by

Song of the Day #916: ‘Fuck You’ – Cee Lo

Best Songs of 2010 – #3

If it weren’t for a couple of sublime releases by two of my favorite artists, today’s song would have been an easy pick as song of the year.

It’s just so bright and fun and exciting… it’s like a great big neon Vegas sign in the middle of a drab suburban strip mall.

Of course the elephant in the room with this song is its profane chorus (and title). It’s as if Cee Lo wrote the catchiest song in decades, was poised for superstardom, and then decided to flush it all down the drain by guaranteeing the song would never get played on radio or TV.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #915: ‘Runaway’ – Kanye West

Best Songs of 2010 – #4

This is probably the most talked about and praised song on the most talked about and praised album of 2010. And it’s a testament to what Kanye West has done here that he’s able to transcend that tremendous hype.

I do consider My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy overrated, but that’s because it couldn’t possibly have been rated higher than it was. I don’t believe I’ve seen a top ten list yet that didn’t have this album perched at number one.

Continue reading →

by

True Grit

Every couple of years (and more often than that lately), the Coen Brothers release another film that cements their place among America’s finest and most consistent filmmakers. Recently, on the heels of 2007’s Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men, they released the hilarious screwball comedy Burn After Reading and last year’s brilliantly dark Book of Job-inspired A Serious Man.

In 2010, they return with True Grit, not so much a remake of the 1969 John Wayne classic, they say, but a more faithful adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel. Having neither seen the original film nor read Portis’ novel, I’m in a position to judge the Coens’ film simply on its own merits.

The verdict: it’s sublime.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #914: ‘The Ghost of Rockschool’ – Belle & Sebastian

Best Songs of 2010 – #5

For 15 years, Belle & Sebastian have been releasing albums chock full of literate, gorgeous pop music. They’ve recorded so many string-and-horn embellished soft rock songs that it’s hard to believe there’s a melody or a trumpet solo out there that they haven’t hit on yet.

But in 2010 they did it again. Their latest album, Write About Love, features a handful of tracks as good as anything the band has put out over the past decade. Par for the course.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #913: ‘Chewing Gum’ – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello’s Spike features quite a few political songs — including the capital punishment commentary of ‘Let Him Dangle’ and the anti-Thatcher ‘Tramp the Dirt Down’ — and the personal songs are pretty dark.

Even ‘Veronica,’ the jaunty minor hit co-written with Paul McCartney, is about an elderly woman who has seen her identity stripped away while living out her final days in a nursing home.

So while Costello is dressed as a clown on the album’s cover, he’s most decidedly a sad clown.

Continue reading →