Let it Be is one of my least favorite Beatles albums (all things being relative, of course… it’s better than just about everything but other Beatles records). Some of the songs are just ok and the great songs have been over-produced by Phil Spector.
I’m curious about the Let it Be… Naked release of a few years ago, which presented the album without Spector’s embellishments, although I’ve heard that one is a bit disappointing too.
An Education is one of those simple, small, lovely movies that get a lot of critical acclaim upon release but aren’t generally remembered years later. There is nothing groundbreaking here, just a smart script, understated direction and a host of strong performances all in the service of a charming coming-of-age tale. If it seems like I’m damning the film with faint praise, well, I guess I am… I’m trying to work out why a film that does so many things right hasn’t really resonated with me more.
The script was adapted from Lynn Barber’s memoir by Nick Hornby, one of my favorite authors, and he’s on his way to a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination — deservedly so. The dialogue is witty without feeling written, the characters extremely well-drawn and three-dimensional. For a film with little in the way of driving action, it has a definite sense of pace and suspense.
Only two debut albums have cracked my top ten CD lists the past four years — Lily Allen’s Allright Still and Vampire Weekend’s self-titled release (and both wound up in the top five). I’ve discovered a lot of good music over that span but those are the only two top-ranking artists who were new to the rest of the world and not just me.
My music purchases tend to be by artists I became a fan of long ago… take a look over to the right and you’ll see I’ve bought albums this year by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan (twice), Elvis Costello and U2 as well as the latest by Neko Case (relatively new to me but she’s been recording for 7 years). I also purchased a Lyle Lovett album that I’ve yet to review or rank. The only relative exception is Lily Allen (again), who released her second album this year.
The Afghan Whigs were a band that came and went in the 90s without much fanfare. They received a lot of critical acclaim for the six albums they released over a 10-year period from 1988 to 1998 but never really broke through the way some of their contemporaries did. Their sound was heavily influenced by R&B classics, with front man Greg Dulli swaggering around like a modern-day Mick Jagger.
Dulli is a doughy white boy who carries on like a real Casanova. Whether his sex-drenched egomaniac persona is an act or the real deal, I don’t know. One track on the 1965 album purportedly features the moans of a woman having sex with Dulli but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a performance. The Beatles weren’t on a real yellow submarine, either.
A few weeks back when I featured Lyle Lovett’s music for two weeks, I mentioned in my write-up of The Road to Ensenada that I would feature its two best songs on the blog at a later date. Well, that later date has arrived for one of them.
‘Her First Mistake,’ the epic second song on Lovett’s best album, is the tale of a man who strikes out so winningly in trying to woo a lady that she eventually succumbs to his charms. It’s funny and sweet and it’s got a swinging, almost bossa nova, feel that sets it apart from the rest of Lovett’s work.
Meet Me In Montauk 