A decent ghost movie, a few cool gorey scenes but for the most part nothing special.

s) Scoop
I haven't seen the last couple yet, but this might be the most tolerable Woody Allen movie of the last ten years? Not that it's great, but it's kind of deliberately lightweight and loopy, whereas almost all of the others are just absolute failures on some fundamental level.

t) Blade Runner
Would you believe I just watched this for the first time the other night? I remember someone in my family getting the 25th anniversary DVD a few years ago, but even then I never actually sat down and watched it, even though I rightly assumed that it's great and influenced a lot of things I love about contemporary sci-fi. And a few nights ago, when I was up literally the entire night writing on deadline, and this came on TV at 4am, that seemed like a good way to experience it for the first time. Not that I totally paid close attention or even stayed awake for all of it, but it was a nice introduction, I'm sure I'll still watch it for real for real sometime.

u) Sunset Boulevard
Another amazing movie that, as a Billy Wilder fan, I've always wanted to see and knew I'd enjoy, but just hadn't gotten around to it until recently, and I also don't think the first viewing quite did the trick and I plan on revisiting it many times in the future. 

1. Beyoncé - Beyoncé
I was happy that I did my 2013 albums list late enough that I could include this, but the 2 weeks I'd had to listen to it at that point were only enough to know that it was great, not necessarily think about it too much. This album is fucking nuts, though, the way she dropped it out of the sky with videos for every song made it feel more special but it's great outside that context. And I'm glad I listened to just the songs for a while before getting the CD/DVD for my birthday and was able to take in the 'visual album,' which is takes parts of the album to another level. But really it's just kind of fascinating to watch one of the biggest sex symbols of her generation, someone who's co-written the bulk of a pretty interesting and idiosyncratic catalog but still gets characterized as a dull perfectionist, write songs about beauty and perfection and feminism that are as smart and complex as "***Flawless" or "Pretty Hurts," is pretty awesome. Even the overtly sexual songs like "Rocket" and "Partition" have these other themes creeping up on the periphery, in addition to whatever defiance might inherently exist in embracing your sexuality after getting married and having a kid. Even the musical raw materials, which might've been boring or commonplace when first assembled by Timbaland or Ryan Tedder or this Boots guy, seem to be elevated by her vision and her voice, tied together into something bigger and more ambitious. I may be less enthused about some tracks like "Superpower" and "Mine," and I'm already getting sick of hearing "Drunk In Love" on the radio, but this album still holds up together remarkably well as a 70-minute experience.

2. E-40 - The Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil (Parts 4, 5 & 6)
For the fourth year in a row, E-40 has released two or three albums simultaneously, bringing his output so far this decade to ten albums. Maybe someday I'll have some perspective and can say whether there's a big gap in quality between any of the albums or what the best songs are, but as is I just feel like I have to tap into all these hours and hours of slaps and enjoy it for what it is. This trio doesn't feel as immediate or impressive on a production tip as the 2012 albums, or at least it doesn't have any really obvious "Function"-level standouts, but I'm still enjoying it, "When You Gone Let Me" and "Mister T" are dope.

3. Sevyn Streeter - Call Me Crazy, But... EP
R&B sales have been pretty terrible for a while, especially for new artists (Frank Ocean is the only new artist to go gold the last few years, not even Miguel managed to). But it's still depressing that seemingly every newish R&B artist who's has a breakthrough radio hit in the past few months has only gotten to release an EP, with a full-length album somewhere on the distant horizon (August Alsina, Rico Love, Jhene Aiko, Ty Dolla $ign). Sevyn Streeter is the most aggravating case for me because they didn't even put her great first hit, "I Like It," on the EP, just the Chris Brown version of "It Won't Stop," and the 6 new songs on here are evidence that she could probably make an awesome album right now. The hook to "Call Me Crazy" is a little over the top, but "Come On Over" and "nEXt" are some of the best R&B tracks of the year. 

4. Ellis - The Education Of Ellis
Other than the single with Styles P. I heard most of this album for the first time on the night I interviewed Ellis while he was in the studio finishing the mixing and mastering. So it was fun to finally sit down with it on my own after my article came out and get to hear that it was as dense and personal and well crafted as I thought it was going to be. I don't like to compare Baltimore rappers to each other because I feel like they deserve to be considered individuals, but Ellis's flow and accent reminds me so much of Mullyman sometimes that I wonder if they came from the same neighborhood or something, and that's not a bad thing, plus he's totally got his own style and perspective that's different from Mully's. Check out the album on DatPiff. 

5. Brendan Benson - You Were Right
The Posies and Brendan Benson were two of the acts who really ignited my interest in modern power pop with their '90s albums, so I loved the show I saw on their great 2010 tour together, where Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow from The Posies played in Benson's backing band. And it's been cool to see that collaboration continue, with Auer and Stringfellow playing all over Benson's last two albums (country singers Ashley Monroe and Sarah Siskind also all over this). This and 2012's What Kind Of World may not be Benson's best, but then it's kind of hard to even say -- his first two albums, One Mississippi and Lapalco, were both great in very different ways, but every album since has blended into the next more and more, so there's a sense of diminishing returns even if his way with a hook is still strong. 

