Despite watching so much TV, there are some shows you will not find here.  I don’t watch Breaking Bad.  Yes, I’ve heard its the best show on TV.  Yes, it is sitting in my Netflix queue.  No, it will not be discussed here.  Ditto for Girls and Louie.

I will also note that I did not start watching Revolution.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’m tired of getting into serialized shows that get cancelled after one season with no closure (see The Event, Invasion, FlashForward, Jericho, etc.). Revolution seems to be in good shape.  Don’t trust the hype.  It’ll come back in a couple months with lower ratings, the network will freak out and then it’ll be cancelled.  I can’t take it anymore. So not watching it.

Anyway, enough ranting.  Here’s my year in review:

COMEDIES

Modern Family

The theme for this year in comedy was largely disappointment in shows that used to be funnier.  Modern Family still has one of the best ensembles on TV and it’ll still get a laugh out of me at least once an episode.  But in previous seasons, it hit the sweet spot more often.  I’ll probably stick with this one until the bitter end because I really like these characters; I’m just worried that they’ve run out of ideas.  If you haven’t been watching, I probably wouldn’t bother catching up; in a few years it’ll be unavoidable in syndication.

The League

This could not be a more different show than Modern Family.  Even though it is on basic cable, The League pushes the boundaries of good taste like no other show I’ve seen (though admittedly I don’t watch Archer or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia).  This show has me convinced that short of using the F-word, you can pretty much say anything on basic cable these days.  Seriously, if you’re looking for new euphemisms for random sex acts, The League is your dictionary.  That said, until this season, it was also the funniest show I watched.  It is basically Friends + 10 years + fantasy football + Apatowian raunchiness.  I highly recommend you put this one on the Netflix queue.  You’ll know pretty quick into the first episodes if it is for you.  (Just make sure the kids are asleep.)

(Random note: Both The League and Modern Family are in season four.  Related to slumps?)

New Girl

This is my current favorite comedy.  It started out a little precious in season one with too much focus on Zooey Deschanel (who I happen to be a big fan of).  Season two has moved away from the cutesy quirkiness and let their freak flag fly with the entire ensemble.  The set-up is not groundbreaking.  A girl lives with three guys – hello Three’s Company.  Letting the three guys start to be real characters rather than just straight men to Deschanel opened up the show and made it great.  This is one you probably don’t need to go back and catch up on to enjoy new episodes right away in January.

SINGING AND DANCING

Look, if you asked me if I like singing and dancing shows, I’d say no.  Yet, I watch enough of them to fill a whole category.  Not sure how I feel about that.

Glee

Here’s another show in its fourth season that has gotten more and more disappointing.  Definitely a theory to be explored there.  I really enjoyed this show for awhile.  It just didn’t feel like anything else on TV.  Which is a good thing.  It brought the musical to the small screen in a way that Cop Rock only dreamed of.  The kids were amusing, the struggle to overcome your different-ness universal and (despite my early criticism) has given its multi-racial-sexual-cultural set of characters their due.  What it hasn’t done is successfully navigate the graduation of some characters (though kudos for admitting that high school only lasts four years for most) and extension of the action to New York from Ohio.  If you don’t watch already, I’m sure that surfing a few YouTube clips is probably all you need for this one.

Smash

I’m really not sure why I watch this show.  I’m not sure I enjoyed it.  It was wildly uneven with some laughably bad moments.  The cast was game, but hampered by overwrought plots, unlikely twists and inconsistent characters.  And yet, it’s coming back to my DVR in a few weeks.  Oh well.

Nashville

This is the show I should hate.  I don’t like country music.  At all.  And yet, I really enjoy this one, including the original songs.  Go figure.  It is the best kind of soap, drama based in reality in a unique world I know nothing about.  Only halfway through the first season, but it is one of the shows I’m most looking forward coming back to after the winter break.  There’s a political plot I could do without, but when it focuses on the singers and musicians, it is near perfect.

American Idol

My kids love it.  My wife loves it.  I love it.  You don’t watch it.  I don’t care.  Moving on.

THE SUMMER OLYMPICS

Were awesome.

NEWS(ISH)

The Daily Show

Is awesome.

THE SHOW I SHOULD HAVE WATCHED WHEN IT WAS ON BUT DIDN’T BUT NOW I HAVE

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Yup, I’ve now seen the whole run.  Cross that pop culture blind spot off my list.  Next up: The Wire.

SERIALIZED SF/FANTASY SHOWS I DO WATCH

Fringe

I pretty much said all I need to in this Pop Matters review.  But let’s just say again that I think this is one of the best shows on the air, John Noble deserves Emmys for his portrayal of Walter in all his iterations and you should go back and watch the whole run.  A lot of the first season episodes are standalone monsters-of-the-week that feel like X-Files knockoffs.  But from the season one finale on, this show was as original as they come.  I’m going to miss it when it ends its run in a few weeks.

