See, Hear, Read: our experts pick January’s best movie, music and book release
They love it. We want it. Three red-hot releases
“Downton Abbey is a soapy period drama that pays as much attention to history as it does all the tortured love and intimate accusations. The new season is set during the Roaring ’20s, which means the show is finally taking a step away from the austerity of the war years into luxury. And Shirley MacLaine has joined the cast, so Maggie Smith will have another great old actress to play off of.” —Amanda Worsley Manager of Film Buff West
Downton Abbey, Season 3 (Jan. 6)
“Toro y Moi is a guy named Chazwick Bundick who grew up in South Carolina and makes cheerful, summery electronic rock with a rhythmic, hip-hop feel. He was one of the people at the centre of the whole chillwave fad—a kind of warped hipster version of electronica. The name itself started as a joke, and it’s a label Moi seems to be pushing back against more and more. His new album has a heart-on-sleeve vulnerability to it—he doesn’t bury his vocals in effects anymore.” —Craig Dunsmuir Staffer at Soundscapes
Anything in Return, by Toro y Moi (Jan. 22)
“The Ghosts of Belfast, the debut novel by Irish writer Stuart Neville, was one of the most gripping books I have ever read. His new novel, Ratlines, set in Ireland in 1963, begins with the murder of several German nationals who turn out to be Nazis. Lieutenant Albert Ryan is ordered to investigate. Ryan is one of those guys who’d just as soon shoot off your kneecap as let you cry on his shoulder. By the time I finished it, I was exhausted. I couldn’t put it down.” —Marian Misters Co-owner of Sleuth at Baker Street
Ratlines, by Stuart Neville (Jan. 1)
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