Best of 2023 - From my perspective

Here we go again!

Top 10 movies, albums and tracks of the year, baby!

As last year, I've been heavily impacted by lack of commute and too much time with my wife and friends, meaning less time on my own to focus on listening to music. Having said that, there was still some great discoveries this year. 

 Watched a decent amount of films though and have been making a bigger effort to see them in the big screen, so there's that.

Some of the films I haven't been able to see yet, include Ferrari, Wonka, Favourite Things, The Iron Claw and May December, but rest assured, this coming list is a cracking one!


MOVIES 

Past Lives
Are You There God? It's me, Margaret
The Holdovers
Oppenheimer
Killers of the Flower Moon
Anatomy of a Fall
John Wick 4
How To Have Sex
Barbie
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

SPECIAL MENTION:

- The Blue Caftan (came out in 2022 but was only released in 2023. Absolutely loved it!)
- Air
- Theater Camp
- Dream Scenario
- Maestro


ALBUMS

The National - Laugh Track
The National - Tropic Morning News
Olivia Rodrigo - Guts
Gaz Coombes - Turn The Car Around
Blondshell - Blondshell
Beach Fossils - Bunny
Brandon Sanders - Compton's Finest
Blur - The Ballad of Darren
Maro - Hortela
Sufjan Stevens - Javelin

TRACKS 

Flyte feat. Laura Marling - Tough Love
The National feat. Rosanne Cash - Crumble
Beach Fossils - Don't Fade Away
The Drums - Plastic Envelope
Braxton Cook - Meters
Olivia Rodrigo - Pretty Isn't Pretty
Jon Batiste - Butterfly
Maro - Tens Morada em Mim
Blondshell - Dangerous

Blur - The Narcissist


SPECIAL MENTION:

- Ryan Gosling & Mark Ronson - I'm Just Ken
- Brandon Sanders - Voyage
- The National - Tropic Morning News
- Gaz Coombes - Long Live The Strange
- Beach Fossils - Anything is Anything

The National: Live from London's Alexandra Palace - September 26, 2023

Yesterday I saw The National live for a third or fourth time, this time at London's iconic Alexandra Palace, aka Ally Pally.

It had been six years since I last saw them, so plenty had happened in between, particularly this year when they released their latest two records, First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track, just a few months apart of each other.

The night promised to be an epic one as we also celebrated a good friend's birthday while embarking on a journey filled with melancholy, weirdly mixed with a camouflaged beat that gives The National this unique ability to be the only band that I know of capable of having people dance to the sound of misery.

And if that statement is something I've been saying for years now, in this gig, I took it a notch further, by claiming that it's the first time I've ever danced with tears coming down my face. 

It's a weird thing to share... 

 

Hell, it's a weird thing to experience all together.

There wasn't a triggering moment that I thought of, just the sheer beauty and rawness of the music, combined with Matt Berninger's delivery, who, at 52, is still able to inflict a mixture of pain, nostalgia and hope in his performance.

Plenty of new tracks were played throughout the evening, with Once Upon a Poolside (without the help of Sufjan Stevens) kicked off the gig and soon after Tropic Morning News, New Order T-shirt, Dreaming and near the end Space Invaders.

 

Older stuff was intertwined, like Abel, Guilty Party, Mistaken for Strangers (which gave way to the name of their 2013 documentary), Day I Die, (the colossal) Mr November and - of course - Fake Empire.

The highlight for me, however, came from the High Violet record, released in 2010 and - in my opinion - their finest work to date.

Bloodbuzz Ohio gave me the first goosebumps of the night (that line "I never thought about love, when I thought about home", gets me every single time)...

England got everyone in their feels...

Vanderlyle Crybaby Geek - a track that for the life of me I couldn't remember (!!!) - got the whole venue to close out the evening by singing beautifully like a church choir, as the band stood on stage delighted at the wonderful sight. 

An unforgettable moment that made me forgive the band for not playing several of my other favorite songs:

About Today (made popular with the 2011 movie Warrior), Terrible Love, I Need My Girl, Secret Meeting, Start a War, Runaway, Afraid of Everyone, Think You Can Wait (from the 2011 movie Win Win) and my personal favorite Sorrow (which the band famously played at a gig a 108 times, totaling six straight hours).

 

 

 
As you can see, enough tunes to compile a whole new record.

Fortunately for me, I've had my time with those songs in the past and I'm sure other opportunities will follow in years to come. 

(Here's my IG post with videos of last night)

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A post shared by Duarte Mendonça (@duartemendoncacnn)

 

Bruce Sprinsgteen and The E Street Band - Live from London's Hyde Park 2023

 

Yesterday (July 6th, 2023) was another tick off my bucket list:

I got to see Bruce Springsteen perform live!

A packed Hyde Park welcomed the seasoned musician with open arms, who together with his magnificent E Street Band, set all our hearts on fire.

As a child going into my teens I would listen to his music frequently…

From Born in the USA and Dancing in the Dark, to Born to Run and the Oscar winning track (and my personal favorite) Streets of Philadelphia.

Not quite sure how I got to him… perhaps through my brothers, but I remember vividly the main track to Jonathan Demme’s movie Philadelphia (starring Tom Hanks in his first Academy Award winning performance) having a profound impact in me, years before I even saw the movie. Until this day it remains easily as one of my top five favorite songs and one that moves me into tears instantly.

