The Middle of the Page's 2023 Favorites

Ashley Leckwold

06 Jan 2024 — 30 min read

Art by Gene Ha

So... we've reached a new year already. We're now almost halfway into the 2020s and four years removed from the onset of COVID-19. Which is just... weird to think about.

Anyway, in my attempts to be more consistent with writing, I'm here to compile my first attempt at a full "End of Year" coverage in about a decade.

For most of these, it will be for media released in 2023. For others, it may include media I read for the first time in 2023! This is mostly for the books category if I'm being totally honest because I have a TBR that is spilling out from under my couch, so I'm not exactly "on it" with new books and comics sometimes.

Speaking of...

Favorite Books Read in 2023

"Tell me something true or tell me nothing at all." - Blue, This Is How You Lose The Time War

1.) The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King (1982 - 2012)

Okay, this might be cheating slightly because I did technically start the series in November 2022 at the tail end of my medical leave following my hysterectomy. Also, it is a seven book series and this is a six book list, but there's just something about this series that has stuck into my core. This was my first time ever really reading Stephen King and it absolutely felt like diving into the deep end of everything that makes him tick. The saga, which follows Gunslinger Roland Deschain and his fate assembled family of misfits, tears a line across decades and genres that it's hard to describe as any one thing. And even for its more poorly aged aspects and the King-isms that even the most Constant Reader loves to poke fun at, it still manages to make you fall in love with these characters and feel along the way of every twist and turn of their strange journey. It's a story of storytelling, cycles, and finding a way forward.

Favorite book in the series: Wizard and Glass. A beautiful romantic tragedy that also features the loopiest Wizard of Oz reference in the climax.

2.) This Is How You Lose The Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar (2019)

This book might be the biggest viral hit of the year and honestly? Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood did not steer me wrong.

This beautiful novella tells the story of Red and Blue, two rival agents of the Time War travelling up and down the threads and writing letters to each other. It starts with the two women mocking each other as two rival spies, but as the story unfolds, the two begin to fall in love and try to outrun their fates. Every bit of this story is rendered with such tenderness that the love between the two is palpable. I had to stop myself from live-tweeting the book because I wanted to post nearly every word. What a journey. I might have to read it again soon.

3.) A Psalm for the Wild-Built/A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers (2021 - 2022)

Cheating again as this is two novellas, but they're so intrinsically intertwined that it was hard to separate them. The Monk and Robot Duology tells the story of tea monk Sibling Dex, who lives on the moon Pagna. Pagna lives in a distinctly solarpunk future without the assistance of robots following robots gaining consciousness hundreds of years prior and disappearing into the wilds of the moon. When Dex ventures into the wilds to break from their routine, they end up making contact with Splendid Speckled Mosscap, a wild-built robot sent to ask what humans need.

What unfolds across these two novellas is a story exploring human existence. The little parts that make it worth living, how we deal with the hard things, and what it means to have a "purpose," especially when you're burning out. In many ways, it feels like a warm cup of tea and a deep, philosophical conversation with an old friend. Plus, I would die for Mosscap, though it would probably wonder why I would say such a thing.

4.) The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (2023)

The fourth in Osman's Thursday Murder Club series, the story continues that of the intrepid gang of septuagenarians solving crimes from their senior living community in the British countryside. This time involving an old friend and millions of dollars worth of diamonds.

If you're a fan of this series, you're already familiar with the humor and charm that Osman infuses the series with. However, the real strength of this particular book lies in the bittersweet emotions that Osman has built into the story since the first novel. What could have easily been just a story about grandparents getting into further wacky hijinks becomes a reflection on mortality and love as death comes to the door of former secret agent Elizabeth Best.

While this book is not the last in The Thursday Murder Club series, it leaves off on a nice note while Osman works on his next series. Enough to want to more, but still leaving the characters on a high note.

5.) The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (2020)

When I finished my Dark Tower journey, I took it upon myself to re-read The Hunger Games series, which I hadn't revisited since college. Not only does the original trilogy hold up super well, it somehow gets even more depressing as time has gone on and we live in our current media hellscape.

So when I finally got to the prequel book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I did wonder what would be in store. I knew the book was about a young Snow in the early days of The Hunger Games, but was it the sympathetic, forgiving portrayal that many said it would be when it was revealed what the book was about?

Spoiler alert: Not really at all.

