy-tailed no longer, but with a great clutch of songs I can only describe as Bright Eyes-ian. More and more, I hear Conor Oberst's influence on younger acts. Anyone with a tremulous voice and tumbling lyrics owes him a debt. 


MARCUS KING -- Mood Swings 

In a mellow mood, surely. Blues rocker Marcus King offers an intimate, late night, soul-baring collection of songs. Producer Rick Rubin continues to bring out the best (and the unexpected) in people. 


GEPE -- Undesastre 

The Chilean artist Gepe draws on everything from indigenous folk music to Brian Wilson on his latest album. Gepe is new to me and I've got about a dozen albums to catch on apparently, so I've no idea how this fits into his discography. Pop? Sure, yet it also scratches the itch of hearing music from around the world. The guest appearances on more than half the tracks feel organic; they're serving the songs, not just showing off. And I'm all for un-disastering the world, if still possible. Smooth and engaging. 


STURGILL SIMPSON -- Passage du Desir

Sure, Sturgill Simpson has gone all Garth Brooks on us. It's usually not a good sign when an artist suddenly decides they need to create under an alter ego, a different persona. So when Simpson "retired" his name and said his new album was gonna be by "Johnny Blue Sky," well, I got worried. But hey, if that's what he needs to think, then what do I care? The music style doesn't sound so far afield from the genre-embracing work on Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, but if calling himself Johnny Blue Sky frees him up the way two guys from Radiohead record as The Smile, I should relax. Especially when the result is one of his best. 


M. WARD -- For Beginners: The Best of M. Ward 

I love his voice, his distinctive guitar work, his sometimes lo-fi vibe, his work with Zooey Deschanel on She & Him...I mean, geez, why don't I marry him? 2023's Supernatural Thing was his strongest solo since Hold Time in 2009. And now here comes an old school greatest hits set, which gathers a bunch of tracks from various albums over the years. Arranged for maximum impact (not chronologically), nonetheless it starts with "Chinese Translation," the infectious, unstoppable, make-you-an-instant-fan song from Post-War and then ranges far and wide, including his great cover of David Bowie's "Let's Dance" to a new version of Godley & Creme's "Cry." Great title. Great album. 


KALI MALONE -- All Life Long 

Classical composer Kali Malone specializes in marvelous works with a nod towards minimalism. (Is there any composer that actually embraces the tag of minimalism? I don't think so.) The albums I've listened to by her range from really great to really, really great. Her 2019 work The Sacrificial Code is the breakout album, featuring an epic composition for pipe organ. But 2022's Living Torch features trombone, bass clarinet and drones while 2023's Does Spring Hide Its Joy features her husband guitarist Stephen O'Malley of Sunn))) on guitar, Lucy Railton on cello and Malone on "tuned sine wave oscillators" (whatever that is). The new album? It's described as having "organ drone recordings." All I know is, if I play any of them I'm riveted. Malone is a major talent. 


JACK WHITE -- No Name 
THE HENTCHMEN -- Hentch-Forth 

Jack White brings it, from a stomping solo album to a guest appearance on the awesome new record by The Hentchmen. This is the plug-in-your-electric-guitar-and-turn-it-up music White can deliver with seeming ease. So why the heck doesn't he do this all the time? :) 




FANTASTIC CAT -- Now That's What I Call Fantastic Cat

A super group! Well, not to be a jerk, but most people haven't heard of the members of Fantastic Cat. That's their fault, since each member enjoys productive solo careers. But sometimes a super group really is super and that's certainly the case here. I somehow missed their 2022 debut, the cheekily named The Very Best of Fantastic Cat. It's a winner but this new album Now That's What I Call Fantastic Cat (a play on a long-running UK series of hits compilations) is even better. Monsters of Folk? The Traveling Wilburys? Yep, add Fantastic Cat to the list of super groups that really delivers. Catchy as hell rock n roll, a la, oh I don't know, Marshall Crenshaw or Warren Zevon? Best line: "If the universe is expanding/ Why's my rent still going up?" Spin this now if you live for AM radio. See? I played the first track and now I can't stop. I'll be back in 39 minutes. 


