Ah, romance! The world may be falling apart but that doesn’t mean people still can’t find time for love, reconciliation and maybe even a bright and hopeful future. There’s a definite brink-of-disaster underpinning to many of the releases under scrutiny this month, and such underlying tension can only mean one thing: Great artistic rewards for the studious listener. So listen up and enjoy – because who knows when that sky’s finally going to fall?

+ Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare
+ Battles: Mirrored
+ Björk: Volta
+ Cornelius: Sensuous
+ The Field: From Here We Go Sublime
+ The National: Boxer
+ Patrick Wolf: The Magic Position

(more…)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Gore Verbinski, USA, 2007
Rating: 2.8

Give the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise this much credit, at least: It’s proven clever in its appropriation of character names and plot elements from disparate outposts of piratical and seafaring mythology, from the Flying Dutchman to the Kraken to Davy Jones’ locker to the Kraken. Andbecause the thing does have the word “Caribbean” right there in the title, it’s wisely thrown in a stereotypical voodoo priestess, to boot. But save for the occasional Jolly Roger or walking-the-plank reference, the series has turned a blind eyepatch to a crucial piece of freebooting lore – namely, that pirates are, well, pirates.

(more…)

Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
Nonesuch, 2007
Rating: 4.4

Musically, Sky Blue Sky, Wilco’s sixth studio release, is organic and liberated-sounding; lyrically, it continues to explore the themes of alienation and ambiguous communication that have concerned chief lyricist/singer Jeff Tweedy throughout the malleable band’s hurly-burly history. That Sky Blue Sky is among the most sonically unified sets in the Wilco catalog is a credit to the current lineup, born out of the touring players supporting 2004’s uneven A Ghost Is Born. Guitarist Nels Cline and utility man Pat Sansone especially shine throughout Sky Blue Sky, adding funkily emboldened touches to the folksy foundation on which the bulk of these songs rest.

(more…)

 If you’re into comic-book movies (and who isn’t these days?), you’ve probably already seen the clever “Hi, I’m a Marvel …” videos (parodying those increasingly annoying Mac/PC commercials) circulating around the Internet. They started a couple of months ago, but have been getting more and more attention lately, what with the release of Spider-Man 3. Anyway, it’s funny stuff.  

But the best humor always carries with it the cold bite of hard truth. To wit: Why is Marvel kicking DC’s butt so thoroughly in the superhero-movie sweepstakes?

(more…)

A poll conducted by ESPN and ABC News finds that 52 percent of baseball fans hope Barry Bonds doesn’t break the home-run record of 755 set by Hank Aaron in 1974. No surprise there — if there’s a more polarizing figure in any sport these days, I’d be hard-pressed to name him or her. The poll also finds that black fans are more than twice as likely as whites to root for Bonds — 74 percent to 28 percent. And 37 percent of black fans believe Bonds used steroids (compared to a whopping 76 percent of whites).

(more…)

Spider-Man 3
Sam Raimi, USA, 2007
Rating: 2.8

There’s a Saturday Night Live sketch from several years back that kept popping into my head during Spider-Man 3. It’s one of those Inside the Actors Studio bits with Well Ferrell, and to hammer home the impression of host James Lipton as a bombastic toady, guest host Tobey Maguire plays Dustin Diamond – that’s right, Screech from Saved by the Bell – as a developmentally arrested man-child whom Lipton, of course, treats like royalty.

Whether intentionally or not, Maguire pretty much recycles that performance for Spider-Man 3. The actor did a pretty decent job of conveying Peter Parker’s nerdy likeability in the first movie, but here he portrays Parker as a kind of cinematic descendent of Forrest Gump and Lennie from Of Mice and Men. His doughy features arranged into a constant mask of childlike wonder, he spends the first third or so of the movie walking around in a cloud of dopey obliviousness.

(more…)

The Watchman
Robert Crais
Simon & Schuster, 2007
Rating: 4.2

After years spent chronicling the exploits of wisecracking detective Elvis Cole, Robert Crais finally turns his attention to Cole’s enigmatic partner, Joe Pike. Just as Crais’ last two Cole novels, The Last Detective and The Forgotten Man, explored that character’s psyche and back story in illuminating detail, The Watchman peels back the curtain to provide a look at the inner workings of his tightly controlled friend. And just as those books (and non-Cole works like Demolition Angel and The Two-Minute Rule) did, it showcases Crais’ ever-evolving skill as a crafter of compelling character studies as well as urgently paced thrillers. In fact, after more than twenty years, it reveals Crais at the peak of his powers in both arenas.

(more…)

From the Baffling Ideas That Just Might Work Desk comes news that Antwan “Big Boi” Patton of OutKast is set to collaborate with the Atlanta Ballet for a work to be performed next April. According to the ballet company’s site, it will also include artists from Big Boi’s Purple Ribbon label. I’m sure it’ll be interesting (being an Atlanta resident, I’ll probably go).

But one shudders to think of the ramifications should this become a hip-hop trend. Anyone for ballet versions of The Blueprint or Kingdom Come – or even The Grey Album? An interpretive dance program based on Get Rich or Die Tryin’, a la the Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp musical Movin’ Out? Or worse yet, a new reality show where Flavor Flav auditions dancers for his new modern dance troupe? “Hit me up with a pas de deux, boy-ee!”

By now you’ve probably heard that Courtney Love intends to auction off the effects of her late husband Kurt Cobain. In a recent interview she described her house as “a mausoleum” and says she still wears Cobain’s pajamas to bed. “How am I ever going to go form another relationship in my lifetime wearing Kurt’s pajamas?” she asks.

(more…)

From the It Was Only A Matter of Time Desk comes a report that a book collecting Sting’s song lyrics will be released this fall, entitled (simply enough) Lyrics by Sting. “Over time, the meaning of a song can continue to reveal itself,” his lordship says in a press release. 

Nothing against Sting’s body of work, seriously, but I think we’ve pretty much absorbed everything there is to be mined from grandiose lyrics like those to “Synchronicity” (parts one and two) or “Russians” or “Love is the Seventh Wave” or “Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot” or … you get the idea.

(more…)