As we close out the bottom ten of the Top 40 songs by Happy Rhodes, her penultimate album to date, Many Worlds are Born Tonight starts flexing its muscles with three more songs appearing. In addition, we say goodbye, for the most part, to her four earliest albums, with Rhodes II and Ecto each making an appearance. (There will be surprising return way up in the Top 10!) It’s actually very hard to compare the rich, layered instrumentation of Happy’s later work to the stripped-down acoustic guitar accompaniment of her early work. Both are beautiful but sonically so different. I think in the end I have a preference for the lush, keyboard-influenced works.
#35.) Looking Over Cliffs – Many Worlds Are Born Tonight (1998) – Many Worlds Are Born Tonight is certainly one of Happy’s best albums, and Looking Over Cliffs is the second song from that album to appear in the Top 40. A lot of Happy’s songs are inspired by media and literature, and this song was inspired by the film The Last of the Mohicans, which is a film I really didn’t like at all. However, Happy takes that overblown moment when Daniel Day Lewis screams, “Stay alive at all costs! I will find you!” into Madeline Madeline Stowe’s face, and turns it into something raw and powerful. Actually the lyrics of Looking Over Cliffs are a little overblown as well, but what saves it is the emotion that Happy imbues into the song. The incredible bridge when Happy pushes her voice to give it a ragged edge, while the piano chimes away in the background is pretty chilling. That fretless bass work is pretty awesome too.
#34.) When the Rain Came Down – Ecto (1987) – It strikes me that my favorite song from Happy’s fourth album, Ecto is a bonus track that was not even included on the original cassette release. When the Rain Came Down sounds like it was dropped in from another album altogether, and even beyond the watery title, it is reminiscent of something Peter Gabriel might have sung in his early solo days. A nice tribal drum pattern starts things off before Happy’s voice gently begins the repeating melody in her deeper register. Then as is often the case, the chorus launches Happy into her upper register floating over some lovely synth-washes and gentle acoustic guitar arpeggios. The lyrics are vague, bringing to mind creation myths and how rain renews and refreshes. Last year, a compilation of Happy’s early work was collected on an album called Ectrophia, and When the Rain Came Down was released as the first single. Also included below is a cool live version from a living room concert.
#33.) Roy (Back from the Offworld) – Many Worlds Are Born Tonight (1998) – Another movie-inspired track from Many Worlds Are Born Tonight, this song is all about the Rutger Hauer character form Blade Runner. Roy has the distinction of being the only Happy song to hit the charts, a remixed dance version of the song peaking at #42 on Billboard’s Dance charts. It’s catch chorus, and danceable beat make it one of Happy’s livelier songs, and it features some nifty guitar work as well. I always thought it was one of Happy’s more accessible songs as well. I’ve included the studio track, but also a jaunty live version as well.
#32.) The Revelation – Rhodes II (1986) – One of Happy’s earlier songs, from the Rhodes II album, follows the style of her work at the time: a gently finger-picked acoustic guitar, and Happy’s glorious soprano atop it. The gently falling melody that starts the song captures you immediately, with a plaintive, haunting tone. Lyrically, there are dark undertones, as is also customary for Happy’s early work, as she sings about there being so sun, only moon… nor is there reality. Perhaps there’s only delusion? Or madness? Or retreat for a little girl from something too horrible to comprehend, such as abuse? She seems to be singing to some character named Mikey, and she references “her beast” which call to mind the demonic figures that she painted for her early album cover work. Perhaps this beat, Mikey, is her protector in her world of escape. Either way, it’s a haunting tune that sticks with you long after you’ve listened.
#31.) Winter – Many Worlds Are Born Tonight (1998) – This is a truly gorgeous song that shows off Happy’s deeper register beautifully. Slow, languid, haunting, and dark Winter is lush with keyboard and guitar washes, while Happy draws out individual words until they are nearly meaningless, but suffused with a sadness of loss. Then midway through, some gentle percussion emerges, and Happy starts vocalizing with choppy mouth sounds and high warbling wails before returning to the main thru-line of the song, but something has changed lyrically? Has she moved on? Is winter passing? Or has she descended even deeper into her sorrow? I’ve included the stunning recording from Many Worlds Are Born Tonight, but I’ve also included a live version that also captures her vocal ranges.
