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Eric Wiersema writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2022: Eric Wiersema

CHIRP Radio Best of 2022

Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2022. Our next list is from DJ and Assistant Music Director Eric Wiersema.

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is already mostly in the books! I guess time flies when you’re having fun. I genuinely mean that too!

After the COVID-plagued years of 2020 and 2021, it felt great to, more or less, resume life as normal *mostly* without fear. It was great to see live music year-round this year, enjoy both Pitchfork and Riot Fest in their regularly scheduled times (not exhausting back to back weekends) and experience the triumphant return of CHIRP’s Record Fair and Other Delights.

Last and definitely not least, it was great to experience any and all new music that found its way to my ears! 2022 was my second full-year as a regular CHIRP DJ and Assistant Music Director and I was exposed to an insanely large amount of new music as a result.

While being consistently fed 20 or more albums a week ensures that my thirst for new music is always quenched, it is not without its drawbacks. It is damn near impossible to keep up with and fully digest everything thrown my way. It is way harder now for new albums to truly stand out and remain a part of my long term musical diet.

Fortunately, a handful of albums were able to break this mold that will stick with me for years to come. I look forward to seeing my fellow CHIRPers lists as well to check out albums I missed or revisit albums that didn’t initially grab me on the first listen!

 

 

#1 Wet Leg by Wet Leg (Domino)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Wet Leg Wet LegCall me basic if you want, but Wet Leg lives up to all of the hype they have been getting for the past two years. I love their brand of upbeat and quirky indie rock that will even get the normies to consume a couple of warm beers on the chaise longue! I actually requested "Chaise Longue" at my brother’s wedding this summer and everyone flocked to the dance floor!

While the singles are undoubtedly Wet Leg’s strongest material, the rest of the album grew on me after a few listens and still remains in my regular rotation today. Favorite Tracks: "Chaise Longue," "Angelica," "Wet Dream," "Ur Mum"

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Categorized: Best Albums of the Year

KSanders writesFight or Flight: A Review of “Women Talking”

by Kyle Sanders

Pardon my politics, but my feelings going into this year's Midterm elections were quite grim. I was so convinced of the prophesied "Red Wave" that I spiraled into theoretical fears of what those results could possibly unravel in this country.

I was angry. I was frustrated. But most of all, I felt completely powerless. I alone couldn't stop the inevitable. I alone couldn't change the course of history. Convincing those with polar opposite political beliefs was futile. The only thing I could do was cast my vote and avoid all Election Day coverage.

The next morning, the sun came up.

As it turned out, the Red Wave barely made a ripple. So many races were too close to call, and yet, the more results that came in, the more hope I was able to maintain. Those candidates who supported "anti-woke" legislation, fraudulent voting, and Fascist behaviors soon realized they were beside themselves.

For once, I actually felt good. Despite what the polls were predicting, the voters decided otherwise. I had witnessed democracy at work.

And it wouldn't be the first time, as just a few weeks prior, I witnessed the same process on the big screen, when I got the opportunity to see one of the Chicago International Film Festival's "Special Presentations" of Women Talking.

Adapted from Miriam Toews' profound 2018 novel, Women Talking is about a group of Mennonite women who conduct a secret meeting in a barn to decide--after realizing that the numerous sexual assaults they were enduring were committed by the men in their colony--whether or not to stay or leave. 

It's a complicated decision because, according to their faith, if they're unable to forgive these men, they will be denied God's salvation. But what is clearly presented is a group of women who, despite their personal beliefs, are able to effectively communicate their stances while allowing those in opposition to lament their own arguments. Through this collaborative process, the women not only question power, but harness their own.

The film features an ensemble of acclaimed actresses of varying years in the business. From recent Oscar nominees Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter) and Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Carol) to Emmy-winning Claire Foy (The Crown), and veteran actresses like Oscar winner Frances McDormand (FargoNomadland) and Tony award-winning Judith Ivey ("Steaming," "Hurlyburly"), the cast's emotive faces fill every frame with expressions blistering with anger, frustration, and pain. They flow in and out of conversations that shift from unified to divided within seconds. The claustrophobic barn the women congregate in feels so intimate, it feels like you're watching a staged play on celluloid.

