Your favourite newsletter duo is doubling up and down on this week’s picks.
LISTEN
Double albums worth a double-take
The double album has lost a bit of its meaning in the digital era. Even vinyl collectors know that two records in a sleeve don’t necessarily mean more music for your ears. But these lengthy long-plays earn the extra PVC needed to get them in your hands.
The Glow, Pt. 2 (2001) by The Microphones
Before Phil Elverum was the quasi-famous founder of genre-fluid, experimental black-folk project Mount Eerie, he was the cult-followed founder of the genre-fluid, experimental black-folk project The Microphones. The Glow, Pt. 2 is the latter project’s pinnacle—20 tracks of lo-fi internal landscape conjured by timid vocals, heavy-metal crunch, nylon strings, and the occasional use of steel drums.
Sounds like: You’ve caught a radio signal from another dimension. You’re afraid of what you hear, but you’ll do anything not to lose it. No one will believe you if you lose it.
Apple Music | Quboz | Tidal
-AK
The Alchemy Index, Vols. 1 & 2: Fire & Water and Vols. 3 & 4: Air & Earth (2007-2008) by Thrice
A quadruple-EP released in two sets of two makes for a double album, of sorts, right? I have fond memories of playing through the two CDs of Vols. III & IV a ton in the Toyota Yaris I drove while delivering auto parts and paint around Winnipeg over 15 years ago (yikes), but I’ve enjoyed Vols. I & II more recently too. The whole thing is a concept album, obviously, with the four parts each based on a different element: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, with music to match, and even a recurring melody they use on the concluding track to each EP, which is pretty cool.
I like how they were paired: the first album containing Volume I - Fire and Volume II - Water, takes you deep into the metal depths of hell before plunging you into the cold and electronic waters of the “Digital Sea”. It feels like relief at first and then you realize it’s just as heavy.
Volume III and IV, Air and Earth, seem to overlap a bit more as the sky falls to dusty earth and rises back up across moving mountain ranges. Soaring electric guitars and earthy acoustic ones each make for lighter tones overall in this pairing.
Apple Music | Quboz | Tidal
-JB
Got a deep-cut double LP you think we should know about?
WATCH
Double roles that double down
Twins pop up all over film history, but these twins aren’t played by twins. They’re played by a single actor going for broke.
Nicolas Cage as Charlie & Donald Kaufman in Adaptation. (2002)
The real Charlie wrote the imagined Charlie and the invented Donald into the film you are watching—which happens to be about writing the film you are watching. Try keeping that one straight! -AK
Lindsay Lohan as Hallie Parker & Annie James in The Parent Trap (1998)
When I was a kid I just assumed these two characters were played by actual twins—that’s how good Lindsay Lohan’s performances (not to mention the seamless editing) are. -JB
Mark Ruffalo as Dominick & Thomas Birdsey in I Know This Much Is True (2020)
Mark Ruffalo makes an argument for being the best actor of his generation in this brutally honest, unforgetable miniseries adapted from the novel of the same name by Wally Lamb. -AK
Michael B. Jordan as Smoke & Stack in Sinners (2025)
“Finally they cast Michael A Jordan in something.”1 Coolest pair of character names in this list, for sure, with a cool dual performance to match. -JB
READ
Double-authored books worth reading twice
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
I know, I know—Neil turned out to be a creep. But I’m deciding not to hold Terry responsible. Their comedy about the birth of the antichrist is the best writer collab I’ve ever read. Come to think of it—it’s the only one I’ve read! Plus, it happens to be about an unlikely duo, so I couldn’t pass it up. -AK
Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw
Well, speaking of the antichrist, our American friends to the south may or may not have one on their hands. Seems like a good time to remind any “Christian” followers of He Who Must Not Be Named that the Christ they take their name from was a “Prince of Peace… born as a refugee in the middle of a genocide,” whose idea of power was symbolized by a slaughtered lamb.
The book was written in 2008 but remains chillingly prophetic today. Works well as a recommended read for any Christian nationalists in your life that you can’t talk politics with anymore, or as a source of thought-provoking inspiration for any “ordinary radicals” searching for active hope in this bleak world, Jesus-followers or not. -JB
Join us in a week times two time as these two long-haired radicals seek
justice.
A top-tier review on Letterboxd by user Haiduc: https://letterboxd.com/haiduc/film/sinners-2025/
Great issue!
Never read 'Jesus for President,' only 'Irresistable Revolution,' but Shane's name has come up a number of times in our house over the last few months. If only THAT '00s Christian trend took off over the last decade!