Once Upon a Time

I almost didn’t start watching this because of the aforementioned aversion to serialized shows that are likely to get cancelled.  Yet somehow this one avoided the curse (and yeah that’s funny because most of the show is based on a curse).  The premise is that fairy tale characters have been trapped in our world.  It shouldn’t work but it does.  Definitely very clever in constantly expanding the universe of recognizable characters and tweaking their known histories in satisfying ways.  Essentially they have access to the entire catalog of Disney properties and clearly intend to use them all even when it stretches the definition of “fairy tale” – hello, Mulan.  Still, for a season and a half, they’ve done an impressive job juggling a large cast, doling out information in Lost-esque flashbacks and avoiding writing themselves into what seemed like inevitable corners.

DRAMAS

Homeland

This much lauded drama just finished its second season.  I’ll be honest that I have no idea how it pivots to a successful third season after this finale.  They’ve left themselves a lot to deal with and none of it will be pleasant.  That said, Homeland has always been a show that is unafraid to let its characters struggle and suffer.  The combination of terrorists and the deeply flawed CIA operatives tracking them has been a potent one.  I was a little annoyed deep into season two when the show started to feel like a 24 clone at the expense of the nuanced character work.  I really do hope they have a plan for season three.

Mad Men

Sometimes a show is so good that I don’t really want to talk about it.  I just want to watch it.  That’s Mad Men for me right now.

The Walking Dead

I went back and watched the first two seasons this year before diving into season three as it was happening.  There was just too much hype for me to ignore it.  And I’m glad I picked it up.  I never watch horror movies.  I don’t like gore.  Yet, The Walking Dead has become one of my favorites despite being one of the most violent shows ever.  Like The League with its pervasive language, this is the show that has convinced me that there are no limits to what violence can be shown on basic cable.  Still, the complexity that is wrung from its B-movie premise (Zombies!) is amazing.  Great TV if you can stomach the carnage.

Well, that’s it for 2012. Happy New Year!

So here they are:

ONES YOU ACTUALLY HEARD ON THE RADIO

Fun. – Some Nights

This is one of the most enjoyable albums of the year.  Not the least of which because my kids like it as much as I do.  It makes me particularly happy when a band surprises me.  I first found fun. a couple of years ago and didn’t think they would be more than a random indie band that no one but me had heard of.  Their ’70s inflection and bombastic melodies had niche written all over them.  Then, We Are Young hit big, showing up on Glee and just about everywhere else.  Some Nights followed, leading to many a car sing-along in my family (not to mention proof that autotune can actually be used mindfully as an additional instrument).  The whole album is good and deserves the success.

Original video for We Are Young

Of Monsters and Men – My Head is an Animal

This band rode the recent wave of folksy rockers ushered in by the success of Mumford and Sons.  When I first heard them, I would have guessed they were Appalachian; turns out they’re from Iceland.  Close enough.  Another listen and maybe you can convince yourself there is a little Bjork in their accents.  Songs like Little Talks and Mountain Song definitely end up on repeat on the Ipod pretty quickly.  You’ll want to stomp your foot as you listen.

Little Talks video

INDIE POP GUY-GIRL DUOS

Best Coast – The Only Place

These indie darlings have a throwback sound that feels current.  They mix themselves to achieve a weathered ’60s combination of surf and garage.  But the melodies are as catchy as anything you’ll hear on the radio (without sounding like the background tracks were randomly generated by a computer program).

The Only Place video

Chairlift – Something

It took me a few listens to get in the swing of this albums.  One of the biggest problems with indie bands is that they seem to get nervous when their songs get too catchy, leading to occasional forays into pure atonal noise.  Chairlift has a couple of spots like that, but mostly they let the songs stay light and fun (but never fluffy).  A bit of a chameleon, this album.  Met Before could be a lost track from an ’80 John Hughes soundtrack.  Ghost Tonight indulges in a jazzy playfulness.  Other tracks sound like contemporaries Regina Spektor and The xx.  There’s even a little shoegazing going on.  Yet, they all work together on the album.

Met Before video

REPEAT OFFENDERS

The Shins – Port of Morrow

Back with another solid set of indie pop nuggets, this album is definitely a good buy for those who are already fans.  Though if you haven’t heard The Shins before, I’d probably start with Chutes Too Narrow and go from there.

Simple Song video

Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

Wikipedia may call these guys punk rock (and you’ve got to take the Wiki at its word), but that’s only if you consider Springsteen punk.  They owe their sound to the Boss.  And for the most part it is all good.  Again, like with The Shins, there is a better entry point for the band.  In this case, get the American Slang album first and then this one if you love it.

Here Comes My Man video

THE ONE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON LAST YEAR’S LIST BUT I DIDN’T GET IT UNTIL 2012

Young the Giant – self-titled

Just straight up catchy modern rock tracks.  If you like Cough Syrup, you’ll like it all.

