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.

]]> http://mikelandweber.com/2009/09/vampire-weekend-and-fun/feed/ http://mikelandweber.com/2009/09/shall-we-dance-and-strictly-ballroom-and-a-brief-comment-on-how-i-like-phil-collins-cant-dance-2/ http://mikelandweber.com/2009/09/shall-we-dance-and-strictly-ballroom-and-a-brief-comment-on-how-i-like-phil-collins-cant-dance-2/#comments Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:10:43 +0000 admin http://mikelandweber.com/?p=546 Let’s just get something out of the way.  I can’t dance.  I’m not usually a big fan of watching people dance.  And I tend to get a little uncomfortable at functions where dancing might break out.  We’ve all got our things, and dancing most definitely is not my thing.

Maybe I’m just too self-conscious to let my body go.  I’m too tense to enjoy the act of it all.  I’ve got the requisite rhythm, more or less — I was a drummer back in the day — but my limbs just don’t want to feel the music and boogie down, so to speak.  (My seven-year-old son on the other hand has happy feet.  At the last wedding we attended he spent the entire time rocking out on the dance floor.)

So, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that movies about dancing just aren’t that interesting to me.  The new movie trend of attractive young people in difficult situations solving the problems of the team/school/community/world by having a dance-off don’t do much for me.  The old school flicks aren’t much better.  I have little patience for the movie musical.  Saturday Night Fever - blah.  Dirty Dancing - eh - (though I will watch the climactic scene if it is on cable to see if this time maybe someone will put baby in a corner).  With apologies to Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Beals, Footloose and Flashdance - not so much.  (Before you ask, I have also exercised a veto on watching Dancing With the Stars.)

So it is always a bit surprising to me (and yes, I do constantly startle myself) that two of my all-time favorite movies are about ballroom dancing.

Before Baz Luhrmann became world-famous international movie director, he made a charming little film about the Australian ballroom dancing scene.  It was Dirty Dancing redux - ugly duckling falls for dashing star, who teaches her to dance and realizes she’s beautiful - but it could not be a more different film.

While much of the plot is a cliche - let’s just say you know exactly how it is going to end - it is the way it is told that is riveting.  It crackles with life, borders on the surreal, and is funny as hell.  That, and it is one of the few movies that makes me tear up at the climax every time.  Anyone who has seen Romeo+Juliet or Moulin Rouge! knows that Luhrmann likes his visuals liberally sprinkled with jangly insanity.  With a limited budget, he achieves the same mania on Strictly Ballroom without making the viewer dizzy.

Where Strictly Ballroom is an oversized production stuffed into a too-small indie suit, Shall We Dance? is the very definition of a small quiet charming low-budget production.

(We’re talking about the original Japanese film here, not the better-off-forgotten U.S. remake.)

This is the story of stifled man who defies his life, ever so gently, by learning how to dance.  Of course, he is taught by a beautiful woman.  But this movie avoids cliche as deftly as Strictly Ballroom embraces it.  The love story is between the man and his wife, who is equally trapped in modern Japanese society.  The supporting cast is hilarious and poignant, including a flamboyant dancer who hides his persona at work and an overweight klutz who is learning to dance to impress his fiancee.

One other reason I love this movie is that it evokes strong memories of the year I spent in Tokyo.  More than any other movie, this one captures the essence of the Japanese people I knew.  The host family I lived with for a couple of months was similar to the family in the film, including the exuberant daughter.  The salarymen and women who are buttoned up so tight that they are prone to hilariously irrational behavior when given the opportunity remind me of the folks I used to teach English to and work with.  And the setting is not stylized - it is real Tokyo - not neon lights action movie Tokyo.  Layer on listening to the Japanese and I get nostalgic for a place I haven’t been in a while and may not go back to for many more years.

Both of these movies have lots of dancing and talking about dancing and the obligatory dance competition and then some more dancing.  And it is a testament to how good they are that I enjoyed them anyway.  (But I’m still not interested in taking dance lessons.)

That got me thinking about just how damn long I’ve been watching John Cusack vehicles.  I was entering my formative moviegoing years when he first came on the scene.  And he’s one of those actors who just never left.  According to IMDB, he’s been in 50 movies.  By my count, I’ve seen 34 of them.  OK, like any actor with a long career, there’s a lot of crap sprinkled in there among the gems.  But regardless of what I think of the movie, I pretty much always enjoy watching Cusack.

So, in my completely self-centered way, here is my retrospective of John Cusack’s most appealing career and what I thought of it every step of the way, including the 10 flicks that deserve to have must-see status.

Class - this was John Cusack’s first movie.  I’m pretty sure I saw it at a friend’s house on a videotape because it was the early eighties and we thought it might a teenage sex comedy with some nudity (which was a lot harder for thirteen year olds to come by back then in the pre-internet age).  I think we were disappointed.  No memory of Cusack in it (or actually of the movie itself).

