Musicians have long had a place in films, whether rock stars, jazz sidemen, or tormented composers. What follows is a selection of memorable ones taken from ten films. They range from drug-addicted cult favorites to ambitious hip-hop stars, from showtune composers to sidemen now living in small-town obscurity. What they share is a certain quality: a lingering sense that, if these characters were real, we’d want to seek out more of their music. Sometimes that’s accomplished through a deft performance, and sometimes via a writer or director who brings an insider’s knowledge of a particular style of music. In all cases, there’s something utterly compelling, and something that endures past the last frames of film.
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Whether a bombastic symphonic score or a collection of pop hits, we generally know what’s in store when we settle in for a night of watching movies. Some of the most rewarding cinematic experiences, however, come from cases where our soundtrack expectations are upended. Often, this can come from an unlikely marriage of songs to image; at other times, the choice of composer might fall outside of the expected pool. What follows is a list of ten films whose soundtracks don’t behave expected — and are all the more memorable for it.
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One of the small joys of seeing a successful film can be the seamless way in which the soundtrack complements the images and dialogue on screen. Whether an original score, re-purposed compositions from elsewhere, or a collection of classic or contemporary pop songs, many great films have been elevated by the music they’ve utilized. Think of Bernard Hermann’s brilliantly jarring score for Vertigo; the way in which Trainspotting underscored key moments via the songs of Lou Reed and Underworld; McCabe and Mrs. Miller‘s anachronistic yet spot-on use of Leonard Cohen; and Spike Lee choosing Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” to open Do the Right Thing.
What follows is a list of instances where that perfect blend of music and film hasn’t been achieved — where terrific songs have found their way into a thoroughly flawed film, for instance, or where a not-entirely-successful experiment in pacing and tone nonetheless is bolstered by a selection of majestic songs.
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Consider the acoustic change-of-pace. Sometimes, it comes from a desire to shift gears: a musician who’s worked primarily in an electric vein wanting to explore a different dynamic and all of the emotions that said dynamic can summon. At others, it can resemble an intentional artistic restraint: musicians or songwriters cutting themselves off from a previously essential part of their repertoire. Sometimes, entire genres can attract notice for turning off the amplifiers. Punk is a particular example, as seen on the 1991 compilation SST Acoustic, which collects work from the likes of Screaming Trees, Minutemen, and fIREHOSE.
This list of unexpected acoustic records covers albums made in the studio and recorded live; it encompasses punk and ambient work, cover songs and audio manipulations. These eight albums have little in common save their instrumentation and their relationship to the artist’s larger of body of work. Some fall into the camp of solo performers accompanied only by an unamplified guitar; others seek out a stranger space.
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Surreal, unexpected, and compelling: the ten albums that follow hover somewhere around the experimental/avant-garde divide, musically speaking. They range from drifting textures born from manipulated guitars and vocals to more traditional verse/chorus/verse arrangements that nonetheless threaten to implode into a squall of noise. What they share is a fondness for pushing into unexplored territory, and sometimes recombining disparate elements into a unified whole.
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The 2010 holiday season has already seen announcements of a Paul Simon song called “Get Ready for Christmas,” as well as a Target compilation headlined by a Best Coast/Wavves duet and contributions from Bishop Allen, Blackalicious, and Crystal Antlers. In other words: the abundance of Christmas music already out there is about to get even more abundant. But for listeners whose musical tastes stray away from the traditional, finding appropriate choices to spin whilst trimming the tree or setting the Yule log alight can be a difficult task indeed. Attempting to balance the musically esoteric with the varying sensibilities that can arise during familial holiday gatherings can be virtually impossible. (We have personally seen several December 24th arguments break out over the relative merits of John Fahey’s New Possibility.)
What follows is a list of 10 albums, singles, collections, and compilations that might achieve that balance between general accessibility and an intriguing, offbeat sensibility. These may be your best bet for holiday music to satisfy a wide range of musical tastes — at least, until some microhouse producer spins the dulcet tones of the Jingle Cats into bliss-inducing gold.
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There’s a reason that acclaimed authors of literary fiction, from Borges to Atwood, from Houellebecq to Moody, find resonance in the pulp tradition. Detective stories, science fiction, and tales of horror can inform and influence novels that seem to be more rooted in reality or mundane life. But some of the most interesting work occurs in the space between the two — novels and stories that aren’t necessarily rooted in one literary tradition.
To cite two examples not in the list to come: Kinglsey Amis’s The Green Man
manages to function as both a ghost story and a meditation on the presence (or absence) of God; Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl
smartly speculates on the geopolitics and technology of a post-oil future, but is also a small masterpiece of classical conflict and plotting. What follows are ten novels, past and present and forthcoming, that fuse pulp thrills with stylistic flair, and arrive at a place that avoids easy categorization. (Except, perhaps, “enjoyable reads.”)
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In recent years, reunions of well-regarded bands have become commonplace, occupying regular paths on the touring circuit and inspiring music-blog speculations as to which underground act will be the next to regroup. Rarer are the reunions, like Mission of Burma’s, that yield impressive, new creative output. At their best, albums made after a long absence can be essential: a restatement of what made an artist great, or a revelation of something fresh and unexpected.
What follows is a look at ten of the year’s most notable musical comebacks: some from recently reunited bands, others from long-dormant projects that never really went away, and a few from musicians bringing new outlets into the spotlight. They range from minimalist electronic music to classically-inspired post-rock, from autobiographical ruminations to three-chord punk.
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For certain sensibilities, editions that blur disciplines make more sense than one might think. Enthusiasts of the comprehensive cinematic sets released by the Criterion Collection, for instance, have found books beside their DVDs. So, is there a significant divide between the desire to see the director’s cut of a film and the desire to read alternate versions of Carver’s fiction in the Library of America-published Collected Stories?
In recent years, the pros and cons of print and digital editions of books have sparked more than a few debates, with each side boasting its own set of passionate advocates and agitated detractors. What follows will not address that argument. (At least, not directly.) Instead, we’re taking a look at books that are, in some way, enhanced — editions packaged with a complementary object that supplements the words printed between the covers, enhances the author’s themes, or provides a valuable point of reference for the work.
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Looking backwards for musical inspiration is nothing new, and some of the most interesting music can still come from fresh interpretations of styles that are decades old. What follows are five artists whose latest albums summon up eras long past, yet feel immediately vital. Prepare to make like Marty McFly and time travel from 16th-century Europe to 1970s London, and pick up five free (and legal!) downloads along the way.
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