Elvis Costello released two great albums in 1986 but then took a break for three years before releasing his next disc, 1989’s Spike.
Spike was the first Costello album I bought as a new release, and as such it holds a special place in my heart.
Looking at it objectively, it’s a bit of a mess, but this batch of songs was like manna from heaven for a young guy who had recently discovered a new favorite artist and was dying for new material.
This week I was reading Slate’s annual Movie Club, a back-and-forth between a group of critics about the year in film, and one of the participants made a point that really resonated with me.
Matt Zoller Seitz wrote, “I bet almost everyone who makes Top 10 lists looks back at them years later and wonders why they put a certain movie on a list when they can barely remember a thing about it.”
Boy, is he ever right. I’ve often said that I don’t really know how I feel about a movie until much later, and preferably after seeing it again (and, in some cases, again and again). But the nature of the ranking business has us assigning a position to a film usually based on one viewing within the past day, week or month.
Best Songs of 2010 – #6
Vampire Weekend had a huge 2008, when their debut album took the critical world by storm and their fresh, smart sound felt like something brand-new even as it reached back to 80s-era Paul Simon.
2010 was a different story, at least in terms of the hype. The band released their sophomore album, Contra, early in the year and made nary a wave, despite the fact that it’s a brilliant piece of work, expanding on and deepening the vibe they created on their debut.
This movie season I feel like an honorary citizen of Boston. First came The Town, a hard-boiled, authentic look at a gang of bank robbers in Charlestown. And now there’s The Fighter, an equally hard-boiled and equally authentic exploration of a pair of boxing brothers in Lowell. These are two of the best films I’ve seen this year and their setting is a key reason why.
The Fighter tells the true tale of welterweight Micky Ward, an introspective bruiser whose own family proved as formidable an obstacle to his success as anybody he faced in the ring.
But unlike a long line of small town dreamers who strive to succeed so they can escape their situation, Ward wants to win as much for Lowell as himself. The central conflict of the film is whether he can be a champion without abandoning the people and the place he loves.
Best Songs of 2010 – #7
Eminem was the comeback kid of 2010, releasing one of his very best albums, Recovery, following a long dry spell. That slump was due in large part to a drug addiction that nearly killed him and Recovery tackles that experience head-on.
But the album’s best song reached back to another of Eminem’s favorite topics — the (literal) battle of the sexes. ‘Love the Way You Lie’ is a portrait of a couple whose passion turns to physical violence. Perhaps tapping into personal experience, Eminem has always been expert at portraying anger fused with romance.
