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The CHIRP Blog
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.
Sarah Spencer writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2023: Sarah Spencer
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2023. Our next list is from DJ & Special Events Co-Director Sarah Spencer.
2023 was another great year for music. When it comes time for me to decide my top 10 list, that fact becomes a bit of a challenge. And it's a great challenge to have! My approach this year was to go with the records that a) I played the most, and b) the records that really stayed with me this year. It's in that spirit that I present my top ten albums of 2023:
#1 Hit Parade by Róisín Murphy (Ninja Tune)
If I'm going to choose my top record, it's got to be the one that I played the most this year. I would be embarrassed to venture a guess as to how many spins I’ve given this LP so far. It’s a masterpiece six years in the making: a collaboration with DJ Koze that will undoubtedly influence the genre for years to come. I’ve been following Róisín Murphy‘s career for the better part of the last 25 years and this is without a doubt her best record. She’s at the top of her musical game. For a woman who just turned 50 this year, that’s an incredible achievement. That’s not to say, this album is without its problems, and unfortunately, those have nothing to do with the music. I’ll leave it to you to read the background, but suffice to say as a result you won’t find this record on a lot of top 10 lists this year. While I don’t share her opinion, Róisín's comments reveal her stance on a topic of active debate in her home country of Ireland; while controversial, the comments were not hateful in nature. At a time when Pablo Picasso has a current exhibit at the Art Institute, and a newly finished John Lennon song is all the rage, it feels entirely inappropriate and over-the-top to censor Róisín Murphy.
subtextclapper writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2023: Matthew Jaccarino
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2023. Our next list is from Assistant Music Director Matthew Jaccarino.
#1 Maps by Billy Woods & Kenny Segal (Backwoodz Studioz)
