The Brown Note Movie Review

Charli XCX - BRAT (2024) Album Review

My biggest gripe in recent years, is one of the worst ever eras of music critics, clamming so many mid-tier female solo pop/rnb & rap albums are masterpieces. Witness my most overrated album from last year, from Caroline Polachek. Or anything by Beyonce. So here we are with this years anointed album of the year. All I can say is that I am always fair.

Dirty Three - Love Changes Everything (2024) Album Review

The esteemed post-rock(?) trio are three decades in and with increasing gaps between albums - a whopping twelve years this time between drinks. There latest is a unexpected balm for anxious times, near true ambient music in its way of sucking negative emotions out of you and replacing them with more meditative and positive energy.

The Instigators (2024) Film Review

Doug Liman is a massively underappreciated and endlessly malleable director - from Swingers to The Bourne Identity to Edge of Tomorrow to Road House. Given the cast he gets is near perfect for this kind of sub-Tarantino crime film, that makes this a let down on nearly every level. Just about passable. Casey Affleck is great though.

Hit Man (2024) Film Review

I did not have esteemed auteur director, Richard Linklater, swerving into Rom-coms i my 2024 bingo. Other than being a tiny bit superficial and slight, this film is an utter blast. Very funny and with two of the most engaging leads of the year. Glen Powell excels as the titular fake hit man (based on a very real person) and for fans of Triple Frontier, finally Hollywood seems to be catching on to the gorgeous, electric presence of Adria Arjona. Think Grosse Point Blank more than Pretty Woman.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) Movie Review

The relentless reboot and remake cycle reaches the once unthinkable - lets re-do Beverly Hills Cop. Though the electric magic of the original is missing, it's powered across the line by a star missing from our screens (other than in donkey form) for far too long, Eddie Murphy is completely undiminished, possibly due to witchcraft.

Endgame: Marvel's Creative Bankruptcy and the Groan Heard Around the World

We all hoped superhero comic book movies had died off. First with a perfect Endgame to the MCU universe, then a run of genuinely terrible and unsuccessful movies. But no, nothing will stop them, even the most cynical and creatively bankrupt act in major franchise movie history - recasting your most popular actor as a new character. This is some Bobby Ewing level garbage.

The Bikeriders (2024) Film Review

Director Jeff Nichols latest, is a superb subject with a great cast. It's also sadly, trite, superficial and far less than sum of its visually gorgeous parts.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) Movie Review

The first post slap-heard-around-the-world Will Smith movie, is another broadly successful entry into the unexpectedly rebooted franchise, though with far less narrative ambition than its predecessor.

DIIV - Frog in Boiling Water (2024) Album Review

Perhaps alongside Beach House as the most well established of the second wave of Shoegaze and Dreampop bands, though on this immaculately presented effort, sadly not as prepared as to offer variety or imagination to their sound.

Burial, Kode9 - Phoneglow / Eyes Go Blank (2024) EP Review

The Hyperdub label head and his head honcho team up and not for the first time. After Burial's recent extremely punishing EP, this is one of his most commercial sounding releases. Full of light skipping 2step beats and UK garage flourishes, plus a heap of hooky vocals and synths. Kode9 ably backs it up veering into early 90s rave and Drum n Bass. Undemanding but in a good way.