While there is a sympathetic edge to Coriolanus about his current state of poverty, Collins is quick to sneak in ways he's is absolutely the monster he grows up to be, especially when it comes to his "love" story with Lucy Gray Baird. Every romantic thought he has about her is tinged with possession. As if she is a songbird to be caged instead of a partner to be loved.

Weaved into this is an origin story of the Games as we know them in Katniss' time, with many characters trying to figure out how do you make a literal battle to the death a spectacle that people want to watch. In that regard, it becomes a rather pessimistic reflection on our current media landscape where every conflict is treated like a reality show and media that the higher ups don't want out can disappear in an instant if you're not careful.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but the book? The book stuck itself in my brain more than I expected it too. Amazing stuff from Collins.

6.) The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay (2018)

I made an absolute mistake of reading this book before watching Knock At The Cabin, the film adaptation directed by M. Night Shyamalan that came out in 2023.

While the whole thing is a solid thriller with an absolutely stellar performance from Dave Bautista that has not gotten enough recognition and the first half of the film is a near beat-for-beat adaptation of the book, the movie lost me when it took out a lot of the skepticism presented by the book out and backed away from the most cruel and daring choice made by Tremblay.

That is to say The Cabin at the End of the World is a tense home invasion novel that stays on the gas for its nearly 200 pages, never letting go of the ultimate question of if the world is ending or is the central couple being had by a group of cultish homophobes. In that regard, it becomes a bleak but yet somehow hopeful story about being able to move forward in even the worst, most dire moments.

Honorable Mentions:

-The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) and Under The Whispering Door (2021) by TJ Klune: Two delightfully queer fantasy novels that barely didn't make the list. Under The Whispering Door is a bit more of a slow burn, but I was weeping by the end.
-How To Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (2023): A solidly creepy novel where the true horror is generational trauma.
-Captain Marvel: Liberation Run by Tess Sharpe (2019): Carol Danvers gathers a team to free alien women from the literal patriarchy. It absolutely RIPS.
-Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (2019): This book absolutely does not exist in our reality, but I am only human. I like the idea of a world where gay love can upend the British Monarchy and turn Texas blue.

Favorite Comics Read in 2023

"History, young one, is written by the victors. In the bitter battle between the Amazons and the Gods of Men... The Amazons lost." - Wonder Woman: Historia - The Amazons

1.) Wonder Woman: Historia - The Amazons (2023) by Kelly Sue Deconnick, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, and Nicola Scott

The long gestating tale of the early days of the Amazons of Themyscira finally received its collected edition this year and it was well worth the wait.

While the story of how Themyscira was founded has been briefly touched on in the past, Deconnick decides to dive deep and tell the story of how the Goddesses of Olympus came together to create the Amazons in secret and how their future Queen Hippolyta came to join their ranks. How this was both the boon and the downfall of the Amazons.

It's hard to put into words just how epic this book is. The first of a planned trilogy, The Amazons is absolutely lush in its art across its three chapters and bittersweet in its story. This is the kind of Wonder Woman story that only Deconnick could pen.

2.) It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood (2022)

Zoe Thorogood is one of the most dynamic artists currently coming up through comics and honest, this book proves it even more than the adaptation of Rain she worked on.

A retelling of a six month period while Thorogood was finishing Rain following a breakup. Dealing with depression while also living through a pandemic, the art can take dark, but absurd and hilarious turns.

Despite this, Thorogood always remains grounded when looking inward, which makes it extremely relatable while also revealing just how ridiculous living with mental health issues can feel sometimes. If you have survived your early 20s, you will probably get something out of this book.

3.) Superman: The Harvests of Youth by Sina Grace (2023)

DC's Young Adult line has been killing in the last few years and the latest Superman story from Sina Grace is no exception.

Following the events of a tragedy at Smallville High, The Harvests of Youth is a unique coming of age story in regards to Clark Kent. While this year's My Adventures With Superman took a more anime-inspired post college approach with Clark discovering who he is, Grace takes a more nuanced route to explore what it means to grow up and be a hero in situations that don't have an easy out. Sure, you can punch a Lexcorp robot, but what do you do about online radicalization or large companies moving into small communities and not providing any jobs or resources?

Grace proved himself to be very adept at writing teenagers while working on Go Go Power Rangers and it absolutely set him up for a home run on this book. A moving story on finding yourself through grief and tragedy.