At some point I realized that I was working my way toward the list of my favorite Kate Bush songs, which made me think about Happy Rhodes. Like Emm, Happy was quite prolific and had a major body of work. In addition, I discovered her just as she was releasing her sixth album, so once I fell in love with her music, I went back and bought her first five albums, all while she continued to release new music. Again, because of my poor music listening habits, I knew there were a handful of songs I really loved and could name if someone asked me, the rest of her music kind of blended together for me as music by an artists whose work I really admired. This was the perfect opportunity to really dig into Rhodes’ twelve albums and listen to each song carefully and multiple times to rank all of her music. 
Soon after, Happy met Kevin Bartlett, a musician who had his own recording label, Aural Gratification, and he released all the songs that she had recorded to date on cassette. She had enough songs to release three cassettes at the same time in 1986, Rhodes Vol. I, Rhodes Vol. II, and Rearmament, followed one year later by a fourth cassette release, Ecto. These first four albums all featured Happy on all instruments, with the first two largely just acoustic guitar and voice, and the latter two adding in electronic keyboards. These releases weren’t conceived as albums, but just collections of her previously written songs.
#1 – AND THEN WE DANCED – I’m very hard on my gay, coming-of-age films, but writer/director Levan Akin’s powerful story of Merab, a young man in conservative Georgia, who has been training for years for a spot in the National Georgian Ensemble. When a new male dancer arrives Merab starts to see a whole know way of living. There are so many reasons why AND THEN WE DANCED is an outstanding film, from the sensitive and passionate screenplay, to the artful direction and cinematography, but much of the success lies in the hands of the young lead actor Levan Gelbakhiani, a dancer by training, whose every emotion washes over his open, beautiful face so transparently that your heart is always with him. And while this is a gay coming-of-age story there is so much more going on in this film, from Merab’s challenging home life, the rigors of his dance training, but central to it all, that rush of first love and first heartbreak. This one took me by surprise in so many ways, and has stayed with me strongly. 
#2 – LIGHT FROM LIGHT – While Paul Harrill’s lovely film is sort of marketed as a paranormal investigation story (and it is that) it’s more about a pair of folks who are haunted by their own circumstances and how they are able to help each other. As a child, Shelia had a couple of visions that came true, and from there she went on to investigate paranmoral occurrences. A widower whose wife died under unusual circumstances hires Shelia to see if his wife’s spirit is still lingering in the house they shared. This is a truly slow burn, but once it’s got its hook in you, you’ll be glad you’re dragged along. The power of these quiet scenes took me by surprise, and the acting by Marin Ireland and Jim Gaffigan is just gorgeous. Josh Wiggins does great as well, as Shelia’s son, who is struggling with some big decisions that are colored by his mom’s history. Lovely cinematography in the Appalachians, and through the potentially haunted house cap things off beautifully. A powerfully and unexpectedly moving film. 
#3 – NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS – Eliza Hittman follows-up the impressive BEACH RATS with a somber character study about a young woman from Pennsylvania who travels to New York City with her cousin to get an abortion. Things don’t go quite as planned, and the pair end up having to stay longer than expected, with no money to afford them a place to stay. Hittman found her lead actress in fist-timer Sidney Flanigan and effectively uses tight close-ups where the gifted young woman conveys her doubts and anguish through facial expressions alone. The sequence where the film’s title is explained took my breath away. Eliza Hittman is clearly a director to keep an eye on.
#4 – PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE – It’s so rare in a film to actually watch two people fall in love. It doesn’t happen set to a sweeping score, or in a delightfully sweet montage. It doesn’t happen all at once, with locked eyes, or a catching of breath. It happens slowly, over time, starting perhaps with admiration, then intrigue, perhaps desire, and slowly, that first blush of love. Céline Sciamma, already notable for her films WATER LILLIES and GIRLHOOD, creates an exquisite portrait herself, of a female painter in late eighteenth century Brittany, who is hired to paint the wedding portrait of a very unhappy… and unwilling young woman. As the painter paints, she peers, she gazes, she examines her subject, and in doing so, becomes the object of her subjects gaze as well. Stunningly beautiful, intensely engaging, a technical marvel, Sciamma’s PORTRAIT is a work of art. 