 

I was so into him that when DVDs were becoming a thing, I purchased Bruce Springsteen Live in Barcelona which I would watch on the TV, hoping that one day maybe I could see him live.

Fast forward many years later, I’m in London working as an intern, which also means I was absolutely broke… but as I have good friends, on one occasion I was lucky enough to get offered tickets to see Kaiser Chiefs, a band I was barely familiar with, live at Hyde Park, unknown to be me as being one of London’s most iconic spots.

Upon arrival I noticed they were advertising Bruce Springsteen for a live concert the following day.

Having a free ticket to see Kaiser Chiefs immediately lost its appeal (nothing personal guys), and I instantly wished I had been given tickets to see Bruce instead.

Since I couldn’t afford the ticket to see him the following day, I promised myself right there and then that if I ever had some money in my pocket, I would use it to pay whatever the asking price to see him perform live.

Fast forward more than 10 years later and there I was back at Hyde Park, ready to see “The Boss” on stage with his beloved E Street Band.
 
The gig was everything I hoped for… well, nearly everything.
 
As expected, he didn’t play Streets of Philadelphia, which very rarely makes it to his setlists, as well as Tunnel of Love, Brilliant Disguise, Human Touch and Secret Garden, the latter being a tune that saw its popularity increase after the release of Jerry Maguire, a Cameron Crowe movie featuring Tom Cruise.

We were also a bit far away… which made me wonder if paying extra to get closer access to the stage was worth it. In fact, looking through the big screens, it was hard not to be slightly jealous of those up front as they shook hands and took selfies with Bruce. A girl even got to take his harmonica home, which was pretty cool.

His interactions with the audience, be it up close and personal or from a distance, showed him to be charismatic, respectful, and kind. A true man of the people, who made a career often speaking to the working class and using his platform to talk about anything from world politics to growing up in New Jersey.

As his energy levels kept rising, so did the whole ensemble in a sort of continuous crescendo.

They barely took their foot off the gas, which was quite impressive for a bunch of people well into their 60’s and 70’s.

I for one couldn’t take my eyes off Steven Van Zandt and Max Weinberg, as two of my favorite band members.

Aside from being a guitarist for the E Street Band, Steven is also an accomplished actor, notorious for playing one of the main roles in the classic HBO series The Sopranos.

With regards to Max Weinberg, I got to “meet him” for the first time when I watched Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Weinberg was then the leader of the “Max Weinberg 7” and was a frequent collaborator in Conan and Andy Richter’s sketches in the show.

I even remember as a kid seeing Conan explain to his audience Max’s occasional absence from the program due to being on tour with Bruce Springsteen. That blew my mind!

Anyway, back to the gig…

Hard to pick a favorite moment… perhaps Dancing in the Dark was my tune of the night.

The Rising was also a highlight as it took me back to the early 2000’s when I last consumed a new Springsteen’s album vigorously. 

Feeling nostalgic, I added to my mental notes that I should revisit this record again and look into hearing more of Bruce’s contemporary material.

Hometown triggered my friends to mock my trademark claim “My hometown is better than yours”.

Bruce at some point sang “Duarte’s homeeeeeetownnnnn” … well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

But I guess that for most people, Born in the USA is the one track that really stirs the crowd up.

I've always found that particular track fascinating due to being able to provoke a visceral reaction from everyone, even those who have a tremendous dislike for the US but won’t resist singing the chorus with a colossal amount of passion.

Interestingly enough, the song is often misunderstood as an American anthem paying tribute to the nation, when in fact it's almost a protest song of sorts against the war in Vietnam and the consequences that followed.

Well, this is my sharable moment of the day. One for the ages that I hope to revisit through Facebook memories, a quick scroll through my camera roll or something of that nature.

Music Book

 

by:  Tatsuro Yamashita  

Ahmad Jamal 1930 - 2023

 

Woke up to the news that jazz legend Ahmad Jamal passed away at 92. 

 

One of the great pianists to ever grace us with his music and certainly one of my all-time favorite musicians. 

 

Aside from his beautiful legacy, his passing also reminded me of a video I recorded of my Dad playing a game in which I would test his jazz knowledge.

In this game, I would play a few seconds of a random track in my Jazz playlist and ask Dad something like: "Which tune is this?" or "who's tenor?". 

 

As I played this particular track, my Dad got all excited and started making the gesture like he's playing with the brooms and just really vibing with it.

A few seconds go by and I ask him who's playing.

Without hesitating he says: "Ahmad Jamal!"

You could hear my surprise in the video, but honestly, I shouldn't have been...

 

Dad's knowledge was insane. Of course, he would get it. He would know even the most obscure name or role player.

And despite the fact that I've played this game dozens of times more, it's always the Ahmad Jamal moment that I think of... so naturally, as I mourn Jamal's passing, I also think of Dad, who I miss dearly! 

 

Wish I could play this game with him one more time...

 

The Fabelmans (2022)

 

I wish I had seen The Fabelmans (2022) before the end of the year, as it would have certainly ranked high on my Top 10 of 2022. 

Such a wonderful, deeply personal film from Steven Spielberg that encapsulates a coming of age tale based on his own life. 

Definitely worth the watch!