4.) Adventureman: The End and Everything After (2020) and Fairytale of New York (2022) by Matt Fraction, Terry and Rachel Dodson, and Clayton Cowles

God, I just truly love reading Matt Fraction's writing and him with the Dodsons really is like peanut butter and chocolate.

Telling the story of single mother Claire who has found herself thrust into the once believed fictional stories of Adventureman Incorporated, Adventureman is at once a loving tribute to pulp adventure novels while also picking away and updating the aspects of them that haven't aged as well. It's funny and action-packed while still making Claire absolutely lovable even in her struggles. It just proves that figuring yourself out doesn't end at any particular age.

5.) Do A Powerbomb! by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer (2023)

I've been trying to avoid being spoilery for a lot of this, but I absolutely have to be to describe this book:

Do A Powerbomb! starts with the absolute worse thing that can happen in a professional wrestling match and ends with two characters literally in a 2-on-1 match against God.

In between all of that, there are wrestling orangutans, a crazed necromancer who is putting on his own version of Mortal Kombat with pro-wrestling, a literal deathmatch, and a puppy nearly getting punched.

Throughout all of this though is one of the most emotionally affecting stories I have read about surviving through grief and how pro-wrestling is the most ridiculous and real sport there is, even when it's "fake."

6.) Parasocial by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson (2023)

Described as "Misery for the modern age," this book could have gone off in very cringey directions under a creative team who didn't understand fandom culture. Thank god for two very online creators.

Parasocial is about washed up CW-esque genre actor Luke Indiana, who is returning to the con circuit in 2021 following the outbreak of COVID-19 and his own divorce. What starts off as a run of the mill convention turns into a nightmare when he is in a car accident driving home from the con and is rescued by Lily, a fan of his driving back from the same con.

What plays out is a tense, but still darkly funny story about the two of them with Lily taking Luke home after drugging him and Luke trying to figure out how to escape. The book could have lost me here, but it ends up giving a nuanced and even tragic portrayal of why Lily is doing this and how Luke is not really the person she has built up in her head. With all my years in fandom, Lily feels like someone I could know or have known, which makes Parasocial all the more effective.

Honorable Mentions:
-Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Beyond The Grid Deluxe Edition by Marguerite Bennett, Simone Di Meo, Alessandro Cappuccio, Alessio Zonno, French Carlomagno, Francesco Mortarino, Walter Baiamonte, Francesco Segala, Eleonora Bruno, Whitney Cogar, and Ed Dukeshire (2020): I read a lot of Power Rangers comics for Rangersplain this year and this one was easily my favorite. Just a fantastic and gay story about rangers trying to find their way back to their dimension.
-I Am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki and Yoshi Yoshitani (2021): This book is great, y'all are just mean.
-LSBN by Emma Jayne (2023): Hell yeah, lesbians and mechas.

Favorite Movies of 2023

"To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn't about horses, I lost interest." - Ken, Barbie

1.) Barbie

To be honest, I didn't see a whole ton of movies this year, but I obviously couldn't miss the film of the summer. And man, I'm glad I didn't.

There's a lot of discourse about how feminist Barbie is, but one of the main reasons I love it is that it's absolutely a kind of absurd comedy that's been mostly dead in the mainstream for years. I said on my Letterboxd account that Josie and the Pussycats walked so Barbie could run and it has just as much in common with Penelope Spheeris' Wayne's World as it does with the classic comedies and musicals Gerwig verbally cites as inspiration.

I love the fact Gerwig made a film as weird and funny as this one with Mattel signing off on it and that it somehow made billions of dollars. I also just love that it gives us John Cena as a merman playing 'Push' by Matchbox 20 on ukulele.

2.) The Marvels

Potentially a hot take, but this is my newsletter dammit: I think The Marvels is actually pretty fucking good. Carrying over a lot of the charm from the Ms. Marvel series and the KSD comics that inspired them, The Marvels really is the kind of fun that has been missing from comic book movies for a couple of years now and it honestly bothers me how Nia DaCosta has been treated in the fallout. It's funny and emotional and has Carol Danvers as literal Princess Sparklefists. Like come ON, this movie was fucking made for me.

If nothing else, it has one of the funniest needle drops I have ever heard in a movie. Like full on belly laughing the two times I saw it in theaters.

Also, give Iman Vellani Kevin Feige's job. He's served his purpose. The future is now, old man.

3.) Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

I saw this movie in IMAX twice, including after I got a tattoo and was feeling real loose and that was frankly the way to see it. It's kind of insane how this film managed to build upon the ideas and techniques from Into The Spider-Verse to build out the web and expand the concept.

