Matt Hanson

Jul 19, 2024 | quillette.com | Matt Hanson |Fred Litwin |Jeffrey Herf |Jason Andrew Garshfield

A review of Nick Drake: The Life by Richard Morton Jack; 576 pages; John Murray Press (June 2024)I first heard Nick Drake’s music in a Volkswagen commercial, of all things, during the late 1990s. A couple gazed at each other in a moonlit car while an English voice crooned about a pink moon over a wistfully strummed guitar. The product didn’t interest me, but that commercial sparked my lifelong devotion to Drake’s music.

Jul 19, 2024 | quillette.com | Pamela Paresky |Matt Hanson |Fred Litwin |Jeffrey Herf

In an interview by Pamela Paresky, Lahav Harkov, a journalist and political analyst, discusses the Israeli parliamentary system, highlighting the challenges of forming coalitions and the voter’s role in selecting parties over individual candidates. She examines the tension between ultra-Orthodox Jews, exempt from military service, and the secular community, emphasising the need for mutual recognition in achieving peace agreements.

Jul 1, 2024 | americanpurpose.com | Francis Fukuyama |Matt Hanson

There was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland by Steven Hyden (Hachette Books, 272 pages, $32.00)Is there an American song as iconic and yet as easily misinterpreted as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”? The title alone sure sounds patriotic at first glance, especially when those words are sung in the raw, charismatic way that Springsteen renders it. There’s precious little distance between singer and listener.

Jun 6, 2024 | artsfuse.org | Matt Hanson

By Matt HansonSteven Hyden’s This Isn’t Happening, a book-length appreciation of Radiohead and Kid A is one of the best books I read all year. This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s “Kid A” and the Beginning of the 21st Century by Steven Hyden. Hachette Books, 256 pages, $27. Buy at BookshopOnce, many years ago, I made the tragic mistake of not bringing my CDs with me on a road trip with the family. All was not lost; I did have my discman.

Jun 5, 2024 | bookandfilmglobe.com | Matt Hanson

When I first saw Gus Van Sant’s To Die For on a rented VHS as a high school kid in the 90’s, it seemed a little far out at the time. I watched plenty of TV as a kid growing up, but my family was resolutely anti-cable, so the satire on reality TV and the nascent national obsession with trials and true crime mostly went over my head.