6. R. Kelly - Black Panties
After spending most of the year poring over R.'s back catalog and anticipating his return from Love Letter retro purgatory, I wouldn't say my hopes were sky high for Black Panties, but it didn't quite hit the spot. It's better than Untitled, but not by a huge margin -- the overly modern "turn up" type songs like "My Story" and "Cookies" wear badly, and "Marry The Pussy" isn't as good as the "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)" remix verse it riffs on. But the smoother stuff, like "Genius" and "Right Back" and the Kelly Ro feature, those tracks really rescue the album for me, it's got some jams. And "Shut Up," even if it's already a couple years old, is just a glorious album closer. 

7. Q-Tip And Busta Rhymes - The Abstract And The Dragon
I enjoyed breaking this mixtape down for Complex right after it dropped, but doing that also made me highly aware of how much it was a retrospective of their collaborations (pretty much all of them, except for that "Poetic Justice" remix they did recently, unless I'm forgetting something?) rather than a showcase for new music, of which there was only a few minutes. This thing is still just a kick to listen too, though, these guys are two of my favorite of MCs of all time and I don't hear them enough anymore, "Thank You" was a great reminder, although I'm annoyed that its buzz already seems to have died out. 

8. Twista - Back To The Basics EP
Twista is another one of my favorite MCs of all time who doesn't necessarily have the legacy he deserves. Maybe it was because he was so successful with R&B records, but really a lot of those records were great and everybody knows he can spit anyway. Still, it's fun to hear him do a quick 7-song EP that's pretty concentrated on beats and rhymes (there's still an R&B hook on track 3, though). The production is just functional, though, I'd love to hear Twista on some really interesting, creative production sometime.

9. Ariana Grande - Christmas Kisses EP
I approve of the idea of a Christmas EP instead of a Christmas album, a lot of times the latter wears thin once you pad out the initial few good ideas to album length, so why not just stop at 13 minutes? And this one is especially good, because it fits Ariana's whole sugary persona, and she brings back some of the heavy hitters who made Yours Truly a great album -- Harmony "H-Money" Samuels produced all 4 tracks, and "Love Is Everything" is a good new Babyface co-write. The cover of Wham!'s "Last Christmas" works way better than the duet of "Santa Baby" with one of her Nickelodeon co-stars, but oh well, can't win 'em all.

10. Bridget Kelly - Cut To...Bridget Kelly EP
Of all the newish R&B singers currently struggling to get a major label album out and settling for an EP, Bridget Kelly probably has the roughest road because she hasn't even popped off with a hit single yet, although she's released a few good singles (and most notably had "Thinkin' Bout You" out before Frank Ocean released his version). This reminds me of Sevyn's EP in a lot of ways besides both having awkward ellipses in the titles, less consistent overall but "Goosebumps" and "S#1T Happens" are good, and "Special Delivery," ancient as it feels now, holds up well. I guess December is the new dumping ground for EPs, looking at this lineup (and I also dug Problem's EP that came out in the same month).

Worst Album of the Month: B.o.B - Underground Luxury
I remember digging "Haterz Everywhere" when B.o.B first came out, and then "I'll Be In The Sky" was a terrible Andre 3000 knockoff record, and he started with that 'Bobby Ray' stuff and the fluffy pop records with Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift, and he rode that wave for a couple years, and now he's 'Bobby Bandz' and doing songs like "We Still In This Bitch." And it's interesting, because there are a lot of great mainstream rap artists who have had that kind of spectrum of material that's appealed to different audiences, but they pulled it off and made it convincingly part of their persona, where this guy seems to be just running around trying to be everything to everybody. Even half of this album sounds like he made it while he was still on the sing-song pop tip and before he decided to get in the studio with Juicy J and Future. But where this album really pisses me off is when he tries to get away with a terrible song called "One Day" by tacking an interlude talking with Bun B on the end. 

1. Lady Gaga f/ R. Kelly - "Do What U Want"
Already put this in my year-end top 10, so it goes without saying that I fucking love this song, although even with the R. Kelly controversy flaring up I was a little shocked to be one of only 3 people that voted for it in Pazz & Jop. And now there's that lame new version with Christina Aguilera that was just released, maybe because of the Kells thing, or maybe because the song hasn't done great on the charts or maybe just because of the general excitement over the Gaga/Xtina duet on "The Voice." And because Xtina's verse just follows the vocal melody of Gaga's verse, you completely lose the different vocal melody on the R.'s verse, which was one of the best things about the song. The original holds up, though, incredible track. This will be the last  Monthly Report I add to my running favorite 2013 singles Spotify playlist, although the month-by-month playlist is not the same as the big definitely top 100 playlist.

2. 2 Chainz - "Used 2"
It's crazy that 2 Chainz made a 2nd album so much better than his 1st, with singles that are almost as good, and is suffering such a sophomore slump, this song needs to be so much bigger than it is. Or at least, it never charted high (didn't get into the top 30 of the Hip-Hop/R&B Airplay chart), but it seems to be on every time I get in the car anyway, maybe they're just feeling it around Baltimore and D.C.