Sure, I did knock a couple of points off for the fact it leaves off on a cliffhanger that may not be resolved for another couple of years, but the fact that this film exists in all of its beautiful Spider glory with stunning visuals, great jokes, and a touching story about Miles trying to find his place in a world that refuses to let him in is a flex in of itself.

I didn't know what the fuck Hobie Brown was saying half the time, but I was living for it all the same.

4.) Nimona

I don't know ND Stevenson personally. In fact, I only met him once years ago at a very cursed con where I got a selfie and an exclusive con only Lumberjanes variant. But even then, there's a sense of pride at seeing his webcomic Nimona not only get adapted into a movie, but the fact that the film is unapologetically queer while lifting some scenes directly from Stevenson's pages. It's like watching the star athlete from your school win the Super Bowl or something like that.

Nimona is a film that feels like it shouldn't exist. Not just for the literal fact that Disney nearly killed the movie when it was most of the way through production when it shut down Blue Sky Animation, but just for the fact it is unabashedly about the queer experience. The romantic relationship between Ballister and Ambrosius is at the center of the film and Nimona's story can clearly be interpreted of what it's like to live as queer and/or trans in a world that wants you to remain closeted. There were parts of the movie that fully had me weeping in that regard.

On top of that, the movie manages to be irreverently funny and gorgeously animated. It's definitely proof that a good adaptation doesn't have to match the story of its source material word for word. The spirit is more than enough if it's as strong as Nimona's.

5.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

I'm not gonna lie, I've never been a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. I don't know if it's because I wasn't in the right era to be one or it just never really interested me. I still struggle with telling the four of them apart, which made doing a whole episode of Rangersplain about TMNT/MMPR crossover comic fun.

However, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem absolutely rips. It's gorgeously animated in the vein of Spider-Verse and The Mitchells vs. The Machines and super funny. Who knew that making the turtles act like actual teenagers and making April O'Neill an awkward student journalist was the secret move to making me care about this franchise? Plus going the route of the turtles discovering other mutants instead of retreading Shredder for the thousandth time was inspired. Paul Rudd as Mondo Gekko lives rent free in my head.

Also, if The Marvels had the funniest needle drop, Mutant Mayhem runs a very close second and third. I will never hear Natasha Beddingfield the same way again.

6.) M3GAN

I don't know what there is to say about M3GAN that hasn't already been said. By all accounts, this had everything about it to be a stupid horror film with a viral scene dumped in a dead month of January to a modest box office and a subpar Rotten Tomatoes score.

Instead, it is an absolutely brilliant dark comedy about the dangers of letting the internet raise your kids. I was losing my mind at the kills and just how much of a terrible guardian Gemma is. Not to mention just the absolutely bizarre ways M3GAN would move around and interact with the world and Ronny Chieng talking about punching Hasbro in the dick.

More purposefully goofy horror in 2024, please.

Honorable Mentions:
-Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3: To be entirely honest, I didn't plan on seeing this one cause I'm mostly burned out on the MCU and I already wasn't a huge fan of the second movie. So imagine my surprise when this ended up being one of James Gunn's most mature and emotional films to date. Also proof that no one would be able to handle a We3 movie.
-Kamikaze Girls: Okay, so this one didn't come out in 2023. However, I have wanted to see it for nearly 20 years and FINALLY got a chance to this year. An absolutely wonderful and bizarre Japanese film about two weird girls in a small town becoming best friends.

Favorite TV Episodes of 2023

"You're a pretend person with a pretend job and I'm having a really hard time pretending to give a shit." - Roy Kent, Ted Lasso

1.) "Ramona Rents A Video," Scott Pilgrim Takes Off!

I've been really trying to stay spoiler free-ish for most of this newsletter and I absolutely have to double down here. If you haven't seen Scott Pilgrim Takes Off!, it is absolutely one of those shows that benefits from going in blind, especially if you have any familiarity with the Scott Pilgrim comics or movie.

What I will say is that the third episode 'Ramona Rents A Video' is absolutely where Takes Off absolutely begins to deliver on the ending of episode 1. And along with an amazing fight sequence involving bouncing between film genres, it delivers the one thing I have wanted from Scott Pilgrim for more than a decade: actual resolution between Ramona Flowers and Roxy Richter. If I had to describe why Takes Off is worth the watch, it's this episode. I really want to do a more full deep dive at some point, but you'll just have to stick with this brief review here for now.

