The Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade: #6 Punch-drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)

Punch-drunk Love is Paul Thomas Anderson’s smallest film– it isn’t an epic, or a mosaic, it is a romantic-comedy, a miniature masterpiece that barely tops an hour and a half. It is also, arguably, his most sophisticated film: It’s a love story, but also a parable for a particularly modern malaise, a film in which [...]

Fire in My Bones: Raw + Rare + Otherworldly African-American Gospel

One of the most joyful, fully alive and inspiring albums I’ve heard in 2009 was actually recorded, in bits and pieces, over the past several years– in fact, its earliest recording dates back to 1944. The album is Fire in My Bones, an outstanding three-disc, four-hour collection of soul-stirring black gospel music. I reviewed the [...]

The Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade: #7 Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)

I fell in love with this movie right around the same time I fell in love with poetry, a connection that I can’t imagine being a coincidence. Compared to the typical multiplex fare, this is a different kind of movie altogether, and it must be watched in a different way altogether if you want to [...]

Landmarks: The Year 2008

I’m not going to give 2008 the full play-by-play treatment I’ve been giving the other years of the aughties, simply because, well, it’s still pretty recent– and besides that, my list of fifteen favorites is still available here. I do want to make just a few comments, though, and shine the light on a few [...]

Film Break: “Pirate Radio”

My review of the terrific new rock and roll movie Pirate Radio is posted at Christianity Today.

Rodrigo y Gabriela: “11:11″

Most instrumental guitar music tends to be about the guitar first, the music second; the demographic is like-minded practitioners, technicians who can readily appreciate the technical finesse and dexterous complexity on display, but not necessarily for the lay person who simply wants a melody, a beat, or a groove. Not so with Rodrigo y Gabriela; [...]

Them Crooked Vultures: “Them Crooked Vultures”

What, exactly, are we supposed to expect from a supergroup– especially one that includes not just one but two genuinely iconic rockstars in John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl, as well as an equally twisted genius in Josh Homme? I ask the question at the outset because I think it is bound to color the [...]

Norah Jones: “The Fall”

One could review Norah Jones’ fourth album, The Fall, simply by name-dropping all of its famous contributors– but that would be a bit misleading, and more than a little unfair to Jones. Yes, you’ve heard right: Jones co-wrote a song with Ryan Adams and another with Okkervil River’s Will Sheff; she enlisted producer Jacquire King, [...]

Live in 2009

Somewhere along the way, 2009 became the Year of the Great Live Album.
First, there was Leonard Cohen’s Live in London– a rich, vibrant, and often hilarious album that cherrypicks the best songs from one of the all-time great songwriters, matches them with cheerful stage banter and crisp full-band performances, and ends up being the essential [...]

Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen: “Inspiration, Information 4″

Tony Allen may not be a star, but he is a legend. In a career that spans five decades, the Nigerian-born drummer has quietly, without a flash of ego or a hint of anything self-serving, pioneered: As a sideman for the great Fela Kuti, he essentially created Afrobeat, and his influence looms large even today. [...]