Spectrum Culture
@spectrumculture.bsky.social
Film, music and book reviews. Proudly based in Portland, OR! www.spectrumculture.com
I also wrote about Frankie Rose's latest for @spectrumculture.bsky.social, which was the polar opposite of Bloc Party in a lot of ways: an album about deep personal trauma that keeps you at arms length and allows the music to fill in the blanks. Good stuff! spectrumculture.com/2026/09/21/f...
Frankie Rose: Hila - Spectrum Culture
Hila delves further into a synth-constructed chasm, eschewing pop almost entirely while still seeking to ground her explorations in something tangible and real.
spectrumculture.com
We are ranking ALL of Kate Bush's songs from worst to best. Here's the worst of them.
Every Kate Bush Song Ranked: Part One: “Be Kind to My Mistakes” (#146–141) - Spectrum Culture
We’ve listened closely to Kate Bush’s songs—all 146 of them—and in the weeks to come we’ll be working our way from the least successful to the most.
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The weirdest entry in the Predator franchise yet! spectrumculture.com/2026/09/24/p...
Primetime - Spectrum Culture
Primetime, through its structure and style, avoids typical biopic pitfalls. We are with Chris Hansen during his rise and potential fall, but Lance Oppenheim and Robert Pattinson don’t allow us to get ...
spectrumculture.com
In our latest entry on the oeuvre of Ozu, we're in the weeds. Floating Weeds, that is! spectrumculture.com/2026/09/24/o...
Oeuvre: Ozu: A Story of Floating Weeds - Spectrum Culture
The premise of A Story of Floating Weeds, in which a band of outsiders coalesces around a shared sense of desperation but struggles to form a durable social unit, is an earmark of early Ozu, and the g...
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The Party is over: No more Bloc-rocking beats. spectrumculture.com/2026/09/24/b...
Bloc Party: Anatomy of a Brief Romance - Spectrum Culture
Kele Okereke is less interested in letting us in than he is in just airing things out, and the experience is about as pleasant as that sounds.
spectrumculture.com
Pick a Peck!
Adam P. Newton@dryvetyme.bsky.social · 2d agoIn the mood for sensitive yet swaggering country with notes of pop and glam? Check out "Mule," the latest album from Orville Peck, as he sings about the consequences of his poor choices and perils of celebrity. My review for @spectrumculture.bsky.social - spectrumculture.com/2026/09/24/o...
Nurse Without Wounds: Our journey through Sonic Youth's discography hits the doctor-feelgood era. spectrumculture.com/2026/09/23/d...
Discography: Sonic Youth: Sonic Nurse - Spectrum Culture
If Sonic Nurse is a reaction to Murray Street, it’s a reaction to finally feeling comfortable and stable enough to just record some killer songs in peace.
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You Had to Be There is a fascinating documentary about the assembly of a theater troupe so significant it paved the way for the creation of Saturday Night Live and SCTV. My review for @spectrumculture.bsky.social.
You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way) - Spectrum Culture
You Had to Be There is a fascinating documentary about the assembly of a theater troupe so significant it paved the way for the creation of Saturday Night Live and SCTV.
spectrumculture.com
A bloodless drama from director Angelina Jolie. spectrumculture.com/2026/09/22/w...
Without Blood - Spectrum Culture
There is surely room for a movie like Without Blood, which values conversation and confrontation, but the unassuming minimalism of this one reveals that there just isn’t much to these characters or th...
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Whither the 'Snos of yesteryear? On two decades of Howe Gelb's under-the-radar, stone-cold classic. spectrumculture.com/2026/09/22/h...
Holy Hell! 'Sno Angel Like You Turns 20 - Spectrum Culture
Though Howe Gelb’s ‘Sno Angel Like You wasn’t treated with the same reverence as its contemporaries and didn’t reinvent the singer-songwriter’s music, the album still shows Gelb improving his songs, w...
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Everybody Hersh ... take comfort in your friensh! spectrumculture.com/2026/09/22/k...
Kristin Hersh: Sugar on Blackstone - Spectrum Culture
Kristin Hersh delves deep into memory and place on Sugar on Blackstone delivering songs whose emotional impact is as powerful as their lyrics are elusive and mysterious.
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Sunny Dancer purports to be a feel-good dramedy about a summer camp for kids in recovery from cancer. I found it loathsome, inauthentic, tedious, and only capable of producing crocodile tears. It also has some truly awful needle drops. My @spectrumculture.bsky.social review.
Sunny Dancer - Spectrum Culture
In his effort to make a coming-of-age dramedy about kids with cancer, George Jaques rarely strikes anything that approaches authenticity in Sunny Dancer.
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Hamlet in the Blockbuster Aisle, Bill Murray Behind the Arras: We revisit Michael Almereyda's 2000 Shakespeare adaptation. spectrumculture.com/2026/09/21/r...
Revisit: Hamlet - Spectrum Culture
It’s a shaggy film, distant and perhaps too cute to some, but Almereyda is ultimately successful in becoming, as his mentor would say, the termite to the more bombastic Kenneth Branagh’s white elephan...
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The History of Concrete is a solid movie.
The History of Concrete - Spectrum Culture
John Wilson’s The History of Concrete feels like a feature-length episode of How to with John Wilson; some might be disappointed by the similar formulaic material, but most will appreciate it for the ...
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We revisit Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider.
Revisit: Sparklehorse: Good Morning Spider - Spectrum Culture
Mark Linkous dragged himself back from the jaws of death itself to create Good Morning Spider, not only giving him something to soldier on for, but giving him a tiny, fragile thing that only he could ...
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THE WEIGHT was good, but could have been weightier.
The Weight - Spectrum Culture
Padraic McKinley’s survival drama is a lean and mean throwback to films like Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but despite its tangible grit (and a great lead performance by Ethan Hawke), The Weight feels...
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Rebecca Black moves from Friday to Saturday night. spectrumculture.com/2026/09/20/r...
Rebecca Black: Age of the Exhibitionist - Spectrum Culture
Age of the Exhibitionist shows Black as a would-be pop star with about a foot and a half in the club, not on the same level as Charli XCX but definitely playing the same game.
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For @spectrumculture.bsky.social I reviewed a delightful and oddly cynical new farming comedy. spectrumculture.com/2026/09/20/s...
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom - Spectrum Culture
A skepticism hovers over the entire film, but if it’s not up to the level of the franchise debut, the latest Aardman feature tops 2016’s disappointing Farmageddon.
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I reviewed the new Beck LP for @spectrumculture.bsky.social. It's the same album we get from him every 12 years: 'Sea Change,' 'Morning Phase,' etc. One curiosity is that he lifts flagrantly from Björk again. He can't keep getting away with it. Maybe listen to 'Mutations' or 'Stray Blues' instead.
Beck: Ride Lonesome - Spectrum Culture
Ride Lonesome is the opposite of Mutations, which communicated a thing or two about being downcast but was never plodding. Here, Beck neglects one of his main strengths, which is to be musically darin...
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Pop stars are starting to lose recipes in the sauce. spectrumculture.com/2026/09/17/c...
Carly Rae Jepsen: Day and Night - Spectrum Culture
Throwing varied sounds at a wall with no hooks makes any album fade to the background, and unfortunately, that’s what Day and Night becomes—a dance mix for a forgettable cocktail party.
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Scene report: Patti Smith came to Portland for a night of song and stories. Here's what went down. @literary-arts.org
Concert Review: Patti Smith - Spectrum Culture
Even in these tough times, Patti Smith can make us feel powerful.
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