2.) "Something Borrowed, Something Green," Star Trek: Lower Decks

There's not a show I love more currently than Lower Decks and this latest season delivered probably my favorite episode of the whole series so far.

"Something Borrowed, Something Green" is a story focused on Lieutenant Jr. Grade D'Vana Tendi being called back to her home world of Orion on the eve of her sister D'Erika's wedding. She's joined by Beckett Mariner, who will never say no to a party with hot people, and T'Lyn, a Vulcan hoping to take notes on mysterious Orion culture.

The whole episode is hilarious (including the subplot about Samanthan Rutherford and Bradward Boimler discovering a truly strange form of conflict resolution involving dressing up as Mark Twain back on the Cerritos), but what makes this episode so great is the push and pull Tendi is experiencing. Tendi is essentially Orion pirate royalty and is still treated as such, but she gave that up to join Starfleet because it wasn't what she wanted to be. And it leads to such a great internal conflict for Tendi over her friends seeing who she used to be versus the person she is now. The whole episode really is Lower Decks at its best.

3.) "Those Old Scientists," Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

I'll fully admit it: the Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks crossover is what got me to start watching Strange New Worlds and that was a damn good decision.

Despite being set up as a more episodic Trek, Strange New Worlds truly makes it easy to binge between the wild ass episode concepts and just how dynamic the cast and crew is. And in a season with truly great episodes like "Ad Astra Per Aspera" and "Subspace Rhapsody," "Those Old Scientists" stands out that much more for being a great episode of two series at once.

Directed by Trek legend Jonathan Frakes, the episode manages to be just truly fucking hilarious while also being extremely touching in all the right ways. The entire cast was game thankfully, but the standouts in this episode truly are Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid who worked their asses off to make the transition from animation to live action as seamless as possible for Mariner and Boimler. I watched this episode multiple times just to watch their performances. Those are two people that truly love the characters they play and it makes the episode that much more fun to watch.

4.) "May All Blessings Find Their Way To You, I'm Wishing It," Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury

When I went into 2023, I didn't expect this to be the year I watched my first Gundam series, but dammit, the lesbians got me.

As far as things go, G-Witch was a fantastic intro to the franchise. Pulling inspiration from Revolutionary Girl Utena (which I finally finished this year), the series is simultaneously a tale of political intrigue, Shakespearean revenge, and a slow burn love story. At the beating heart of it lies Suletta Mercury, an awkward and excitable girl who goes on the most wild and heart-breaking journey of self-actualization.

The series finale "May All Blessings Find Their Way To You, I'm Wishing It" is a culmination of all of this and where it seems like it will go the ultimate tragic route, it makes the radical choices to let everyone in the finale live and find their own peace in the end. It was shocking, but in the way I was surprised that I could unclench my shoulders as I saw that characters I had grown to love got to live out peaceful lives, still recovering from the violence they lived though, but not broken. Rebuilding.

To paraphrase another long running piece of sci-fi: Just this once, everybody lives.

5.) "Sunflowers," Ted Lasso

I don't know why I waited most of the year to watch the third season of Ted Lasso. I guess executive dysfunction and also just not wanting to deal with the discourse after the fantastic yet divisive season 2.

And season 3 is admittedly kind of weird. While it was overall very good, I'm not certain if every episode needed to be 45 minutes to an hour long and certain plot points move along kind of weirdly despite the extended runtime (poor Keeley suffers the most from this). Still, I think it comes together all in the end.

A turning point for this is the episode "Sunflowers," which sees the team spending a night in Amsterdam following their loss in a friendly with Ajax FC. My favorite episodes of Ted Lasso tend to be the "goof off" episodes where we see the team and the coaches outside of their usual surroundings and "Sunflowers" is no exception.

It's not an episode where anything particularly dramatic happens. Rebecca spends a night with a beautiful stranger, Colin and Trent Crimm bond unexpectedly over their shared queerness, Higgins takes the kitman Will on a jazz odyssey, Jamie teaches Roy how to ride a bicycle, the team argues about how to spend their evening, and Ted hallucinates a new football strategy. But it's these little things that reveal so much about these characters and build the foundation for the last half of the season. It really proves that Ted Lasso is at its best when it's a story about human connection in unexpected ways.