JAY WHEELER -- Música Buena Para Días Malos 

Bad Bunny isn't the only game in town, when it comes to Puerto Rican acts. Jay Wheeler went viral after posting a song about breaking up with his girlfriend. He was just 16 years old, but after years of avoiding singing in public because he was bullied and mocked in school, that instant success gave him the courage to pursue it as a career. Seven or so albums later, he's disciplined (the album has 13 songs and runs 40 minutes), self-sufficient (only two guest appearances) and perhaps it's my imagination but I hear a welcome vulnerability and openness in his singing and rapping. That's mirrored in the lyrics. Besides, we could all use good music for bad times. 


BUZZARD BUZZARD BUZZARD -- Skinwalker 

Is bat-shit crazy rock n roll a genre? The rocking rock band from Cardiff, Wales (dear God, I almost falled them British; forgive me, lads!) have gotten harder and stronger since their excellent debut Backhand Deals. I'm dying to see them in concert. Meanwhile, they've been studying their mythology for this new work is a concept album about skinwalkers that starts off nutty and then goes really berzerk. But along the way, they've got stomping, thromping radio-ready (if hard rock radio was still a thing) monsters that hit me, when I'm not befuddled trying to follow the storyline. Can't wait to see them in concert. 


SHOVEL DANCE COLLECTIVE -- The Shovel Dance 

By far the best collection of traditional folk music delivered by a nine-piece collective that I've heard all year. Easily. From the organ (?) intro to the massed vocals on some of the foundation-shaking highlights, this is a group effort in every sense of the word, even when a song might feature only one voice or a few instruments. (Everyone involved seems capable of playing about ten, it seems.) Doom-laden narratives like "The Merry Golden Tree" (about a ship at sea) demonstrate the irony of how despair can prove healing when acknowledged and sung about as a community. Clearly a band to see in concert.


THE AVETT BROTHERS -- The Avett Brothers  

It's a career year for The Avett Brothers, who saw the musical Swept Away featuring their music and starring longtime fan and booster John Gallagher Jr. of Spring Awakening fame debut on Broadway. And their latest album is the best since their peak of I And Love and You in 2009. Americana, folk rock, call it what you will. This is earnest, thoughtful music. 


LIAM GALLAGHER AND JOHN SQUIRE -- Liam Gallagher and John Squire 

The lead singer of Oasis and the guitarist John Squire walk into a bar...and deliver exactly the meat and potatoes rock and roll you'd want from Liam and John. So familiar on first listen it's gonna take me a while to let this one sink in and see where it lands. But fans of either shouldn't hesitate. 


PESO PLUMA -- Éxodo

He's 25 and no featherweight, so it's no surprise Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija aka Peso Pluma delivers a double album right after his excellent Genesis. Side one (not that there is such a thing) features the Peso Pluma I like best, a lyricist and singer/rapper who plumbs the riches of Mexican music. Guest stars abound, but they don't overwhelm what he's doing. Side two interests me less; it's Peso Pluma as a somewhat tough (but not that tough) modern rapper. The guest stars seem to take over. It's still good, but side would have been a sterling work on its own while side two makes me worried Pluma is learning the wrong lessons. Hardly a surprise: the super catchy massive hit "Bellakeo" with Brazilian star Anitta appears on side two and powered the album's success. It's terrific, as is "Teka" with DJ Snake, the closer with a clever sample of cop sirens that sort of freaked me out while I was walking up Second Avenue in NYC and then made me laugh. Peso Pluma is conquering the charts; I just hope he becomes more focused on conquering greatness. 