3. Jay-Z f/ Beyonce - "Part II (On The Run)"
I touched on how this and "Used 2" both used Juvenile's "Back That Azz Up" flow in my recent Complex article on borrowing flows, but it just trips me up how 2 Chainz and Jay-Z both had singles out at the same time using that flow. Or at least, this song was starting to pick up steam right until B dropped that album and "Drunk In Love" blew up, which kinda bums me out, because I like this song way more.

4. Ariana Grande f/ Big Sean - "Right There"
This is such a transparently deliberate sequel to "The Way," with the Big Pun beat swapped out for a Lil Kim beat, and I think all the '90s samples on Ariana's album almost distract from how good the singing and the songwriting on it is, but whatever, this is dope. I generally don't like Big Sean, but he can be good in small doses on songs like this, and it makes sense for him to be on Ariana's record since her hilarious performance of "Guap" was basically the only thing good about that song.

5. Babyface and Toni Braxton - "Hurt You"
I've been so ready for Babyface to do something major again, especially after his work on Ariana's album, so this duet project with Toni is right on time, I'm really looking forward to the album. Seems like they found a good aesthetic middleground where it doesn't sound like their old megahits but it's not straining to sound modern.

6. Tamar Braxton - "All The Way Home"
Even with Toni coming back strong, 2013 was definitely her baby sister's year, and Tamar kept the hits coming. The production is really something else on this track, love the groove of those drums, just a hypnotically listenable song with a huge vocal hook.

7. Pearl Jam - "Sirens"
After "Mind Your Manners" had me primed for the new Pearl Jam album, the second advance single "Sirens" initially felt like a big letdown. But I think I was just so bummed out in the past when they released 6-minute ballads with acoustic guitars as singles that I almost assumed I would dislike this song as much as "Nothing As It Seems" and "Off He Goes," but I don't. In fact, once it started getting heavy airplay, it really grew on me. The opening refrain is a little cheesy, but by the end the whole thing builds

8. Robin Thicke - "4 The Rest Of My Life"
This song has been out since shortly after "Blurred Lines" and always felt almost like a perfunctory bone Thicke threw to his core R&B audience while he was taking over pop radio, not on the level of past quiet storm staples like "Lost Without U" or even "Love After War." But it just kept going and eventually hit #1 on the Adult R&B chart, and has grown on me. But then I'm a sucker for songs where old married people get romantic about being together for decades, that shit is inspiring to me.

9. Rihanna - "What Now"
One of the byproducts of Rihanna churning out an album every 12 months for almost every year of her career is that she hasn't had those really prolonged singles campaigns most huge chart stars get where 5th and 6th singles hang around forever and they get to really milk the album. So her finally taking a year off in 2013 meant that Unapologetic got to breath a little bit and songs like this came out, which really grew on me even if it never became a big hit (and got kinda steamrolled by the Eminem single she's on). There are some points when she still seems not quited suited for the song (what the hell up is the way she pronounces "mirror" in the pre-chorus?) but the way she belts out the chorus is killer, one of the few 'dubstep waltz' power ballads that has really worked for me.

10. Janelle Monae f/ Miguel - "Primetime"
I've kinda gone back and forth with this song, because even though they're kinda similar artists in some ways (and often sport the same pompadour), in my eyes Miguel can do no wrong and Janelle Monae can do no right. I mean, she's not terrible, but the stagey, contrived quality of her persona and her blank, passionless singing just leave me cold. I worked with a crew that did PSAs before the "Christmas In Washington" concert a few weeks ago, and Monae came in dressed like some kind of old-timey constable, and when the script said "I hope" she said "I do hope" to make it sound more like Mary Poppins or whatever she's going for (I guess it could've been worse, she could've said "I'm ever so hopeful"). Anyway this song is kinda dope, I'll give her props for this one.

The Worst Single of the Month: Lupe Fiasco f/ Ed Sheeran - "Old School Love"
Last month, I was on my way to a holiday party and a show my band was playing that night when I checked my phone and my Twitter mentions had exploded. I had just published a Short List in which I made a joke about Lupe Fiasco's career decline and recent run-in with a tomato, and he saw it himself and tweeted to his million followers "Al Shipley at Baltimore city paper is kind of a dick" (Lupe's tweets are private, but a screencap of his first tweet is my Twitter avatar, such is my amusement at this whole incident). I responded, there was a little back-and-forth (his main response was "fuck you too"), and I got the inevitable insults from his stans. It was great fun. But lemme just say, if my Short List comment or my tweets were immature, I stand by the general sentiment that Lupe's music has been going down the tubes for a long time after a promising start (I even had Food & Liquor in my 2006 year-end list for the City Paper, although I had already started to cool on the album by the time I saw him live the next year). He's already openly disowned half his hits, so why should we even think for a second that he believes in songs like "Old School Love," which sounds like he had to fight off Travie McCoy to get? The idea that Lupe being smarter or more talented than the average MC absolves him of the detached cynicism of so much of his music is what makes me, y'know, say dickish things in print about him.