6.) "Burn for Burn, Wound for Wound, Stripe for Stripe," The Righteous Gemstones

There is not a comedy on TV currently that goes as hog wild as The Righteous Gemstones and the seventh episode of the season absolutely proves it.

Starting with the Gemstone siblings being kidnapped by the Brothers of Tomorrow's Fires, the story builds in both tense and hilarious fashion as the Gemstone siblings try to appease Peter and hope that Eli comes through with the ransom money. In the process, they prove their inability to work together while the family back at the compound can't agree on how to move forward with getting them back.

The whole episode is filled with hilarious moments (Keefe walking through a hedge and Baby Billy just shoving Lionel's stroller through the door spring to mind), but the note the episode leaves on with a stirring cover by Sturgill Simpson of 'All The Gold In California' right before a wild fucking car chase/escape involving a Jesus themed monster truck...

Just... fuck yeah. More people need to watch The Righteous Gemstones.

Honorable Mentions:
-"Part Five: Shadow Warrior," Ahsoka: I really don't know what you get out of Ahsoka if you haven't watched Rebels or Clone Wars. But as someone who loves both, I truly love this episode for being as weird and trippy as those two could get sometimes. Points for the continued Hayden Christensen redemption tour too.
-"My Adventures With Mad Science," My Adventures With Superman: My Adventures With Superman is a great series and this episode involves Lois, Clark, and Jimmy talking out their issues while fighting off giant robots created by a gay French gorilla and his cyborg brain in a jar husband. Fantastic shit.
-"Into The Wild Blue Yonder" and "The Church on Ruby Road," Doctor Who: I wanted to only list one episode per series, but I had a hard time choosing between these two. "Into The Wild Blue Yonder" is a great Doctor and Donna story with a creepy space mystery that the first Davies era was extremely good at and "The Church on Ruby Road" is a super fun reset that fully introduces Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor. Based on this episode alone, he's already one for the ages.
-"Track 7: Eight Days A Week," The Muppets Mayhem: The Muppets Mayhem was criminally underappreciated this year and "Eight Days A Week" is probably the funniest episode in the bunch. Framed as a parody of The Beatles: Get Back, the episode allows for great Electric Mayhem shenanigans while also playing inside baseball with Kevin Smith becoming a music documentarian and Meet the Feebles getting the wildest name drop.
-"The Innkeeper," Our Flag Means Death: Sure, Stranger Things brought Kate Bush and 'Running Up That Hill' to a new generation, but only Our Flag Means Death managed to make a Kate Bush song about a woman dying during childbirth the centerpiece of a gay pirate hallucinating the love of his life as a merman as he fights to stay alive. A bold move I absolutely cried at.

Favorite Albums of 2023

"What is there between us, if not a little annihilation?" - 'Baby Annihilation,' Fall Out Boy

1.) So Much (For) Stardust, Fall Out Boy

Back when Fall Out Boy released MANIA, I made a case in my introduction to the latest collaboration zine I edited celebrating the ten year anniversary of Folie à Deux that MANIA was a sister album to Folie. "Whenever I listen to MANIA, I feel the spirit of Folie à Deux in it, but stronger. A spirit of something that went through Hell and came out the other side stronger."

So Much (For) Stardust has that same spirit, but perhaps more on purpose this time. Patrick Stump described it as "what would it have sounded like if we had made a record right after Folie à Deux instead of taking a break for a few years. It was like exploring the multiverse. It was an experiment in seeing what we would have done."

There's definitely a lot of that here. Where MANIA felt like it had a lot more of the "weird" aspects of Folie, Stardust takes the approach of being more guitar-driven and orchestral in the ways Folie was. They even eschewed the more pop production that had populated the last two records or the driving arena rock vibes Butch Walker brought to Save Rock and Roll to link back up with Neal Avron, who was the primary producer for their first three major label releases.

What results is an album that sounds more like "classic" Fall Out Boy, exploring the multiverse that spawned from Folie. However, it also definitely sounds like the kind of Folie follow up that could only exist from the band that made Save Rock and Roll and have lived through the same pandemic we all have. A multiverse paradox in itself.

That last bit there is definitely what informs the lyrical content of the record. Where Folie was a record exploring the darker aspects of fame and the first three post hiatus records felt firmly in the camp of exploring relationships, this one just dives right into the feeling of taking care of yourself and others while living through the end of the world. It can be tongue-in-cheek in ways like on 'Hold Me Like A Grudge' or 'What A Time To Be Alive' or just fully emotionally devastating like on 'The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)' or 'Heaven, Iowa.' In that regard, Stardust might Fall Out Boy's most pessimistic record while also being their most catchiest. It's hard not to get some of Joe Trohman's riffs or Stump's compositional flexes stuck in your head.

