RECS #6

Music, words, and films for the end of the year

I haven’t put out a recommendations post since August. It was subconsciously intentional, as I try to push myself to share my actual writing and music here, and the lists can feel like low-hanging fruit. That said, I rely on personal recommendations rather than algorithms for my daily dosages of inspiration, so here’s what’s been moving me lately…

MUSIC

It’s always nice when you find something cool and relatively unknown and get to witness the climb. I stumbled upon Paris Texas at some point last year, and I immediately fell in love with what they do. Their music feels like a melting pot of my record collection—world’s that had not previously collided, merged into one. In the midst of a recent doom scroll, I noticed Tyler the Creator announced his stadium tour promoting his new record, with Paris Texas listed as the opener. I look forward to them soon being the ones to pop up in my doom scrolls as a result. Here’s a great way into their world if you’re looking for a place to start:

In other recent discoveries, Al Green just released a cover of an R.E.M. song, which captures the melancholy of the original in a new and beautiful way.

WORDS

I’m here, once again, to report to you how embarrassingly slow I am at consuming novels. The issue is worsened when I experience a string of books I struggle to find my way into, which was the case for me this year. I needed an easy read to get back into the swing of things, so a friend recommended The Midnight Library (thanks, Tiffany). It taps into my obsession with alternate lives in a really beautiful way. If you’ve spent any amount of time imagining how the small and big decisions you make in your life lead you down a particular path but wonder what the other paths could’ve looked like, then you’ll enjoy this.

FILMS / TV

I’m not big on giving advice, but I’m going to put this out there to any creatives out there who are potentially in a rut. There’s an endless amount of films, records, books, shows, etc., and a voice that tells you to keep looking for more. I listen to that voice 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time I spend watching and consuming stuff I’ve already experienced. If you want to dismantle how something brilliant is created, there is no better way than to immerse yourself in it over and over again. If it’s truly great, you will peel back a new layer with each experience, and it begins to stick to you. It bores a hole in your subconscious and makes a home, and next time you’re making something, it doses itself out in the form of a slow drip.

I say all this because I just re-watched I Know This Much Is True for the third time, and I was it was even more incredible than I’d recalled. If you saw Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine or The Place Beyond The Pines, but missed his limited HBO series that dropped while we were all at home freaking out every day in 2020, that’s okay. 2020 was potentially not the year to watch this extremely heavy, emotionally dense series. Is now a better time? Maybe not. I don’t know. But for those who are brave, I cannot recommend it enough.

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THE RECORD CLUB

Last week’s selection was Bonnie Raitt - Bonnie Raitt (1971)

You can find my ramblings on last week’s record in the comment section below.

This week’s selection is…

Week #19
Billy Joel - Cold Spring Harbor (1971)