This year’s list differs considerably from that of 2016 and 2017 and 2018 in that 2019 was the first year studios actually sent me awards-ready, buzzy DVD screeners, mistaking me for someone with any actual influence in the industry. (Although I did join the WGA East this year, so I…

The band was called Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s. At the time of the song’s release, there were apparently eight musicians in the band, though it’s hard to pin down a precise number. Some decent live videos from 2008 appear to show seven onstage, adding two violinists, a…

I think this is all of them, anyway. No way to be sure. And here’s the order in which I preferred them, like I did in 2016 and 2017. I didn’t see too much Oscar bait yet. Who knows if I will. Enjoy! Paddington 2 / First Reformed [tie] 2…

The criteria for this list is simple: The music had to knock me on my ass. Guitars tend to do that the quickest, so most of the below music is rock-based. Please note that I also liked the Big Ones this year — Kacey Musgraves and Snail Mail and Janelle…

Let me say up front that The White Album (officially known as The Beatles and released this week 50 years ago) is my favorite Beatles album. I love nearly every song on it. However, as it will quickly become clear, some are better than others. In honor of the album’s…

When The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie died in October 2017, my former editor Simon Vozick-Levinson memorialized him in The New York Times writing that as Americans, it’s hard to quantify just how massive a figure Downie was in his home country of Canada. “The place of honor that Mr. Downie…

Right now, my turntable would give any audiophile a heart attack. Not only is it one of those vinyl-to-MP3 setups, but without a proper sound system, my remaining option was to rig it through old Logitech desktop computer speakers. I know, I know—but it gets worse. The turntable itself spins…