Cough Syrup video

THESE TWO AREN’T REALLY IN THE SAME CATEGORY BUT I COULDN’T REALLY THINK OF HOW TO CATEGORIZE THEM SO I PUT THEM TOGETHER HERE

Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur

I keep expecting Edwards to sound like other artists – Dar Williams, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, etc. – and then she doesn’t.  With that helpful intro, let’s just say she falls squarely in the female singer-songwriter category, but is hard to pin down.  This could be my problem, but when I listen to her, she seems to float around between country, pop and rock (sometimes in the same song) in a way that is fascinating and disconcerting.  Not to say that anything on the album is hard to listen to.  It is all good.  Just hard for me to write about.  Oh well.

Change the Sheets video

‘Allo Darling – Europe

These folks are bubbly indie synth pop all the way.  Definitely my favorite discovery of the year since I had never heard a thing about them before they popped up in one of my find-new-music sources (and I don’t even remember which one).  The songs are instantly stuck in your head on first listen.  Enjoy.

Capricornia video

NOW HEAR THIS – LANDWEBER EDITION

You know those compilation albums of songs that were huge hits – here are some top pop songs that went into heavy rotation in our house this year.  And yes, my favorite one was the Selena Gomez.  Deal with it.

Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
PSY – Gangam Style
Gotye – Somebody I Used To Know
Philip Phillips – Home
Atlas Sound – Trojans
The Lumineers – Ho Hey
Kelly Clarkson – Darkside
Neon Trees – Everybody Talks
Fun. – We Are Young and Some Nights
Selena Gomez – Love You Like a Love Song

I’ll pad that total by mentioning three albums/artists that dominated my kids’ interest for the year:  Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Adele.  Yes, I have given up sizable real estate on the Ipod to pure Top 40.  But even saying that these qualify as three additional albums would be cheating since we don’t have the full album for any of them.  Still, I will say that you have not experienced Adele fully until you have heard Someone Like You belted out at top volume by a 7 and 10 year old.  (OK, I’ll admit it that I am also prone to singing all three of these artists very loudly – they are very catchy.)

Anyway, moving on to the 7 new albums I recommend:

The Super Catchy Indie Pop Ones

Two Door Cinema – Tourist History

OK, more cheating.  This album came out in 2010, but I bought it in 2011.  And the band found its success this year.  So there.  Two Door Cinema has a great jangly sound that feels a little ’80s and a little indie.  Damn catchy, too.  “What You Know” is a funky little song with an odd kitschy video.

What You Know video

Army Navy – The Last Place

Another indie pop outfit with an album full of hummable songs.  They’re from Los Angeles but they sound just a tad British.  Twee, even (whatever that means).  And if you thought the last video was weird, this one for “Ode for Janice Melt” goes above and beyond.

Ode for Janice Melt video

The Folksy Bluesy Rock Ones

The Head and the Heart

This self-titled album is from far and away my favorite new band of the year.  I’ve never really considered myself a roots rock type of guy.  But this is the second year running that my top new album could be considered folksy.  (Last year, it was the Avett Brothers.)  Every song brims over with melodies and harmonies that will embed themselves into your brain (in a much more satisfying way than the Perrys and Gagas of this world).  “Lost in My Mind” is a perfect example.

Lost in My Mind video

Blind Pilot – We Are the Tide

These folks have a little more rock in them.  If you like The Head and the Heart, try this band next.

The Women Who Rock Ones

Dum Dum Girls – Only In Dreams

I know this is going to turn some people off, but Dum Dum Girls remind me a bit of early Bangles.  Before they were pure pop, when they were still putting out songs like “Going Down to Liverpool.”  Then, sometimes, Dum Dum Girls sound like The Pretenders and you would swear the lead singer is Chrissie Hynde.  Or maybe they’re like Luscious Jackson.  Whatever.  They rock.  Listen to “Bedroom Eyes.”

Bedroom Eyes video

Lovers – Dark Light

Another 2010 album that I didn’t get until 2011.  (Hey, I did tell you I didn’t find many releases I liked this year.)  My wife and I diverge in musical taste in a couple of ways.  I have a higher tolerance for loud drums and screeching guitars.  I also gravitate to some bands that she might describe as droning or plodding.  Lovers falls a bit into that latter category.  But the vocals and grooves lull me into a pleasant trance, like with the song “Boxer.”

Boxer video

The Decemberists’ One

The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

This band had already put out a couple of albums that did quite well, but honestly seemed like a bit of a novelty act.  Let’s just say that they were prone to the seven-minute confessional sea shanty.  Yes, you read that right.  (And, for the record, I enjoyed at least one of those albums.)  Then, this year, they came out with a far more focused straight ahead rock set that is one of the best of the year.  I’m not quite sure what spurred the evolution (or the devolution if you consider their past stuff to be more innovative and intriguing) but I’m a fan either way.  “This Is Why We Fight” is appropriately anthemic and accessible and representative of the album.

This Is Why We Fight video

Good Albums By Great Bands That Have Released Better Albums

The National – High Violet

Matt Berninger’s baritone is as hypnotic as ever on this album.  The music backing him up maintains a propulsive marchlike dirge.  The combination of the two creates a unique sound for one of my favorite bands.  Songs like Lemonworld and Bloodbuzz Ohio stand out.  But if you’re new to The National start with their third album, Alligator, then move on to their fourth, Boxer.