#5 – SOUND OF METAL – I went into this film knowing nothing… in fact, I went into it with misinformation. I assumed, from the photo I saw, that it was a documentary about a heavy metal drummer who develops tinnitus. Instead, this stunning narrative follows the difficult path of a young man, a recovering addict involved in a slightly co-dependent relationship with a woman with whom her performs in a quasi-punk, quasi-art due, who damages his hearing to the point of deafness. Featuring a bravura performance by rising star Riz Ahmend, this drummer is entirely focused on a cure, while the community around him works tirelessly to help him to accept his lack of hearing and to adjust to a new way of living. First time director Darius Marder has created s powerful exploration of a man facing a challenge that shakes him to his core identity, and follows him through the arduous journey he must take to adapt.
#6 – SORRY WE MISSED YOU – Ken Loach tackles serious subject, and often his characters are struggling, working-class folk. In this film, he focuses on a family who’s just barely getting by in London: Ricky (Dad) drives a delivery van (think Amazon), Abbie (Mom) does home health care with horrible hours, Seb is technically in high school, but he’d rather be out spray painting some graffiti, and Liza Jae is the youngest, trying desperately to keep everyone happy. Despite best intentions and potential opportunities, things the Proctor family just can’t catch a break, and things just get worse and worse. Arguments turn into fights, things are done that can’t be taken back, but the incredible power of this film is through it all, Loach shows us by the actions of his characters that there is deep, familial love here, despite everything. It’s a tough film that broke my heart. 
#7 – FIRST COW – Kelly Reichardt returns to an historic era, this time the 1800’s and the Westward Expansion, to tell a tale of friendship and early entrepreneurship during a rough and tumble time. An out of work cook helps a fugitive Chinaman, forging a quiet friendship then dreaming of what they could do to become successful in a frontier settlement. A number of things come together, the chef’s baking skills, the lack of interesting bread and sweets on the frontier, and the introduction of the first cow in the area, owned by a wealthy landowner who needed some cream for his afternoon tea. Reichardt has evolved into one of my favorite filmmakers, and her attention to detail, her skills with portraying friendships, and her comfort with silence create some beautiful cinematic tales. 
#8 – SONG WITHOUT A NAME – Late 80’s Peru, on the precipice of being overwhelmed by terrorism by a group called The Shining Path. First-time feature director and co-writer Melina León paints a portrait of life in both the City, and the outskirts where the indigenous communities live in poverty. She focuses on one young woman, Georgina, who is about to give birth, but is too poor to cover the costs of the clinic. When she hears an ad on the radio of a clinic helping people avoid these costs, she takes the opportunity. Unfortunately, she becomes part of a growing newborn kidnapping movement, and as a poor, migrant woman, she is ignored by both the police and the judicial system. Her only hope is an eager young reporter who is assigned to dig into her story and uncover the truth, even while he is concealing his own truth that could put his life at risk. This grim story is told with powerful visuals the both highlight and counter the harsh life that Georgina faces. 
#9 – CAT IN THE WALL – Illustrating both the strong bonds of family, and the gritty, harsh reality of current day life for some in London, CAT IN THE WALL follows a family of Bulgarian immigrants whose lives are thrown into disarray when a conflict with their neighbors over a cat escalates. This artfully written film that feels like improv, but must surely be carefully scripted, gives us a look into a housing development with a mix of residents, and a decision made to renovate the windows despite none of the tenants asking for it. The cost is borne by those who have long-term leases, and lead character Irina, struggling to find work as an architect but making ends meet working in a pub, tries to rally her fellow tenants in protest. Meanwhile, her conflict with her neighbors around the cat, puts her entire family in jeopardy.
#10 – KAJILLIONAIRE – Miranda July is consistent with her quirky characters that deliver powerfully moving messages from both her debut, ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, and its follow-up, THE FUTURE. In KAJILLIONAIRE, she steps out of the performance aspect of the film sticking to the writing and directing, but allows Evan Rachel Wood to bring to life an amazingly strange, yet wonderful character in Old Dolio, daughter of an aging couple who decades ago stepped away from capitalist society to live a life off the grid, making their ways through cons and grifts. It’s amazing how July can weave such odd and off-putting characters into a narrative that not only reveals, but redeems them with heart and soul.
#11 – THE VAST OF NIGHT – After reading a 
#12 – TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH – Yoko is the host of a popular Japanese travel show. While filming at various cultural landmarks in Uzbekistan, we see Yoko shooting hip deep in a lake supposedly filled with large, mysterious fish, repeatedly riding a nausea-inducing, carnival ride, and eating not quite cooked food at a local eatery. On camera, she does this all with a smile and a perky, upbeat demeanor, but off-camera, Yoko is brooding and withdrawn, missing her boyfriend in Japan, and putting up with her dismissive, male director and cameramen. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is known for his more chilling, horror-themed films, and he uses some of those talents to highlight Yoko’s isolation and fear at being a woman alone in a foreign city. Beautifully understated with some striking moments of musical magic.