WILLIE NELSON -- The Border 

The last time I named a Willie Nelson album to my best of the year list, it was 2009 and his marvelous songbook album titled American Classic, a worthy sequel to his classic album Stardust. And the year before that, he topped my list with the live album Two Men With The Blues alongside Wynton Marsalis. Since then, Willie has released approximately 472 more albums and a lot of them–many of them, indeed most of them–are solid. Even at 91 he's putting out one to two albums a year and it's a beautiful thing. You can listen to and enjoy most of them. Nothing about The Border is astonishingly different; it's just got a slightly stronger selection of songs and Willie's world-weary vocals are just that more spot-on. So no, this isn't a comeback or a victory lap for a beloved artist. He's never gone away and we've never forgotten how great he truly is. I look forward to hearing the two or three albums he delivers in 2025 and if you haven't listened to Willie in a while, by all means put on The Border and marvel anew at a Mount Rushmore worthy legend of popular music. 


PET SHOP BOYS -- Nonetheless 
X -- Smoke & Fiction 

Speaking of veterans adding to their already impressive catalogs, the Pet Shop Boys and X both do precisely that. Nothing shocking here, either, except the Pet Shop Boys have enjoyed a far more distinguished career than I ever would have guessed after what I assumed was their "one hit wonder" success of "West End Girls." (He's not even singing! He's talking!) And the punk rock band X announced their next album would be their last and damned if Smoke & Fiction isn't one of their all-time best. Quentin Tarantino, take notes. 



THE BLACK CROWES -- Happiness Bastards

Sometimes you love an album and push it on everyone around you. Sometimes a friend loves an album and pushes it on you. Their enthusiasm, their constant attempts to play it when you're driving around, their turning up the volume when a song appears on the radio, it all builds and builds and maybe sometimes you reject it (that's your thing). But if you've any sense and your friend has good taste, hearing the music over and over coupled with your friend's joy makes you a fan too. I might have become a fan anyway someday but friends definitely turned me onto Hüsker Dü and Rush and Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac and The Replacements and a million other bands, like The Black Crowes. Thanks, friends! Mind you, none of my friends are besotted with Prefab Sprout like I am, but you can't have everything. 


THE JOHN SALLY RIDE -- Melomaniacs 

I've been a fan of power pop entity The John Sally Ride for years. But 2023's The Other Women was too meta for my taste. (It delivered answer songs or alternate takes on famous tunes featuring a woman's name; instead of "Walk Away Renee" you got "Run Away Renee" and instead of "Sweet Caroline" you got "Mean Caroline." However, I will admit I knew a Jolene and she definitely hated Dolly Parton's "Jolene.") So when I heard the new album Melomaniacs was built around an obsession with music and featured songs extolling the joy of hearing an album that's come out on compact disc for the first time or an overwhelming record collection or which Kinks album to start with, I was nonplussed. I could identify with it all, but really? After a jaundiced first listen, I was slowly won over. And really, it could be my life story...anticipating an act's new album coming out, grabbing a magnifying glass to look at the lyrics included in a cassette release, having a friend build specialty floor to ceiling cases to house my CDs, wondering where to start with a band like The Kinks back when that meant spending $15 on a physical copy. Power pop fans and melomaniacs need apply. 


LAURA MARLING -- Patterns in Repeat
ROSIE TUCKER -- Utopia Now! 

Parenthood changes you, I hear. Acclaimed folkie Laura Marling starts her new album with adults chatting quietly while a baby coos. It's a contemplative, accomplished, self-assured work that knows exactly what it wants to do: capture this moment, pay attention to it, savor it. That she does. From the strings to the gorgeous background vocals to the finger-picking, this is Joni Mitchell territory. Eight albums into her career, Marling wins without trying. 

In  contrast, Rosie Tucker is angrily examining the world on her wryly amusing, dream pop album. She gets jealous when people she knows appears on TV, whereas Laura Marling probably doesn't have the time to watch TV. Tucker pushes back against the attention economy and the capitalist treadmill and all the things she's supposed to do to build her brand. Her lyrics are funny and pointed, like "I hope no one had to piss in a bottle so I could get the thing I ordered on the internet." Her music is catchy as hell and her politics are on point, so consider this your marching music for the next protest. People are still gonna protest, right? 