New Pornographers – Together

New Pornographers have always written intensely catchy pop songs, then run them through a blender.  Carl Newman, Neko Case and Dan Bejar among others have built an indie rock machine, the whole of which far exceeds the sum of its parts.  But this isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste.  I personally love the way that Newman, Case, Bejar and on this album Kathryn Calder’s voices ping pong off each other throughout the songs.  This album is a worthy addition to their canon, but for a first album, try Electric Version (and then go for Twin Cinema).

Vampire Weekend – Contra

The New Kids on the Indie Superstardom Block.  Vampire Weekend melds world music and preppy sensibilities in a truly odd way that mysteriously works (though for me it was only after repeated listenings).  Contra rocks, but their eponymously titled first  album was a revelation.  Enjoy them both.

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

I’ll admit that I got a little tired of the rapturous adulation that Arcade Fire got from the music press over the past year.  Apparently they’re going to save rock and roll when they morph into the next U2.  Ignore the hype and stick with the music.  Again, like The National and New Pornographers, I’d consider this year’s offering to be their third best album (which still puts it comfortably in a decent top ten for this year).  I like Funeral and Neon Bible better, but you can’t go wrong with any of the three.

Their Roots Are Showing

Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks

We’ll start in Scotland.  Scott Hutchinson is either unable or unwilling to mask his accent while singing.  That’s a large part of Frightened Rabbit’s charm (along with their name).  The songs alternate between lilting and rocking, but they never flag.  Swim Until You Can’t See Land is one of my favorite songs of the year.

Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

Heading to the American South.  These guys have been around for a while and this album was released in 2009, so I’m cheating on many levels with putting this one on the list.  But I didn’t get this album until 2010 and now its one of my favorites.  A little bluegrass, a little rock, a little country, a little folk, a little pop.  All good.

Mumford and Sons – Mumford and Sons

Back across the pond to England.  These guys go UK rootsy with banjos and accordians and mandolins and an upright base.  Folksier than I usually go for, but  they’ve got a little punk rock undergirding their work.  Little Lion Man is a candidate for single of the year.

The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang

And finally New Jersey.  What would happen if Bruce Springsteen had The Ramones’ attitude?  This album.  And that’s a very, very good thing.

The Rest That Didn’t Really Fit Into a Neat Category Together So They Got Put Down Here

The Weepies – Be My Thrill

Reminiscent of another favorite band of mine – The Submarines – this album can be a little sleepy.  I wouldn’t recommend it while driving.  File under chill and mellow.

Shout Out Louds – Work

There are certain albums where every song is so catchy that I wonder why it isn’t lodged in the Top 40.  This is one of them.  And they’re Swedish too.

Broken Bells – Broken Bells

Half of Gnarls Barkley + the lead singer of The Shins = great indie pop.

Florence + the Machine – Lungs

Look, here’s the thing.  I haven’t actually bought this album yet.  But I’m really expecting to like it and I’ve got some ITunes credit just waiting for it.  I have their previous EP, which includes Dog Days Are Over and Kiss With a Fist, which are both amazing.  So I’m putting it on the list.

Alright, that’s 2010.  Happy new year.

So here’s the list:

1. The Drums – Summertime!

Much has been made about the surf rock roots underpinning this indie band, but they sound more like 80s Britpop than Beach Boys to me. Still, it’s a sunny little EP filled with hummable tunes.

2. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls

Another Scottish band that can’t hide its accent (see Big Country, The Proclaimers), We Were Promised Jetpacks delivers heart-on-the-sleeve anthemic rock with gusto. Plus they’ve got my current favorite band name.

3. fun. – Aim and Ignite

A little bit of this, a little bit of that. This band seems to have been influenced by the full gamut of 70s classic rock (minus any crunching guitars). Somehow it all adds up to a buoyant collection of, yes, fun songs.

4. Miike Snow – Miike Snow

Electronica sanded off around the edges combines with pop that has been roughed up a little. The mashup appeals to fans of both genres.

5. Wilco – Wilco (the album)

The problem I’ve always had with Wilco is that just when I’m getting into a happy groove they go off with five minutes of pure noise at the end of a song. There’s none of that on this one. Just happy groove.

6. Rancid – Let the Dominoes Fall

The godfathers of pop ska punk return with an album that sounds remarkably like they never left. This is good.

7. Regina Spektor – Far

Take Tori Amos’ piano and infuse it with Russian angst. Layer on some odd cadences and weird lyrics. Somehow it works.

8. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Pure indie power pop at its best. Give in to it. You won’t even notice that they’re French.

9. Metric – Fantasies

A little angry but always melodic, Metric falls into the tradition of great female-vocalist-driven bands like Throwing Muses and The Breeders.

10. The Airborne Toxic Event – The Airborne Toxic Event

Unlike most of the acts on this list, these guys actually got some mainstream radio airplay this year. I was hooked when Sometime Around Midnight got its David Bowie singing Heroes on.

