Tag Archives: Frankie Goes to Hollywood

by

Song of the Day #5,716: ‘The Power of Love’ – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2023
#8. All of Us Strangers

In recent years I’ve come to embrace imperfections in the movies I love. In the past, I’ve found myself rationalizing moments that don’t quite land, as if in order to treasure a film I have to first sand away any rough edges. Now, I’m quicker to say “that part didn’t work, but this is still a five-star masterpiece.”

What does that have to do with writer-director Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, you ask? Well, there’s an element of this film that I haven’t quite wrapped my head around. I really need to rewatch it to figure out how certain pieces fit together with the whole (I apologize for the vagueness, but I’m avoiding spoilers).

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,536: ‘Allergic’ – Post Malone

The last Album of the Year nominee I’ll mention is Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding. This is Malone’s second straight nod in this category, after 2019’s Beerbongs & Bentleys. I guess the Recording Academy has a soft spot for auto-tuned hip-hop inflected pop songs.

I like Malone well enough based on his media appearances, and a few of his songs have worked for me (specifically, ‘Rockstar‘ and ‘Circles‘). But a quick dive into this album didn’t impress me. It’s a lot of the same mid-tempo, moody pop you find in ‘Circles,’ but with less success.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #383: ‘Relax’ – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

frankie20 Best Songs of the 80s – #19

1984’s ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood has to be the dirtiest record to ever get non-stop popular airplay. It’s certainly the gayest. In fact, the video for this song (embedded below) was banned by both the BBC and MTV due to its mature content. Compared to the stuff MTV plays today (when it actually plays music videos) this is pretty tame, but I wonder if the gay themes would still get it into hot water even today.

It wasn’t just the video for ‘Relax’ that was banned by the BBC. The song itself was blacklisted after a DJ took a little time to actually read the lyrics. As always, the ban just made the song more popular and it rocketed to #1 on the charts as people rushed out to buy what they were told they shouldn’t listen to.

Continue reading →