Monthly Archives: December 2009

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Fantastic Mr. Fox

I’m intrigued by the critical reception to Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel, Fantastic Mr. Fox. It currently sits at 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes scale, with 100% of the ‘Cream of the Crop’ critics reviewing it positively. It is by far the best-reviewed film of Anderson’s career.

I don’t disagree with those critics — on the contrary, I love the film — but I wonder why it’s this film and not, say, Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums that has garnered such praise. Is it because of a built-in forgiveness toward quality animated films or children’s films that elevates any of them that are different and better than the norm?

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Song of the Day #497: ‘Right About Now’ – Ron Sexsmith

If I were to give an award to the most consistent performer in my music collection, I’m pretty sure it would go to Ron Sexsmith. He’s released seven or eight solo albums now and there isn’t a bad song on any of them.

He’s so consistent, in fact, that if you were to play me one of those songs I would have a hard time naming which album it’s on. It’s as if he sat down and recorded 100 expertly crafted gems and then listed them in random order and assigned twelve at a time to different albums.

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Song of the Day #496: ‘Say Goodbye’ – Dave Matthews Band

I’m largely indifferent to Dave Matthews Band these days but years ago, after the release of Crash, I thought they were just about the best thing going. Under the Table and Dreaming, the album that first earned them mainstream success, was fresh and exciting and unlike anything I’d heard before, but Crash took their sound to a whole new level.

That album has one of the best opening lineups of all-time, with the art-funk of ‘So Much To Say’ segueing into the jazz hoedown of ‘Two Step’ all leading up to the gorgeous beyond words ‘Crash Into Me.’

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Song of the Day #495: ‘Go Your Own Way’ – Fleetwood Mac

I have pretty much nothing to say about this song other than that I love it. I suppose that was bound to happen 495 songs into this little endeavor. I just hope it doesn’t start happening more often.

I thought of Fleetwood Mac recently when John Mayer talked about their influence on one of his new songs and, as usually happens when I think about Fleetwood Mac, I remembered how much I love their stuff. And I don’t think I need much more of an excuse than that to feature them on the blog.

So here’s one of my favorite songs from the classic Rumours album.

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