11. Kelly Clarkson – All I Ever Wanted

Yes, Kelly Clarkson. What can I say. I like American Idol. I like Kelly. Every cut on this record is like cotton candy. And I’ll stick by my assertion that I Want You is the catchiest song of the year.

Such reveries have gotten less common as I’ve mellowed somewhat with age.  My adult life just doesn’t have the same unstructured blocks of time that allow for a good old-fashioned marathon pity party.  But I still enjoy a solid dark, sad or just flat out mopey song all the same.

So, here are 25 songs from my Ipod that, besides being great songs, are also perfect for the next time you just need to get in touch with your melancholy side:

1. Overkill – Colin Hay – Yes, I’m leading off with the Men at Work song.  But don’t listen to that version.  Pick up lead singer Colin Hay’s haunting acoustic version.  Stripped of the 80s cheese, this is a wonderful meditation on doubt.
Key lyric: I can’t get to sleep/I worry about the implications.

2. Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper – Another 80s classic, but this one works in any of its iterations (and is pretty much foolproof as a cover by other artists too).  My current favorite version is a duet with Sarah McLachlan (who shows up in her own right later on this list).
Key lyric:  After my picture fades and darkness has turned to grey.

3. Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Knight – OK, so I first have to admit that while I have the Gladys Knight version on my Ipod, it is really the live version by the Indigo Girls that kills me.  Seriously, I tear up every time I hear it.  The struggle of the singer trying to support someone they love who has failed spectacularly — that’s pretty damn sad.  In a good poignant way.
Key lyric:  But he sure found out the hard way that dreams don’t always come true.

4. Only You – Yaz – This song shouldn’t work on any level.  Simplistic cheesy 80s synthesizers and what sounds like a drum machine is the recipe for a crappy song.  Instead you get a classic.  It all rides on Alison Moyet’s voice, which will break your heart.
Key lyric: This is going to take a long time and I wonder what’s mine.

5.  Brick – Ben Folds Five – OK, time to get out of the 80s.  It took me awhile before I understood what this song was actually about.  It’s sad enough without knowing that it is a guy taking his pregnant girlfriend for an abortion.  One of the best songs about loss ever.
Key lyric:  Now she’s feeling more alone than she ever has before.

6. Piece of my Heart – Big Brother and the Holding Company – Janis Joplin has one of the best rock and roll voices of all time.  When she sings about hurt, you feel it.
Key lyric:  Never never never never never never hear me when I cry at night.

7. Can’t Fight It – Bob Mould
Key lyric: And it’s strange to see the friends you had all fade away.

8. I Don’t Like Mondays – Boomtown Rats – This is one of the first rock songs that I remember thinking about the lyrics.  The story of a girl on a shooting rampage in her school scared the hell out of me.  No key lyrics for this one — the whole song still just gives me a visceral reaction that humanity is going down the tubes.

9.  Better Be Home Soon – Crowded House – Desperation personified.
Key lyric: Stripping back the coats of lies and deception/Back to nothingness like  a week in the desert.

10. Five Years – David Bowie – Another story song.  This one makes me want to write a book about the slow burn lead up to an inevitable apocaplyse.  Now all I need are characters and a plot.
Key lyric:  We’ve got five years, that’s all we’ve got.

11.  Funny How Love Is – Fine Young Cannibals – In college, a guy on my floor was making a mix for his long-distance girlfriend.  All the songs had the word “love” in the title.  He was not happy when he realized it was a break-up song.
Key lyric:  I don’t want your magazines.  I don’t want your clothes.  Take them from my house, let me be alone.

12. Change – Fishbone – Not the usual loud raucous angry Fishbone. This is quiet melancholy and sort of angry Fishbone.

13. Landslide – Smashing Pumpkins – Yeah, I know it is Fleetwood Mac, but I like this verison. Deal with it.
Key lyric: Well, I’ve been afraid of changing ’cause I built my life around you.

14. Walking After You – Foo Fighters – Sad and creepy.
Key lyric: If you accept surrender, I’ll give up some more.

15. On Your Porch – The Format – Story song about a kid trying to do what’s right be a sick parent. Brutal.
Key lyric: What’s left to lose, you’ve done enough, and if you fail well then you fail but not to us.

16. Bizarre Love Triangle – Frente – Love the New Order original too, but this is another one that needed to be stripped down to understand the depth of despair in the lyrics.
Key lyrics: Everytime I see you falling, I get down on my knees and pray.

17. Shadow of the Day – Linkin Park
Key lyric: And the shadow of the day will embrace the world in grey and the sun will set for you.

18. Patience – Guns ‘n’ Roses – Not sure why this song gets me. But it does. Every time.

19. Black – Pearl Jam – I confess I don’t own Ten. In fact, I had been hearing this song for years before I even realized it was on their first album. And I didn’t know the title for another couple of years. None of that changes the fact that it is a brilliant song.
Key lyric: The pictures have all been washed in black.

20. Don’t Give Up – Peter Gabriel – How can a song about not giving up be so utterly depressing. Exhibit A.
Key lyric: I am a man whose dreams have all deserted.

