admin 1. PJ Harvey, Inside the Old Year Dying
I probably listened to this more than any other record this year. To me, it sounds like an incantation from the past, but there’s also something quite futuristic about it. It’s so much about the natural world, but then a lot of it is about the unseen power of the natural world. It’s a deeper, magical—I don’t know, I resist the word “witchy,” but there’s something kind of extra and foreboding. There’s a sense of unease in the woods that she walks through in this record.
2. Godland, directed by Hlynur Pálmason
A friend of mine, the actor Bill Camp, told me to watch this a while ago. And I’ve watched it and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I’ve seen it a couple of times. I watched an interview with the director where he talks about how so much of the narrative of this movie was dictated by the geology and geography of Iceland, so if he wanted to tell the story, he had to incorporate, say, a certain forest or a bit of a certain stream, or a certain part of the coastline. And how he developed a story around that, I thought, was really inspiring. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a stunning film.
3. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
I think The Magic Mountain is funnier and more perverted than I ever thought it was. I’ve tried to read a few times in the past. It’s only now this year for whatever reason I can get through it. It’s really dark and really funny and a little bit pervy in the best way. I tried to read it as a precocious young man and failed. And now, as a pretentious grown man, I’m trying again. I haven’t finished it, to be honest, but I’m really into it. And my wife has gotten super into it too, so I know I’m not crazy.
4. The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane
This one is actually a cheat because I discovered it maybe two years ago. But I’m always reading it and rereading it. I think maybe around the time I was making this list, I’d been inside a long time, because a lot of these things are about connecting with the Earth. I’m a walker and, at times, a hiker. And I think his ideas about humans and the paths that our feet make on this world being like letters and words on a page—that’s pretty profound. And he’s a beautiful writer. A lot of the time I listen to the books, especially this book, because he’s got a wonderful voice and he’s really nice to listen to, especially when you’re taking a walk.
5. Paris Texas, Mid Air
I first heard about Paris Texas probably five years ago from a young friend of mine, but it took me a while to get around to it. And I think when the new record came out and there was a bit of a buzz around it, I was like, “Oh yeah, these guys that I never really listened to.” And that record, from the first second, just grabs you. I mean, I don’t really know how to explain them. If you have ears and a pulse, blood in your veins, it’s just an undeniably incredible fucking record.
Ebon Moss-Bacharach stars as Richard “Richie” Jerimovich on FX’s The Bear.
