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Song of the Day #4,868: ‘No Other Love’ – Jo Stafford

Continuing my look at the filmography of Paul Thomas Anderson…

Anderson took five years to follow up his critically-lauded There Will Be Blood, returning in 2012 with the post-World War II drama The Master. Discussed in the run-up to its release as a “Scientology movie,” the film does take many cues from the life of L. Ron Hubbard in telling a story about Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), founder of a movement called The Cause.

But Dodd is a supporting player here, and the movie isn’t particularly interested in the origins of The Cause. The cult serves as the backdrop for Anderson’s real interest: the relationship between Dodd and Freddie Quell, a World War II vet who stumbles into his life.

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Song of the Day #4,867: ‘I Will Stay’ – Shelby Lynne

Which Random Weekend song will scare us on this Halloween morning?

It’s ‘I Will Stay,’ surprisingly the first song I’ve featured from Shelby Lynne’s 2003 album Identity Crisis.

Singer-songwriter Lynne toiled for a decade, releasing five albums, before having her breakthrough with 1999’s excellent, bluesy I Am Shelby Lynne. She was amusingly nominated for, and wound up winning, Best New Artist at that year’s Grammys.

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Song of the Day #4,866: ‘I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore’ – Carrie Underwood

Today’s SOTD is my fourth Random Weekend selection from Carrie Underwood’s 2005 debut, Some Hearts, and the second in the last three months. If it weren’t for Random Weekends, I would never hear a note from this album.

‘I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore’ is the record’s final track and the only one co-written by Underwood. It contrasts her new life of fame and fortune with her modest upbringings in the small town of Checotah, Oklahoma.

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Song of the Day #4,865: ‘Future Markets’ – Jonny Greenwood

If one film in Paul Thomas Anderson’s body of work will go down in history as an undisputed masterpiece, it is 2007’s There Will Be Blood. The movie showed up on more decade-end “best of the 00s” list than any other title, cementing its legacy just a few years after its release. Ten years later, its reputation has only grown.

This is Anderson’s first adaptation (the film is loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s 1926 novel Oil!) and his first film to not tap into his typical stable of actors. There’s no John C. Reilly or Philip Baker Hall. No Philip Seymour Hoffman or Luis Guzman. Instead, he joined forces with the legendary Daniel Day Lewis and 23-year-old Paul Dano to craft a story about two men battling for the soul of America in the 1900s.

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Song of the Day #4,864: ‘He Needs Me’ – Shelly Duvall

Punch-Drunk Love (2002) marks a clear dividing line in the filmography of Paul Thomas Anderson. It is unlike anything he made before or after, and it seems to have broken him out of old habits and helped him forge a vision entirely his own.

On the three films before this one, Anderson wore his influences on his sleeve, delivering his spin on the styles of Scorsese, Tarantino, Altman and Demme. Punch-Drunk Love is his first film that feels in no way derivative.

That doesn’t make it a better movie than its predecessors, necessarily, but it makes it a key step in the maturation of one of our greatest auteurs.

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