Oh hi, middle of January. It was time to do this 3 weeks ago. Alas, I had some priority issues over the past month – this blog being one of the things that had to go hang out on the back burner for a while.
So here’s my list of highlights from 2011:
Books
Music Some of these are albums and tunes I revisited this year, some are ones I discovered this year. Most were not new releases from 2011. Click albums to launch on spotify, the individual songs I listened to are all playable in that handy widget guy.
Albums
Songs
(in totally random order)
Movies
I didn’t see as many movies as I would have liked to this year. And I didn’t keep track of the older ones I watched (there were a lot of dvds from the library, netflix and hulu streaming this year). Here is a handful of movies from this year that I really enjoyed. I will do better keeping track in 2012.
And the next best thing to being there is watching it streaming live!
I’m a little late in posting about this, due to not having internet until today and thus missing out on their Friday lineup entirely!
Tonight I missed the New Pornographers and Gogol Bordello (but video clips should be posted in the archive tomorrow of what we’ve missed).
Mumford & Sons are playing right now. And then the Swell Season, Bright Eyes and Arcade Fire.
Tomorrow’s lineup features The National, The Strokes, PJ Harvey, Ratatat, Angus & Julia Stone, and lots of other bands I either don’t care about or am not cool enough to know about.
This is my version of a “best of” list, although I am very often listening to music that was no released this year. This year in particular, I was not actively discovering or trying out too many new releases. I’m not sure why, I guess I just was pre-occupied with other things. While I frequently become obsessed with new songs, it often takes me a while to warm to entire new albums.
Here are the tunes, albums and concerts that worth noting this year.
-The NationalHigh Violet. I saw them in concert this year and really enjoyed all the tracks off of this album. So it is likely I am going to get it and love it to pieces. I do need to take some time with an album though and really listen. That didn’t get a chance to happen in 2010.
- Sparklehorse Dark Night of the Soul. Last June, I listened to this album on NPR’s First Listen. And I LOVED it. It was, sadly, another that fell through the cracks and didn’t get the attention I know it deserves from me.
Top Five Songs (not in any particular order):
1. Islands – the xx
Whole album was brilliant. This song is the takeaway, craveable, I’m gonna need to hear that again track.
2. Home – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
This song defined summer 2010 for me.
3. Tightrope – Janelle Monae (featuring Big Boi)
This video. The dancing. Her hair. I mean, really… what’s not to love about Janelle Monae and this tune?
4. Norway - Beach House
I heard first heard a version of this that someone recorded and stuck online and it was a “what the fuck is this?” moment in all the right ways. The album version released in January didn’t disappoint and never got old.
5. The High Road – Broken Bells
Love at first “Come on and get the minimum…” This might not even be the best track on this album technically, but damn it, it’s the one I fell for fast and hard.
Honorable Mentions:
- Let’s Get Lost, Bat for Lashes (featuring Beck).
A song that was on one of the Twilight movie soundtracks, whichever one came out this year and consequently was overlooked. It’s excellent.
- Gold Guns Girls,Metric
Their first single of the most recent album (Help, I’m alive) was just ok for me. I wasn’t excited about it. And then I heard this track. This is the Metric I know and love.
Other songs that I discovered or rediscovered in 2010:
- Wake Up,Arcade Fire
Always liked this song, but didn’t love this song until I gave it and the album Funeral (2004) a real second listen after it was featured on the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are last year.Resulting in me deeply falling in love with it. The performance from the concert Terry Gilliam directed and streamed online(Unstaged), makes me cry.
- Rainbow in the Dark, Dio
I’m not a metalhead. I can appreciate a lot of Metal and find some of it incredibly beautiful, but don’t generally get in a mood where I want to listen to a lot of it. My brother and one of my closest friends have introduced me to a lot of songs that I wouldn’t normally have come across. This is one of them that really stuck with me and I listened to it a lot this year. Ronnie James Dio had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2009 and sadly, passed away this year. There are also several live versions of this song that display how his considerable vocal ability is even more impressive on stage then in any recording.