#13 – MOUTHPIECE – A marvelous return to form from Patricia Rozema, who adapts a uniquely challenging play bringing all her strengths to bear: a feminist perspective, an intellectual analysis, and an emotional heart. It helps that the playwrights, and lead actresses from the play also star in the film. Having two people play a single character, representing her different aspects is greatly aided by the pair that have lived in her skin for so long. Another beautiful analysis of the affects of grief, and another film with startling moments of musical magic.
#14 – HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD – Despite its roots in actual events (the film feels very autobiographical) the central coming-of-age focus makes it less historical and more personal. 14-year old Eun-hee is searching to find her place in the world as she enters into that adolescent period were every decision seems both completely irrelevant and life-changing at the same time. Her family is caught up in the middle-class struggle to improve. Casual neglect, abuse by her brother, misunderstandings in adolescent love, and a tragedy involving a true historical event add up to make writer/director Bora Kim’s narrative film debut something really special. 
#15 – MONSOON – Kit returns to his birthplace in Saigon after fleeing post-war Vietnam over thirty years ago with his parents. Nothing seems the same, as he struggles with his heritage. Hong Khaou’s film is another story about grief that resonated with me strongly given my mothers Filipino heritage. She never went back after coming the America after World War II, and now I feel if I visited, it wouldn’t be the place she knew. Henry Golding does a great job as Kit, and the opening scene contains some spectacular imagery that inspires both calm and tension. A later scene that depicts a family harvesting lotus flowers for tea is similarly outstanding. 
#16 – BEANPOLE – The setting is post World War II Leningrad, and when we’re watching a Russian film after World War II, you can count in it being pretty grim. The central characters are Iya and Masha, two young women who experienced the war first-hand. Iya, toweringly tall and eerily pale, fought on the front lines until a concussion sent her back to the City where she now serves as a nurse tending men, many of whom have had their lives permanently shattered. She’s also taking care of a young, preternaturally cute toddler. Problem is, her concussion also sends her spiraling periodically into numbing fugue states where her body seizes and she becomes unaware of what’s going on around her. One such moment, early in the film, sets the devastating tone for much of the rest of the film especially after Masha returns.
#17 – THE TRUTH – In a normal year, Hirokazu Koreeda’s English language debut would be in the Top 5, but the competition is fierce this year. Koreeda goes to France and assembles an international cast including Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ethan Hawke, but sticks close to his favorite theme of family. In this case it’s the strained relationship between a mother, Fabienne, star of French cinema, and a daughter, Lumir, a screenwriter, now living in New York with her husband and daughter. You see, Fabienne has just published her memoirs which has caused some additional friction in the relationship. She’s also starring in new science fiction film where her own mother never grows old, unearthing her own insecurities about aging and her relationship with her own daughter. Another triumph for the master!
#18 – THE NEST – Sean Durkin (MARTHA, MARCY MAE, MARLENE) has created a simmering drama modeled on the classic haunted house horror story, but where the supernatural element that is haunting the unfortunate family within is represented by wealth. THE NEST tells the story of a family that is falling apart due to the pressures and excesses of the late 1980’s culture. Led by outstanding performances by the always exciting Carrie Coon, and a surprisingly mature Jude Law. This one stuck with me and my appreciation of it grew with the passage of time.
#19 – HAM ON RYE – High School children from all across town ritualistically prepare for a big event then travel in small groups to a common destination. Is it prom? It’s hard to tell, but when the destination appears, the town deli, and the rituals continue, from everyone touching the entryway sign as they arrive, or the amusing dance sequences, we understand there’s something else going on. For anyone who has ever grown up… which is pretty much all of us, this surreal and beautifully shot film is for you. Writer/director Tylor Taormina’s feature debut makes its mark boldly and beautifully.
#20 – SHE DIES TOMORROW – A fascinating premise reveals a psychological malady spreading from person to person that causes them to believe with certainty that they will die tomorrow. Actress Amy Seimetz wrote and directed this film after going through a bout with severe depression, and she captures the isolation and foreboding perfectly. What makes this film so fascinating is how each person so afflicted responds quite differently. Jane Adams is that standout in a quirky but realistic supporting role.