2023 was a year full of bangers, as I believe the kids like to say. This is my unsolicited and borderline arbitrary list of favourite records from last year.

A round up of some online content I found interesting this week. It includes practical help on masculine initiation, a warning against a biographer, a call to faithfulness where you are, and touching story of an aging hero.

The early reviews were gushing, ready to anoint Taylor not just as a queen of pop but as a decent candidate for the UK’s next Prime Minister. But then, as a few days passed, the curmudgeons emerged from the dark wood paneled writing pits they inhabit with critiques so vociferous, so grumpy and so personal that you would swear that Ms Swift murdered one of their children with one of the many synthesizers that she wields on this record.