It's that kind of atmosphere director Sarah Polley and cinematographer Luc Montpellier specifically chose when bringing this story to the screen. When I attended the sneak preview back in October, the collaborating duo were in attendance to receive the festival's Visionary Award, and discussed the making of the film. Polley mentioned she wanted to tell this story as a heightened reality fable that feels like a grungy postcard from the past whose odor still lingers in the present. For Montpellier, he wanted to contrast the dark intimacy of the barn's space from the agrarian exteriors filled with light and color. It's an effectively subtle way to present these women deciding whether or not to stay within the confines of archaic customs, or plunge their way into the bewildering terrain of the unknown. 

The levels of saturation in the film trick you with the uncertainty of time; we're never fully aware of the year or decade in which the film takes place, or even where it takes place, which raises the stakes for both the women and the audience watching: neither group can assume what risks are out there, but surely it couldn't be worse than what dangers remain if they stay. Polley's potent direction and simmering script keep you engaged with the women's dilemma throughout the film's entirety. 

Only her third film (behind the Oscar-nominated Away from Her and Take This Waltz), Women Talking is Polley's most ambitious to date, presenting those "sticky questions" involving power and choice while keeping the spirited content of the novel alive through the performances of its all-star cast (already, the cast has been collecting year-end Best Ensemble awards).

By the film's conclusion, the choices have been provided, opinions have been heard, and a decision is made. Let Women Talking be considered a fine example of what a true democratic process looks like.

Women Talking will be released in theaters nationwide on December 23rd

 

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Categorized: Movies

Steven Grady writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2022: Steven Grady

CHIRP Radio Best of 2022

Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2022. Our next list is from DJ Steven Grady.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#1 Shufflemania! by Robyn Hitchcock (Tiny Ghost)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Robyn Hitchcock Shufflemania!In pandemic-riddled 2020, Robyn Hitchcock wrote and recorded several tracks and then emailed them randomly to various artists to overdub as they wished.

The result? His first studio release in five years, sporting a worthy cast of musicians including former Soft Boys mates Kimberley Rew and Morris Windsor, Johnny Marr, Seán Ono Lennon, Brendan Benson, and longtime companion Emma Swift. Hitchcock reinvents himself yet again, serving up a self-described antidote, not about the world we live in, but a reaction to it.

From Socrates to Scorpio to serpent gods, Shufflemania! is yet another masterpiece Hitchcock has added to his wonderfully unique discography.

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Categorized: Best Albums of the Year

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KSanders writesGods and Ghosts: A Review of “Babylon”

by Kyle Sanders

Back in college, I took a Film Studies course where we watched King Vidor's The Crowd. Released in 1928, The Crowd is a classic from the Silent Era and was one of the first films nominated for Best Picture (back then, the category was "Best Unique and Artistic Production") at the inaugural Academy Awards ceremony. It tells the story of a young couple struggling to maintain an existence within "Society," that massive, faceless entity referenced in the title.

A landmark in direction, Vidor's kaleidoscopic camerawork follows its protagonists as their beaming ambitions slowly submerge within a vast swarm of indifferent people all clamoring for a piece of the same thing. For a film that came out during the Great Depression, it was not what you'd call a "feel good" movie of the year.

The Crowd came to mind near the end of a new film that takes place during the same era. A dizzying camera pans out above a crowd of theatergoers, tilting down at the tops of their faceless heads watching a scene from Singin' in the Rain. One of the film's protagonists is also in the audience, but in this darkened crowd he nearly goes unnoticed.

The scene is from Damien Chazelle's latest film, Babylon, and it's just one of many scenes that reference important markers of cinema--those magical movie moments that have stirred the hearts of filmgoers for over a century, The Crowd included.

 If only Babylon could summon a new trick from up its overstuffed sleeve.

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Categorized: Movies

Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (Dec 12 - Dec 31)

On the Podcast:

On the Blog:

Top of the CHIRP Charts for the week of 12/12/22:

Eggs – A Glitter Year (Prefect/Howlin' Banana)

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Categorized: CHIRP Radio News and Info.

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