Also, if you didn't realize Pete Wentz was a major cinephile before this record, you definitely will now. There's a whole interlude featuring Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites and even references to Nope and Field of Dreams in the lyrics. Sure, Jordan Peele didn't get any Oscar noms for Nope, but "Is there a word for a bad miracle?" has been immortalized in a Fall Out Boy song, which is just a high of honor.

2.) IV by Marvelous 3

On the Butch Walker Fans Facebook group, a particular debate has seemed to be brought up nearly every week since Marvelous 3 got back together and dropped IV, their first album in over 20 years, back in October.

Essentially, it boils down to "Is IV actually a Marvelous 3 record? Because a lot of these songs sound like Butch Walker's solo work."

I don't wade into these debates, but my mental answers are always the same three ones: "By that logic, all Marvelous 3 records are just Butch Walker records cause he's the primary songwriter," "Do you think Left of Self-Centered is a Marvelous 3 record because it sounds like ReadySexGo?," and "Yeah, it's a Marvelous 3 record written by the same guy who also wrote Sycamore Meadows and The Spade."

That last point is to say that this album is absolutely a Marvelous 3 record. It's got a lot of the same storytelling and humor backed by absolutely catchy power-pop that Marvelous 3 has always had, but it's also focused on different things. The guys aren't nearly 30 anymore, dealing with sex, relationships, and general late 20s angst. This is a record written by someone in his 50s, who has different things to worry about now. There's still a bit of that relationship angst there like with 'If We're On Fire (Let It Burn)' and 'Kill A Motherfucker That Breaks Your Heart,' but so much of it is a contemplation of getting older and where life has gone since Marvelous 3 released ReadySexGo in 2000.

In a way, I feel like Marvelous 3 expected this kind of feedback on songs like 'My Old School Metal Heart,' 'Growing All My Hair Out,' and 'Time To Let It Go.' Walker sounds like he was ready to finally give Marvelous 3 the real closure that was taken from them when they broke up to get out of their Elektra contract in 2001, but he also seems to be wondering what he has to say now that he's an older man with more life experience. In that regard, it gives an emotional honesty that sounds way more authentic to Marvelous 3 than if they had just tried to make ReadySexGo Part 2 20 years too late.

3.) This Is Why by Paramore

I've been in a nearly 20 year war with myself over whether I actually liked Paramore or not and I'm happy to say I finally lost this year with the release of This Is Why back in January 2023.

While I would argue that saying that Paramore is the only one of their pop-punk contemporaries that has tried to grow is a hell of a misrepresentation (see a few paragraphs above for my take on the latest Fall Out Boy record), I think it's always been obvious that Paramore were never satisfied being just the pop-punk band with the girl lead singer in the public's eye. Since the release of Riot!, the group has genuinely grown into more of an indie rock outfit and This Is Why officially seals the deal.

It's definitely fair to say that This Is Why is Paramore's pandemic record the same way So Much (For) Stardust is Fall Out Boy's, but Paramore seems less focused on living through the end of the world and more on living through the debilitating anxiety that comes from hitting your 30s during worldwide chaos. 'The News' perfectly demonstrates the dichotomy that fuels doomscrolling while 'C'est Comme Ça' and 'Running Out Of Time' end up expressing the mundanity of living with your neuroses in extremely catchy ways.

Still, it's not all anxiety of living through a pandemic and multiple wars. It's also about praying for someone's downfall like on 'Big Man, Little Dignity' or 'You First,' which might also be a big theme of the last few years with how many shitty people have gotten exposed in that time. There's also a moment of tenderness though on 'Liar,' a love song about realizing it's not a weakness to be in love.

A lot of This Is Why carries over themes from 2018's After Laughter, but I think there's an extra level of maturity on display here. While After Laughter is about putting on the happy face even when you're dying inside, This Is Why seems to realize that the fake happy is not required at all. Life's weird and it's okay to be kind of grumpy about it.

Recommended Tracks: 'You First,' 'Figure 8,' 'Liar'

4.) Gag Order by Kesha

When I first listened to Gag Order, my first thought was "Is Kesha okay?"

I didn't pick the album back up for several months after that and when I finally did, I feel like the album also answered that question for me: No, but she's going to be.

