The Brown Note Movie Review

It wouldn't be a weekday if Neil Young wasn't releasing an album. If his insanely prolific archive series has tiers of interest - from completests only fair to previously unreleased treasures of gold, this sits almost uniquely in the top pile. Not in anyway fascinating by the standards of a  long ditched, never released classic album, it's a simple live set with his, ahem, Crazy Horse-lite band of much younger players, The Promise of the Real. But what elevates this to the heavens, is that its from a 2019 tour in honor of his late manager a close friend of 50 years, Elliot Roberts, so for this most cantankerous and uncommercial of artists, we get a tracklist of 'greatest hits' and "golden oldies", nothing after 1995, the kind of thing he never does. Putting it immediately alongside the iconic live sets, Weld and Live Rust. The set list alone will blow any Neil Young tragic's mind but almost uniquely in his catalogue, this one expertly blends gentle country laments, country rock and full blown guitar feedback blitzkriegs into one enthusiastic, compelling whole.

A musical collision between the Spaceman 3 legend, Sonic Boom, aka Peter Kember (getting everywhere of late) and his close friend and Animal Collective MVP, Panda Bear, aka Noah Lennox, would seem the years most tantilising collaboration. However this could not be further from a marriage between Lennox's, Person Pitch and the totally under appreciated recent Kember album, All Things Being Equal if it tried. In fact it maybe the most inconsequential album either artist has been associated with.

Normally one noise or hardcore act will breakthrough the walls of their genre each year, but with Soul Glo and now this Oklahoma based sludge metal band, dropping two of the years most exiting debuts, that looks like being two. This time keeping the politicised nature of the former band's music but in an even more direct an honest form on the anti-homelessness tirade, Why? A terrific, noisy and timely scream into the void.

I'm latently a big believer that the Predator series is one of the most underappreciated of franchises, but Prey recognises a complete rebirth (after the undervalued Shane Black attempt recently). Instantly the paradigm of dumping the predator in different periods of history has proven a winning move. I had looked up who the spectacularly named Amber Midthunder was in three previous low rent (ish) films, so was not surprised by her winning turn here, I was surprised by this turning into Predator vs The Revenant! And by how amazing it is, from nowhere, one of the films of the year.

The most baffling Marvel universe film yet and a massive signifier of just how badly the wheels have fallen off after Endgame. Now way in the past would the first half of this film have ever been allowed, and the light seems to have slightly dimmed on wonder director, Taika Waititi, after the roaring success of Thor Ragnorak. It's like there is no quality control at all anymore and no one is at the helm. The first half maybe the worst of any Marvel film, its grating, Benny Hill like comedic tone (and completely misguided narration from the director himself) at incongruous odds with the story arcs of Christian Bale and Natalie Portman, plus no one wanted dad-bod Thor at this point. The vastly superior second half, resets everything, and feels like an entirely different director took over.

Arguably the king pins of the golden rebirth of British indie guitar music, alongside the likes of Black Country, New Road, Squid and Working Men's Club, return for a third album, and again seem like a group who play tennis upside down because they were bored kids not being challenged. Despite initial misgivings about them being too noisy or too frenetic here - there are plenty of oasis of calm, and it maybe their best yet.

The northern English band, one of the guiding light of the golden new wave of British indie, return with a second album. Though still a fine and cohesive record, it perhaps doesn't reach the thrilling, lofty, dynamic heights of either their debut or recent records by their peers.

Elizabeth Fraser is the greatest British indie singer of all time and the most beautifully expressive British female vocalist this side of Kate Bush, in fact she's in a tiny peer group with Bush and Bjork. She has chosen now, at this darkest of hours to return to grace us with her totally undimmed golden voice. With her partner Damon Reece, they've sculpted a small album of infinite beauty and star spun wonder. Like Galadriel returned from the West to save us. And it really makes you talk that wanky.

Once the home of some of the best and most artistic films each year, Netflix has sunk firmly into an annoying paradigm - throw 100-200 million dollars at a cool action project but give it a terrible screenplay and poor director. Here at least the presence of the Russo brothers would appear to allay the latter but to no effect on the former.

No, absolutely not. I have a lot of problems with modern activism and its focus on small things but the rally to only have an actor play a role to which they are assigned is simply upside down, wrong head and self destructive. Equality is not only a trans, gay, disabled or ethnic minority being able to play those roles, its trans, gay, disabled or ethnic minority actors having equal opportunity to play any role.