Attention men of Christmastime: be careful out there.
That is not meant to be a segue to…
The best book I read this year was Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma. I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone who wrestled with the “art vs. artist” debate.* In fact, I’ve recommended this book so much that I’ve loaned my copy of this book to several people since its April release and don’t currently know its whereabouts, otherwise I’d re-read it and write a lot more about it here.
* (I’m currently reading RJ Smith’s James Brown biography, and let’s just say I’m deep in these waters yet again.)
Instead, I’ll share this review in Slate by Laura Miller, who writes:
The solution is not to smash your idols but to recognize that they are not idols at all ... The realization that most human beings have a monstrous aspect allowed [Dederer] to see “the humanity of monsters.” This amounts to a more dramatic enactment of a pretty common experience: As children, we adore our parents, and growing up is a process of realizing how flawed they are—often with a period of extravagant adolescent rejection—before we come to understand that we love them despite those flaws, as we hope to be loved despite our own.
That sums up Dederer’s empathetic streak, but her book is more complicated than that. She wrestles with herself constantly throughout (she loses me a bit on the “all great artists are bad parents” tangent). She concludes on a “you do you” note, which is not really a cop-out after everything she’s presented you with.
Important selling point: she’s a great writer dealing with intellectual issues without coming across as a (shudder) academic. The book was spawned from this much-shared essay in the Paris Review, which you should really read.
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Favourite magazine article I read this year: “The End of the English Major” by Nathan Heller in the New Yorker, about the future of the humanities (and arguably humanity). Did you go to university? Do you have a child you would like to send to university? Read it. It’s long. Kind of like those books we don’t read anymore.
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For the unpaywalled crowd, here’s a synopsis of the last near-dozen posts.
Also for the unpaywalled crowd:
23/40 of these albums are Canadian. Not by design. That’s just how I roll.
Many links below are to now-paywalled posts. This master list will remain unpaywalled. If you’re an artist named here, or work for one, drop me a line and I’ll send you any required link.
Go listen to something you haven’t heard before!
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2023
Last month I decided these were my top 10 albums of 2023. After then going on to write about another 30 albums, I’m not so sure this is still it, but I love all these, for different reasons.
Altin Gun - Ask (Glitterbeat/ATO).
Baby Rose - Through and Through (Secretly Canadian).
Peter Gabriel - i/o (RealWorld).
Kayhan Kalhor & Toumani Diabaté - The Sky is the Same Colour Everywhere (RealWorld).
Terra Lightfoot - Healing Power (Sonic Unyon)
Donny McCaslin - I Want More (Edition)
NQ Arbuckle - Love Songs for the Long Game (Six Shooter)
Margo Price - Strays (Loma Vista)
Whitehorse - I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying (Six Shooter)
WITCH - Zango (Partisan)
Wrote about them here.
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20 more:
All Hands Make Light - Darling the Dawn.
The Beaches - Blame My Ex.
Belle and Sebastian - Late Developers.
Charlotte Cardin - 99 Nights.
Alabaster DePlume - Come With Fierce Grace.
Wrote about those here.
…
Jeremy Dutcher - Motewolonuwok.
Feist - Multitudes.
Debby Friday - Good Luck.
Matthew Halsall - An Ever Changing View.
PJ Harvey - I Inside the Old Year Dying.
Wrote about those here.
…
Hauschka - Philanthropy
Lankum - False Lankum
Murray Lightburn - Once Upon a Time in Montreal
Lightning Dust - Nostalgia Killer
Natalie Merchant - Keep Your Courage
Wrote about those here.
…
Midswim - Sneak Behind the Dreams in Your Head
Allison Russell - The Returner
William Tyler & the Impossible Truth - Secret Stratosphere
Billy Valentine & the Universal Truth - s/t
John Zorn - New Masada Quartet Vol. 2
Wrote about those here.
Favourite local records:
Communism - Lovespeech
Geordie Gordon - Tambourine
Kevin Hearn & Hugh Marsh - Dreaming of the ’80s / Rick White - 20 Golden Hits of the ’80s
Uh Huh - s/t
Witch Prophet - Gateway Experience
Wrote about those here.
…
Other local favourites:
Buck 65 - Super Dope
July Talk - Remember Never Before
Katie Cruel - Lost Vagus
Michael Peter Olsen - Narrative of a Nervous System
Pantayo - Ang Pagdaloy
Honorable mention: Eamon McGrath
Wrote about those here.
Best tracks found elsewhere:
I annotated this list here. 9/20 are Canadian.
A Certain Ratio - A Trip in Hulme
Jeremie Albino - Angeline
Anohni - Sliver of Ice
Jill Barber - Beautiful Life
Will Butler + Sister Squares - Arrow of Time
The Clientele - Dying in May
Daughter - Be On Your Way
DJ Shadow - Ozone Scraper
Gord Downie & Bob Rock - The Safest Day of the Year
Kevin Drew - Out in the Fields
Everything But the Girl - Nothing Left to Lose
The Flints - Different Drum
Evangeline Gentle - Gay Bar
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Harbour
Nabihah Iqbal - The World Couldn’t See Us
Mourning [a] BLKstar - Catch 22
Nyssa - Breakup Party
U.S. Girls - So Typically Now / Futures Bet
Rufus Wainwright feat. Madison Cunningham - Alone
Yo La Tengo - Aselestine
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Some 2022 records I missed this time last year:
Bibi Club - Le soleil et la mer (really hope this new band changes its name so as to not to be associated with a current war criminal — which was certainly not its intent)
Mariel Buckley - Everywhere I Used to Be
Christine Fellows - Stuff We All Get
Lucas Silveira - The Goddam Flowers
Jairus Sharif - Water & Tools
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Favourite live shows:
Feb 19 Nicolette & the Nobodies at Cameron.
Feb 24 Communism at Cameron.
Feb 24 Margo Price at Phoenix.
March 13 Bill Frisell at Collins Bay Penetentiary, Kingston.
March 16 Lisa LeBlanc at Horseshoe.
April 7 Marlaena Moore at Monarch.
May 24 Nyssa at Dakota.
June 1 Tami Neilson at Great Hall.
June 14 Jairus Sharif at Music Gallery.
June 16 Whitehorse / NQ Arbuckle at Allied Music Centre.
Reviewed those here.
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July 9 Feist / Rufus Wainwright / Judy Collins / Jeremy Dutcher at Mariposa Folk Festival, Orillia
July 18 Mourning [A] BLKstar, Jane Inc. at Tranzac
Aug 2 Altin Gün, Rogê at Danforth Music Hall
Sept 11 Peter Gabriel at Raptors/Leafs Arena
Sept 17 Alabaster dePlume at Rivoli
Oct 8 Charlie Ballantine at Rex Hotel
Oct 26 NQ Arbuckle, Carolyn Mark at Horseshoe
Dec 1 Terra Lightfoot, Brandy Zdan at Horseshoe
Dec 9 Jeremy Dutcher, U.S. Girls at Massey Hall
Dec 22 Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation at Drom Taberna
Reviewed those here.
Cheers! Always a treat to read your stuff -- books, columns or otherwise 🤘