I recently made a playlist (the modern-day equivalent of a mixtape) for my younger daughter, carefully selecting a series of songs I hoped would appeal to her particular sensibilities. I’m happy to report that she loves it.
One song on the playlist is ‘Ramona’ from Guster’s 2003 album Keep It Together, their fourth studio release. I settled on that one after listening to almost the whole album, knowing any one of its tracks would make a fine selection.
Once in awhile I spin the dial and land on a Random Weekend song that I’m (wrongly) certain has been on the blog before.
Such is the case with today’s selection, R.E.M.’s cover of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Pale Blue Eyes.’ This recording was released on the 1987 album Dead Letter Office, a collection of rare cuts and B-sides, and it has always been a favorite of mine. But while I have featured the Velvet Underground original, I’ve never gotten around to posting R.E.M.’s version.
My final musical moment from the films of 2023 comes from another movie I’ll discuss in more detail in coming weeks. This one is writer-director Ti West’s X, a slasher film set in 1979 and following a small crew filming an adult film on a secluded farm.
This scene comes about halfway through the film when one of the actresses, Bobby-Lynne (a delightful Brittany Snow), sings Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ while the group is hanging out in their cabin.
[WARNING: This post contains major spoilers for the movie Aftersun. If you plan to see the movie, I recommend doing so before reading this.]
As with several of the movies I’ve featured this week, I will be writing more about this one when I get to my top ten list, so I won’t go into too much detail here. But given that the scene in question comes in the film’s very final moments, it’s difficult to share it without exploring the movie’s plot and themes.
I wonder what the odds were of two of my favorite musical movie moments in 2022 coming from Jenny Slate. Slate is a brilliant comedic and dramatic actress whose work I’ve loved for years but I never knew she had the power to profoundly move me with her singing voice.
Today’s song comes from the movie I liked least among this week’s musical selections, but it may well be the scene I loved most. It appears in the forgettable romantic comedy I Want You Back, which features Slate and Charlie Day as new friends who bond over being dumped and vow to help each other win back their exes.
Meet Me In Montauk 