IVAN CORNEJO -- Mirada 

Apparently the genres reggaeton and "regional Mexican music" (a label only a label or music critic would ever use) are vying for supremacy in the hearts of listeners. Reggaeton got so heavily into tired sexist lyrics that when the acoustic vibe of Mexicana (hmm, that's better) burst onto the scene and the acts weren't going on about their bitches, it worked. Music with a sense of pride in folk origins but ready to embrace rock n roll too? Works for me. Ivan Cornejo is a California artist who started things off right: he learned to play "La Bamba" by Ritchie Valens via YouTube tutorials. Cornejo has a hypnotic burr in his languid vocals and now he's making his major label debut with his third album Mirada. Just give a listen and you'll fall hard. 


BETA RADIO -- Waiting For The End To Come 

I like to end strongly, just to make sure no one thinks this list is ranked. After the first album or two, they're just all great. Mostly the order comes about naturally by making sure I mix up genres and styles and languages and men and women and so on to keep everyone reading. And while you're scanning the list you're sure to stumble across acts and albums you weren't looking for. Besides, how could I resist ending with an album titled Waiting For The End To Come? 

Every time I post my favorite albums of the year list, I ask people: what albums did I miss? One year, the answer came from someone I didn't even know: check out Beta Radio. What a treat. Rock n roll. Americana. "Real" music. Call it what you will, this is indeed the real stuff you need: passionate, lyrical, gorgeous, intimate, moving, with a soupçon of more religious imagery this time around, which makes me think of The Avett Brothers. (I can namecheck Bon Iver or Jackson Browne or Midlake but like every act worth its salt, this duo is all its own. Music for adults, which means everyone from the cooler high school students to NPR listeners to rockers who need some Sunday morning wake-up music. 


REISSUE: LONE JUSTICE -- Viva Lone Justice (reissue?) 
REISSUE: VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Uptown Top Ranking: Trojan Ska & Reggae Chartbusters 
REISSUE: MCCOY TYNER & JOE HENDERSON -- Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs 
REISSUE: NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN -- Chain of Light 

Oh dear g-d, what a loss it was when record label shenanigans tore the heart out of Lone Justice. Viva Lone Justice proves what an exciting, thrilling band they truly were. I'm not completely desolate because we've enjoyed the marvelous solo career of Maria McKee. But we were definitely cheated when Lone Justice died too soon. 

I don't know much of anything about reggae. And the iconic record label Trojan has so many different, overlapping compilations you could do a master's thesis on the intricacies of them. All I know is I spun Uptown Top Ranking: Trojan Ska & Reggae Chartbusters. And then I spun it again and again. 

The jazz greats pianist McCoy Tyner and saxophonist Joe Henderson had a ferocious meeting of the minds on this double album live set from 1966 that for some reason remained unreleased until now. Inexplicable. 

For a period, everyone not in the know was suddenly wowed by the great qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He sings religious music, specifically Sufi devotional music, long discursive songs with jazz-like vocal improvisation that circle higher and higher until reaching the heavens. He sang with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam! His music was everywhere! Pop stars stole his melodies for Bollywood musicals! But NFAK has literally dozens and dozens (perhaps hundreds and hundreds) of recordings and it can be overwhelming. Most people, like me, heard a few albums, got the essence of him, enjoyed it and moved on. That's ok. The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir may have a fluke worldwide smash album with Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares and tour the world and then slip back into relative obscurity. Just because I didn't become an expert in Bulgarian choral music or buy dozens of albums doesn't mean my passing love of that album was somehow just a fad or meaningless.  (Check them out!) What's wrong with sampling all types of music, digging something and moving on? It's great! It's also cool if you dig deeper, of course and hearing Kind of Blue by Miles Davis makes you a lifetime devotee of jazz with no time for anything else. Like me, it's probably been a long time since you listened to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (if you ever did at all). Now we have an unreleased gem recorded when he was at the height of his worldwide popularity and vocal powers. It's a stunner, reminding me why he became a sensation in the first place. I don't think I'll suddenly plunge deeper into his endless back catalog, but that's ok. That's the joy of this streaming era: it's easier than ever to check something out. If I turn you onto an artist the way so many others have turned me onto The Lemon Twigs and Beta Radio and so many others, I'll be thrilled. 

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