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The CHIRP Blog
Alex Gilbert writesCHRP Radio’s Best of 2023: Alex Gilbert
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2023. Our next list is from DJ Alex Gilbert.
There was so much great music released in 2023 that it was—once again—very difficult refining the list to just 10 albums. Ultimately, I chose the music that spoke to me the most directly: songs that I kept coming back to again and again, artists that I enjoyed enough to go see in concert, and albums that were undeniably unique in their musicianship. I know the following years will see me discovering so much I missed from these past 12 months, but for now, here’s a snapshot of my 2023.
#1 Roach by Miya Folick (Nettwerk)
Joe Held: Rebellious Jukebox writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2023: Joe Held
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2023. Our next list is from DJ and Manager of Record Donations Joe Held (Rebellious Jukebox).
The Last Rotation Of Earth by BC Camplight (Bella Union)
KSanders writesKyle Sanders’ Top 10 Films of 2023
I don't know about you, but I watched a TON of films this year. And most importantly, I saw them at a movie theater. No really, an ACTUAL movie theater! From my count (thanks to social media check-ins and a somewhat photographic memory), I visited Chicago's movie theaters a whopping 66 TIMES this year!
Half of those took place at my favorite spot in all of Chicago: The Music Box Theater. Other notable visits included historic theaters like The Davis in Lincoln Square (mostly involving titles featured at our inaugural CHIRP Music Film Festival), and the now-defunct New 400 Theater of Rogers Park (may its hallowed doors rest in peace).
I also got to check out some blockbusters at the new Alamo Drafthouse located in Wrigleyville, the AMC Newcity theater in Old Town, and the Landmark Century in Lakeview. So many films, so many locations! That has to be a new personal record, because not that long ago, my yearly movie theater visits could be counted on one hand. And that was BEFORE Covid!
In a post-pandemic world though, movie theaters are surprisingly going strong. Last year it was all thanks to Mr. "Maverick" himself, Tom Cruise. This year though, a certain pink-attired gal could probably add another level to her Malibu Dreamhouse thanks to huge box office returns. "Barbenheimer" became an unexpected cultural event that was a successful payoff for Warner Bros' Barbie and Universal Pictures' Oppenheimer, and proved you can release a wildly fun comedy based on an iconic doll AND a biographical drama about the Atomic Bomb simultaneously without commercial conflict. I myself did NOT see both as a double feature (in fact, just a few days apart), but any gimmick to motivate the masses to movie theaters I fully support!
With 2023 coming to a close, I looked back on all of this year's films and put together a Top 10 List of my favorites. Criteria included runtime (my sincerest apologies to the three hour opuses Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer), originality (you won't find any franchise properties mentioned here--cough, cough, MARVEL, cough cough), coherence (if Wes Anderson continues to make convoluted rabbit holes like Asteroid City, he might lose me as a fan forever) and lasting impression (I'm sure there was a film I could mention here, but--I already forgot about it...).
10) Talk to Me
An Aussie horror film that treats communicating with the dead as casually as huffing glue out of a brown paper bag down by the old swimming hole (or was that just my adolescence?). This film from Down Under is about a group of teenagers who contact spirits using a mysterious embalmed hand that allows them to be possessed for up to 90 seconds. Any additional second over, and well...let's just say the spirit might get a little too comfortable. An impressive feature directorial debut from brothers Danny and Michael Phillipou, Talk to Me dusts off the old familiar horror tropes and gives them a fresh 21st-century spin--conjuring up an effective ghost story in the TikTok era.
Ninja writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2023: Ninja
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2023. Our next list is from DJ & Production Director Ninja.
#1 Bless This Mess by U.S. Girls (4AD)
Highlights include "Tux (Your Body Fills Me, Boo) - an homage to the tuxedo; and "So Typically Now," which was released as an advance single and made my top singles list of last year. The rest of the album fills out nicely, with a slow-bop "Only Daedalus" leading off the whole thing. Lot of retro here, but I like this direction for Meg Remy.
Tony Breed writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2023: Tony Breed
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2023. Our next list is from DJ Tony Breed.
Boy, it’s been a year, hasn’t it? A year of what my boss keeps calling “macroeconomic conditions”, like a man gesturing vaguely at a beat-up car. But the music has been good! Real good. This summer there was one song I kept hearing, a song that clearly resonated with a lot of our DJs. This is my pick for song of the year: “Quit” by Velvet Vision. It’s enormously catchy, and speaks to disaffected workers everywhere. I remember being in a Zoom meeting with my team; one employee was talking about feeling really defeated, and there, on the radio in the room behind me, was this song. Do I want to quit my job? Maybe I want to quit my job? Can we please do a 4-day workweek?? Here are my top 10 albums, the absolute best of the best, in my estimation:
#1 Diagnosis by Sen Morimoto (City Slang/Sooper)
“This album is so good,” I keep thinking to myself while listening to Sen Morimoto’s third album Diagnosis. The complex musical fusion is hard to put a label on; it probably owes the most to jazz, while not really being a jazz album. The influence of hip hop is also there, as are indie pop and post punk, but it’s not really any one of those things. What it is, is solid, layered, and varied, from the angry politics of “Diagnosis” to the quiet beauty of “Forsythia (????????)”. Give it another listen. I can’t stop playing it.