Gag Order was officially Kesha's last album with RCA and Kemosabe and it might be her most emotionally honest record. Even more so than 2017's Rainbow. Where Rainbow was a celebration of coming out of the darkness that came to the light with her lawsuit against Dr. Luke, Gag Order is an honest reflection on the last six years of Kesha's life since then. The lawsuit was still ongoing at the time, mixed with everything else going on outside our doors.

What happens is Kesha honestly diving deep into those dark feelings, letting herself work through her own exploitation on tracks like 'Fine Line' and 'Eat The Acid' and her own changing perception of herself and her wants. The track 'Hate Me Harder' is an especially tough track to listen to on its own as Kesha faces on the onslaught of internet hate, saying she'll gladly take that abuse if it'll make you love yourself more.

Even in that darkness, there's a hope on the horizon. When she sings 'Only Love Can Save Us Now,' I fully believe her. And I hope it can now that she's free from Dr. Luke finally.

5.) The Age of Pleasure by Janelle Monae

When The Age of Pleasure dropped, I admit I was a little disappointed in it, but I'll be damned if this didn't grow on me the more I listened to it while driving.

The Age of Pleasure is probably Monae's biggest departure from their previous work. Instead of being an hour plus epic on afr0-futurism that we have come to expect from their previous works, its instead a 32 minute album that feels like a summer breeze. It's an album about drinking with friends and just the pure unbridled joy of sex and pleasure.

Dirty Computer is one of my favorite albums of all-time, so my own initial disappointment came from the album not being more of that. However, upon more listens and repeats of tracks like 'Phenomenal' and 'Champagne Shit,' it really sunk in that this album is in perfect concordance with Dirty Computer and even her earlier work like The Electric Lady. Because a revolutionary future without pleasure and joyous sex is not a revolution at all.

Plus, Grace Jones is on here speaking French sensually. 5 stars, no notes.

Recommended Tracks: 'Champagne Shit,' 'Haute,' 'Water Slide'

6.) The Loveliest Time by Carly Rae Jepsen

No one in pop does it like CRJ and The Loveliest Time proves it.

Ever since her release of E•MO•TION back in 2015, Jepsen has released a B-sides record the next year with tracks left over from the recording process of the year's prior release. The Loveliest Time is no exception, following up from 2022's excellent The Loneliest Time with some of the B-Sides from that recording session.

No one told me that she somehow made a whole album's worth of electro-funk-pop bangers during the creation of that album and that it absolutely stands on its own from The Loneliest Time.

Sure, there is a lot of carryover in sound from that record, but this ends up being more of a love song than that record, especially on tracks like 'Anything to Be With You' and 'Psychedelic Switch.' The fact that second one sounds like the best song Daft Punk never wrote absolutely blows my mind.

The fact that Carly remains the 'Call Me Maybe' girl in the mind of most of the general population is a shame. Because she's regularly doing shit like The Loveliest Time and is not getting her flowers for it.

Honorable Mentions:
-1989 (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift: I would feel weird putting this whole album on my recommended list when it's literally a re-record of one of my favorite albums ever, but it's still worth the mention. There's a level of reflection on this record that makes it worth the revisit and the vaulted tracks are all great.
-Past//Present//Future by Meet Me @ The Altar: Fueled By Ramen's latest signing released their debut album this year! While it's weird to start to hear songs by young bands influenced by the shit that I listed to in high school, this whole album is really fun, so I can't be that mad.
-Fearless In Love by Voyager: This was nearly number 6 until Carly bumped it off at the last minute. This sprawling pop-prog-metal album is absolutely the Australian band's victory lap following the success of 'Promise' at Eurovision 2023.
-New Blue Sun by Andre 3000: Yes, the Andre 3000 flute record is a vibe. I will not be taking questions at this time.
-Rockstar by Dolly Parton: This album is a two hour plus long, mostly covers album from Dolly and it's still an absolute flex. She's the Queen of Tennessee for a reason.
-Black Rainbows by Corinne Bailey Rae, Desire I Want To Turn Into You by Caroline Polachek, and the record by boygenius: I'm lumping these three together because they're all really good records, but I listened to them in the last two days of 2023 and didn't get too much time to sit with them to see how they would change the order of my list. If I had to recommend one though, please absolutely give Black Rainbows a listen. I didn't know what to expect from Corinne Bailey Ray and was absolutely blown away.