- Your Arms Around Me, Jens Lekman
I never really warmed to Jens Lekman. Turns out I needed to give him a chance or just find the right tunes, perhaps? I saw this one used in the beautiful pool scene in the flick Whip It and needed to hear it again and again after that.
- Oh! Sweet Nuthin, The Velvet Underground
I feel like Lou Reed and Bowie tunes are like visiting old friends or lovers and I will obsess over them, one at a time, for the rest of my life. I had a brief affair with this one in college. Again when it was used in the movie High Fidelity. And this year it just needed to be on every playlist or mix I made. It is timeless. It is seven minutes of heaven or perhaps another dimension made of coolness and rainy days.
- Every track off of Surfer Rosa, the Pixies
You know that thing that happens when you are like “Oh HEY, I haven’t listened to the Pixies (or the Cure or the Smiths or Joy Division or Yo La Tengo) in a while”… So then you fire up one of their songs and then pretty soon you want to do nothing but listen to ALL of their music and all of the music you used to listen to alongside them. For weeks. Yeah. This. This one in 2010. A LOT.
- By Your Side, Beachwood Sparks
I had never heard of this band. Which is sad because they broke up several years ago. I learned about their cover of the 90′s Sade love song while reading the Scott Pilgrim books. Bryan Lee O’Malley included little notes in the back cover of each book and this song and a note about the band was included on a playlist he listened to while writing the books. I loved it, loved it, loved it. I’m big into jangly music this year (see Edward Sharpe, see Beach House) and this mellow, sweet countryish cover out-jangles all. I was super delighted to see it used on the soundtrack to Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World for an excellent scene.
- Long Way Home, Tom Waits
Mates of State covered this song for their covers album Crushes this year and reminded me how much I enjoy it. So good. Belongs to the “good day, roadtrippy, jaunty Tom Waits catalog”. (You know, as opposed to his “gravel + heartbreak catalog” or his “weirdo banging on pots and pans in the backyard” catalog. Both also quite good.)
I don’t get out to as many live shows as I would like to. This year the highlights were:
- The National at House of Blues in Chicago. Terrible viewing, but excellent sound. They are very intense live. Really, really good show.
- Mates of State at the new Met in Rhode Island. This show was very underattended, but it was really fun. The Mates of State harmonies sound as fantastic live as they do recorded, their chemistry is sweet and infectious and they played nearly every track of Re-Arrange Us (2008) an album I positively adored.
Side Note: All hail the glorious return of the Met! A throwback to my teenhood, they reopened in different space and it’s wonderful. Tiny space. Great views. Great sound.
- Matt and Kim, also at the Met. I’ve been wanting to see these hyper, happy, crazy kids for a while. This was the perfect venue to see them. It was the last stop of their tour. They were on fire, everything you would expect from them live and beyond. Also, Kim Schafino is from RI, so her entire family was there and she stopped and told stories a lot. It was like a really big house party. I danced my ass off at this show. SO. MUCH. FUN. I should have picked up their new release Sidewalks at the show, but the latter part of 2010 was not so flush with the money. It’s likely this album will make my list for 2011.
See my follow-up post with a round up of links to other “Best of 2010″ music lists!
I recently wrote about how much I loved the scene in Deathly Hallows when Harry and Hermione dance, specifically the use of the song “O Children.” I’ve been wondering how that came about. Was the dancing scene originally written into the script and someone just thought of that song? Was it a love of the song that inspired the scene? I had a look around on the internet and came across a couple of articles with David Yates, Dan Radcliffe and Emma Watson discussing the scene.