21. I Will Remember You – Sarah McLachlan
Key lyrics: Weep not for the memories.

22. You’re Wondering Now – The Specials
Key lyric: Curtain has fallen, now you’re on your own, I won’t return, forever you will wait.

23. Don’t Grow – Stuart Matthewman – This was on the soundtrack of Twin Falls, Idaho, a micromini-movie about conjoined twins. You can’t fully feel the lyrics without realizing the plot hinges on the twins’ surgical separation where only one of them can survive.

24. Good Feeling – Violent Femmes – This band always felt like damaged goods. Rarely more so than in this song.
Key lyric: Good feeling, won’t you stay with me just a little longer.

25. Keep Me In Your Heart – Warren Zevon – Zevon knew he was dying when he recorded this. A deeply moving love song to living. Good to end this list with a reminder that melancholy can be uplifting in its own way, right?

In the meantime, realizing that my mythology show fix was disappearing, I’ve been looking for a replacement.  Actually, I’ve been auditioning replacements almost since Lost appeared.  And I’ve been let down by all of them.

Lost began in 2004.  In 2005, there was a minor explosion of sci-fi shows with overarching mythologies.  I watched them all.  Surface was about the appearance of strange new creatures in the sea.  Invasion was about, um, strange new creatures in the sea.  Threshold started with, er, something strange hovering, uh, out at sea.  OK, so per the usual tendencies of Hollywood, there were a lot of people chasing after Lost’s out of the box success, from the cryptic atmospherics right down to the one word title.  None of the three shows really worked, though I did enjoy Invasion until they canceled it.  Threshold was the biggest disappointment, mainly because it seemed to have the most promise at the beginning (which actually will be relevant later in this post).

2006 brought Heroes, which was great in the first year and has been on a steady decline ever since.  It’s not a replacement for Lost, but given my tendencies to stick with shows long after I should abandon them, it appears that I am stuck with it.   (Jericho also was a brief favorite of mine in 2006 until it got cancelled.)

A couple years passed where either there were no mythology shows, or more likely I just had given up hope of ever finding another good one.

But now I find myself watching two of them.  I’ve already written about the X-Files doppleganger Fringe.  But the one that has the most promise — and therefore the most potential to disappoint me — is FlashForward.

The hook is simply brilliant and maddeningly expansive.  One day everyone in the world blacks out for exactly 137 seconds.  While they are all unconscious, each person sees what will happen to them six months in the future.  Then, everyone wakes up — except for the 20 million people who died during the blackouts — and has to live with consequences of knowing what is yet to come.

The show has done a pretty good job of giving us interesting characters who saw interesting things.  An currently sober alcoholic sees himself drinking.  A wife sees herself with another man.  A woman sees herself pregnant.  A girl sees herself being killed.   A man sees his dead daughter come back to life.  And framing the whole thing is an F.B.I. team that is investigating the blackout.

Eight episodes in, it is still intriguing.  Up until episode seven, the world was assuming that what they saw was guaranteed to happen, leading to anarchic and nihilistic behavior for some and irrational joy and hope for others.  But no one was living their lives in the moment.  That’s a fascinating idea that was being handled well, but was starting to get stale.  Episode seven brought an interesting twist that called into question that assumption.  One character’s action to prove that his destiny was not foretold changed the world again.

I like the philosophical underpinnings of this show.  The questions of fate and destiny.  But it clearly is not going to survive if it needs a reboot every eight episodes.  I’m just not sure I trust it to sustain itself.  After all, what happens at the six month point (which will conveniently coincide with the end of the first season).  Another blackout?  That’s what I expect and that would suck.  The show is hinting that there will be answers.  Already we’ve met two characters who were part of the “experiment” that caused the blackouts.  And annoyingly one of them keeps saying they need to tell the world and then doesn’t tell the viewers anything.

And right there is the problem with a mythology show.  It needs to keep its secrets to keep us watching.  And yet all we want to know is the secrets.  The key to a good show is perfectly calibrating the slow drip IV that feeds us clue after clue leading to speculation and intrigue without spilling the beans.  That’s why Lost is so good.  It has been dripping away into my brain for five years without losing my attention.  I crave the next season.

With FlashForward, I am curious, but also nervous.  I don’t see how it can possibly live up to its premise.  I don’t even see how it can get to a second season.  And with a mythology show, it is 100 percent about trust.  This brings me back to Threshold — remember I said it would come back.  That show started fast out of the gates, but within a few episodes it had gotten repetitive and frustrating.  FlashForward is from the same creative team.  Maybe they learned their lessons.  I do have to say that eight episodes in the show still has my attention.  But it has a long way to go to earn my trust.

Where the Wild Things Are is overall a film about the difficulties of being a child.  The raw emotions.  The painful need to confront the injustice of the world.  The uncertainty of being completely reliant on adults who you slowly realize are just people like yourself.  All of this hits home powerfully in the introductory scenes between Keener and Records.