Sixteen Candles - OK, it’s kind of silly to call this a John Cusack movie, but he was in it as one of Anthony Michael Hall’s geeky friends.  Still a movie I will watch anytime it is on TV.  So we’ll call this a MUST SEE Cusack movie with an asterisk.

Grandview USA — pretty sure I missed this one.

The Sure Thing — the year was 1985 and I actually had a date.  I took her to see this romantic comedy.  Cusack was so inspiring as a romantic lead that I made my admittedly clumsy move on the girl.  I was rebuffed.  Thanks a lot, John.

Better Off Dead — a wonderfully odd and surreal movie.  And really funny.  I suspect that this pretty much cemented Cusack’s rep as the quirky leading man that he still can’t quite shake.  I still smile at the thought of the paperboy pursuing him relentlessly for two overdue dollars.  Just writing this is making me want to see it again.  So it gets our first genuine Cusack lead MUST SEE rating.

One Crazy Summer — the team that made Better Off Dead tried to make lightning strike twice … and failed.

Stand By Me — Good flick.  Don’t remember John Cusack in it.  Oh well.

Hot Pursuit — Definitely saw it.  Definitely don’t remember it.

Broadcast News — See Stand By Me.  Same comment.

Eight Men Out — Holy crap.  John Cusack can really act.  The year is 1988 and I’m graduating from high school and Cusack is graduating to leading roles in movies for grownups.  Who knew?  For that alone, add this one to the MUST SEE list.

Say Anything — OK, so he didn’t completely graduate.  Cusack had one more classic angsty funny teenage romantic comedy left in him.   Only Cameron Crowe could have pulled off the cheesiness of Cusack holding a boom box over his head to win back the girl of his dreams.  If it had been any song other than Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes, that would have sucked.  But it didn’t.  MUST SEE.

Thus follows a five-year period where Cusack appeared in 11 movies.  The dude was a hot property in Hollywood.  The Grifters was lauded but I didn’t like it.  He had bit parts in Tim Robbins’ Bob Roberts and Woody Allen’s Shadows and Fog, but again I don’t remember him in those.  Seven other movies during that period don’t really merit a mention; some I saw, some I didn’t, all were forgotten.  Then, there was ….

Bullets Over Broadway — I believe this may have been the first time where another actor played the “Woody Allen” character in an Woody Allen movie.  And Cusack was wonderful doing it.  This is one of the last Allen movies that I actually enjoyed.  Scenes are stolen left and right by the likes of Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer Tilly, Diane Wiest and others, but Cusack rules the roost.  MUST SEE.

City Hall — this movie reeked of Oscar bait.  Um, didn’t quite work out that way.

Grosse Pointe Blank — Pure awesomeness.  John Cusack is back triumphantly.  MUST SEE.

Con Air — What the heck is John Cusack doing in this movie?  Nicolas Cage is suddenly an action star?  Huh?  Then, I realize that I’m really enjoying it.  Fun ride.  MUST SEE (though more for standout scenery chewing by John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi).

This is the point in the blog post where I realize just how long a 50-movie career is and start to regret my decision to review the whole thing.  But there is still good stuff to come, so I’ll persevere.  And skip some details.

Blah, blah, cartoon voice (Anastasia).  Blah, blah, best-selling book adaptation (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil).  Blah, blah, indies (Chicago Cab, This is My Father).  Blah, blah, prestige pics (The Thin Red Line, Cradle That Rocks).  Blah, blah, crap (Pushing Tin).  Blah, blah … hold the phone.

Being John Malkovich — there just aren’t that many movies that are so original in concept and method that you just stop and admire.  This is one of them.  Wow.  MUST SEE.

High Fidelity — following on the heels of blowing our minds, Cusack turns out one of his most enjoyable flicks as he riffs on music and love.  MUST SEE.

By now Cusack is an institution.  An icon.  And his choices for material start to betray, well, sorry to say this John, but a bit of laziness.  America’s Sweethearts, Must Love Dogs and Serendipity were all blandly harmless.  1408 and Runaway Jury were both relatively cookie-cutter and predictable for their genres.  Or maybe it is just that his smaller films that push boundaries a bit during this period, like Max and Martian Child, just didn’t quite work.

Still, I promised you ten must-see Cusack movies, so here’s number 10.

Identity — this movie is flawed.  No doubt about it.  The premise can easily be poked full of holes.  But it is still a doozy of an original premise and a tense contained thriller.  Cusack is the glue that holds it together, but Pruitt Taylor Vince should have gotten an Oscar nomination in the supporting category.  MUST SEE.

So that’ s the end of our John Cusack tour.  Ended with more of a whimper than I expected.  Come on, John, time for another winner please.  Wait, what’s that.  Looking ahead on his production slate.  Hot Tub Time Machine?  Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a winner.  See you in 2010.