But as everyone who’s ever been child (and therefore been handed a copy of the classic children’s book at birth) knows, the story is really about the surreal and magical time spent with the Wild Things.  There is a potent touch of danger and malice mixed in with Maurice Sendak’s whimsy.

In the movie, Max runs away from home, gets in his boat and sails to the island where the wild things are.  And that’s where the movie falls apart.  Jonze makes a valiant effort at imbuing the giant puppets that look wonderfully just like the book illustrations with personalities and life.  He is a unique filmmaker and the movie is imminently watchable.  Fascinating in the effort.  Though a bit unfortunately like watching a really well done student film that wears its themes on its sleeves and doesn’t quite tell a compelling story.

It is not even that there are missteps in the narrative, save for one strange interlude where one of the wild things introduces two wordless and fake-looking owls as wise friends.  But it is intentionally episodic and rambling.  None of this is surprising given the brevity of the source material, but having to say that is nothing more than an excuse for not making a complete movie.

This is probably a good place for me to place myself in the camp that this is not really a kids movie either.  Yeah, I’ve read the interviews with Sendak that essentially say that kids should suck it up and not be coddled in their entertainment.  I get that maybe kids movies these days are a bit predictable and tidy and therefore cheat children of a transformative film experience.  But I also remember being scarred by Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (with Gene Wilder) which was surreal and creepy.  I was not mentally prepared to process it.  And I think my kids would have the same problem with Where the Wild Things Are.  It is soaked in ennui and melancholy.  Every character and giant puppet is having an existential crisis.  It is very hard to come to grips with mortality as a child — and I don’t think kids need a movie that rubs it in their faces.

In his few films so far, Jonze has proven that he is not going to be predictable.  Being John Malkovich and Adaptation were both narratively and visually unique.  Both of those films were written by Charlie Kaufman.  In the past, I’ve given more credit to the writer than the director for those two successes, but I think that was unfair.  (And Kaufman’s huge mess of a writer-director effort on Synechdoche, New York confirmed this for me.)  And I’ll say that Jonze probably did a better job with Where the Wild Things Are than should have been expected.  It would have been a huge disappointment if it had been CGI’d and script doctored to make the kid cuter and the wild things into anodyne buddies.  But I suppose it is faint praise to say the film was less disappointing than it could have been.

Watching the credits at the end, after a very brief return to the brilliance of Keener and Records sitting in silence at the dining room table, what I really wanted was for Jonze to make a straight-up family drama for his next film.  I think he’s ready to drop the plot gimmicks that have marked his work and just tackle head on a story about real people dealing with real life.  Not much of a high concept pitch, but I’d go see it.

I’ll just warn you up front.  I’m about to take a metaphor about dedication to TV shows and long-term romantic relationships way too far.  Deal with it.

So, I’ve started seeing this show called Fringe.  I had heard about it for a while.  It has been on the air for a full season and last year I flirted with adding it to my DVR rotation, but I could never quite commit to watching it.  Then, it heard about the finale (and actually ended up watching the rather mind-blowing last scene with Leonard Nimoy).  When the new season started, I decided it was time to start a relationship.

Now, I don’t believe in casual entertainment encounters (and particularly one-night stands) with TV shows.  We’re not talking about movies here, which love you and leave you, often in a tidy 94 minutes.  No, this is television.  And when I decide to try something out, I’m hoping that it will last.  I want to commit.  This can be problematic and disappointing when I can’t quite break off a bad relationship (as I’ve discussed in previous posts about 24 and Heroes).

I’ve now watched the first two episodes of Fringe for season 2.  I can’t say I’m loving it.  But it is somewhat engaging.  But the real problem is that I think I’m watching it for the wrong reasons.  You see, Fringe feels uncomfortably like one of my former loves, The X-Files, and I’m worried that I’m just using it to get back that feeling I used to have for that show.

I’m not totally crazy here.  Even the producers of Fringe acknowledge their X-Files debt (and did so quite publicly by having an X-Files clip playing on a TV in the opening of the latest season).  Both shows are set in marginalized offices of the F.B.I. that focus on unexplained phenomena.  Both pair a supremely competent, skeptical and attractive female agent with a slightly off-beat male agent/consultant.  There’s an invasion lurking in the background mythology of both shows.  The creepy atmosphere and tone are very similar.  Both shows have a no-nonsense boss who knows more than he lets on and fights the powers that be to allow the office to continue its work.  Both shows have shadowy figures that pop up at exactly the right time to deliver maddeningly cryptic hints to the broader story/conspiracy.  And as far I can tell there are even some parallel ideas about shape shifting and super soldiers.

Seriously, there are some ridiculous similarities here.  Can you blame me for wondering if I can recapture the magic I had with that other show?  No, I know you’re not the same show, but if you just wore your hair a bit different and we turned down the lights … OK, that was too creepy.

I’ll be totally honest with you.  I loved the X-Files.  And it hurt me.  It hurt me bad.  I was not a huge fan of the monster-of-the-week epsiodes.  But if you really love someone, you deal with their flaws.  It was the mythology that I couldn’t get enough of.  Even when it became clear that the show was going to disappoint me by not resolving itself in a satisfying way, I stuck with it.  I’m loyal like that.  And then the X-Files left me with a totally ridiculous finale that made me wonder if I’d wasted the best viewing hours of my life.  I know that it was bad at the end, but I still miss it.

(I did see run into it again at a movie theater a couple of summers ago — it was awkward for both of us.)

When a relationship ends poorly, it is only human nature to try and find some closure.  The two episodes I’ve seen of Fringe suggest I might be able to do that through transference.  I know, I know — it isn’t the same show — stop saying that.  But Fringe even structures its episodes the same way as the X-Files.  The season opener was a classic mythology episode with a mysterious incident happening to our heroine and tantalizing hints at the broader conspiracy.  I had that tingly feeling I used to get — the pure pleasure that the show knows where its going and I’m going to enjoy the ride.  The second episode did nothing to stop me thinking about my ex — er, I mean X-Files.  It appeared to have been stitched together from a number of monster-of-the-week concepts.  Something mysterious underground killing people.  A parent protecting a bloodthirsty mutant child.  Seemingly bucolic middle American landscapes with something to hide.

Fringe, oh, Fringe, why do you tease me so?  True, your underlying fabric is about infinite alternate dimensions rather than myriad alien races.  But I can overlook that if you’re willing to continue pretend you’re the X-Files for me.  You know, when I squint just right, I can make your crazy scientist/mad genius Walter look just like any one of the Lone Gunmen.

No, wait don’t leave.  I’ll try to love you for you.  I promise.  We can make this work.

Just one thing.  Would you consider dyeing Anna Torv’s hair red?  No?  I know, my bad.  Forget I asked.

fun.

Yes, that is the name of this band, complete with the period at the end and a lowercase f.  Nothing says indie band like punctuation in the name.  And nothing says 70′s nostalgia throwback like a 7:51 minute song with melodic choruses and instrumental breaks and anthemic interludes and piano accompaniment.  Take Your Time (Coming Home) is an epic homage to the lighter side of classic rock, evoking Queen, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Van Morrison and others in such an enjoyable way that I actually feel like I’m listening to an incredibly satisfying final track on a rock opera LP on the inadequate turntable in my childhood bedroom.  (And for the record, that’s even more impressive since I was never really a big fan of 70s rock even in the 80s when it was still relatively new.)  But that’s skipping way ahead.  The album, Aim and Ignite, opens with Be Calm.  This is also a mishmash of influences.  It starts with strings that echo Pachelbel’s Canon (really) and then turns into Eleanor Rigby before finally morphing into the Dresden Dolls (and some Ben Folds thrown in for good measure).  Yup, it’s that odd — and that mesmerizing.  Between these most interesting bookends, you’ll find eight more solid tracks of mix-and-match rock.  I Wanna Be The One is ska-tinged Joe Jackson.  At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be) takes a little piano from Billy Joel, the horns from old Chicago, a vocal melody from The Jackson Five’s ABC and, here’s where I thought I had lost my mind, a touch of Harry Belafonte.  OK, there comes a point where making comparisons starts to get silly.  Particularly when I can layer them on as deep as with this album (and trust me these are just the beginning).  Most of all, however, these songs are just, yes I’m going to say it, fun.  I love it when a band that I’ve never heard of, not even in passing, turns out an album that I really enjoy.  If you’re looking for just one track to sample, grab the infectious All The Pretty Girls.  I’m not going to compare it to anything else despite the obvious nod to … oh never mind ….

Vampire Weekend

I spent a long time avoiding Vampire Weekend.  Unlike fun., Vampire Weekend seemed to be popping up everywhere a few months ago.  I had never heard any of their songs, yet they had enough buzz that I was pretty sure I didn’t like them.  (This happens to me sometimes, and then I need time to get some distance from the breathless fawning of the music press before I can give a band a chance, though once I do give the band a chance, I usually see what the fuss was about, such as with the Arcade Fire, and then I feel like a sheep, but a happy sheep listening to good music.)  So, with Vampire Weekend, I had pretty much decided to ignore them.  Then, I saw Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, which featured their song Ottoman prominently.  It’s a great song.  And time had passed.  So I downloaded their eponymous album.  Hello, my favorite new band (which is an often shifting target).  It is a little tough for me to find comparisons to make here.  Vampire Weekend has a truly unique sound.  It shouldn’t work.  Take the song One (Blake’s Got a New Face) — the title alone is a creepy sentiment.  If I was to consider the chorus uncharitably, I could describe it as, well, squalling.  And yet, it gets in your head and you want to walk around shouting, “Blake’s! Gotta new face!”  (Of course, the Bobby McFerrin vocal break in the middle is also cool — and that’s the last musical reference, I promise.)  Album highlights include Oxford Comma and I Stand Corrected, which both manage to bounce along amiably without feeling conventional or derivative.  And then there is M79, which appears to start out on a harpsichord.  You gotta love that.  Anyway, this album has me thinking that next time I see an overhyped band, I should jump on the bandwagon a bit sooner.