From an interview with David Yates on a site called SheKnows.com (writer Joel D. Amos):
David Yates: [Writer] Steve Kloves said to me – we were working away in the office – and he says to me, “This might sound really weird, but I could see them dancing,” and the minute he said that, I said, “My God, you’re right, that would be great. Let’s make that work. Let’s try that.” And it’s a scene that seems to divide people – some people love it, some people absolutely hate it. I love it, that’s why it’s in the movie. I find it very tender, very funny, very moving. For me, it’s about them becoming grown-ups, growing up in a very painful way. I got a wonderful choreographer named Anthony Van Laast, and I know it doesn’t look very choreographed, but actually, it is. It was all about the awkwardness of the moment, letting go a little bit. I like the notion that they find comfort in each other when everything seems to be falling apart. It seems like a very natural thing to do — trying to provide warmth for each other as friends. For me, it’s a very special moment in the film – but I know it drives some people nuts [laughs].
SheKnows: And using Nick Cave…
David Yates: I needed to find a piece of music that was melancholic. It had to fit the tone of that section of the movie, but also lift you up, in a weird way. It’s hard to find that tone in a song. I had a chap named Matt Biffa, who is a wonderful music guy, send me lots of tracks from everything. I listened to hundreds of these things and I was almost giving up hope, and I thought, “Oh, there’s nothing quite like what I can feel in my head.” And then I pressed play and Nick Cave started, and I was like, “This is it.” My biggest fear was playing it for Dan and Emma, cause I thought, “God, are they going to understand?” Because it was important to me that they understand the music as well, that they felt it. So I played it for them, and it was my most nervous moment, and I played it for them and I was like, “Oh God, are they going to like it?” and they loved it.
I love the part where he says “For me, it’s about them becoming grown-ups, growing up in a very painful way,” because, as I noted in my previous blog entry, that is what the song essentially is about for me as well and it just fit so perfectly! He was so right on with this choice. I’m still kind of shocked some executive didn’t scrunch up their nose at it and say “really? Nick Cave? that isn’t marketable at all!” It would be like using Tom Waits in a Pixar film or something. It would be amazing, but surprising that they got away with it.
Mugglenet also has additional (and great) comments from Yates, Dan and Emma about this scene from the film’s press junket:
On the flip side, a small scene that was added to the film not found in the book was one where Harry and Hermione share a dance in their tent after Ron leaves. Yates explained how he came upon this song by artist Nick Cave:
“I listened to so many pieces of music for that dance, hundreds in fact, because I needed a piece of music that was poignant and tender but oddly uplifting. And I came across Nick’s piece and I loved it immediately. It has that capacity to lift you up and break your heart at the same time. So we found Nick Cave and he said he’d be happy for us to use it.”
Dan Radcliffe too was a fan of the song:
“When the Nick Cave song came on, I said to my friend, “That. Is the coolest Harry Potter has ever been.” And then my friend said “Yeah, but that’s not.” when I started dancing in the scene. It was something David made up on the spot pretty much, and Emma’s quite a good dancer, so I had to sort of muddle through. But Harry shouldn’t be a good dancer. He should be kind of crap, which he was. But next year on Broadway I hope to see a large improvement in that.”
Emma Watson agreed Radcliffe’s dancing was less than great:
“As much as I love Dan, he’s not a naturally gifted dancer. I think he knows. But it was perfect for the scene. It was meant to look silly and spontaneous. I love to dance.
Love it.
*photo credit to the Leaky Cauldron, where I found the promotional still in their galleries.
As much as I love film and have a great, great love for several favorite films in particular, my obsession and connection with music runs an entire level deeper. I am not exaggerating when I say the the use of music and excellent sound cues contributes so much to my experience watching a film, it often can make the most memorable moments for me.
I don’t know about anyone else, but the use of an additional song for a Harry Potter film came as a big surprise in a franchise that has largely been instrumentally scored. Even though I have appreciated many of the musical choices in the scores of the other films, the moment where Harry and Hermione danced in this film kind of blew me away. It was a really sweet moment to begin with, but additionally, the choice of song was unconventional and one that I really enjoyed.
I’ve long been a fan of Nick Cave. I’m drawn to his lyrical explorations of darkness and light, isolation, spiritual and religious iconography and themes. This song is no exception.
I thought I would post the full lyrics for anyone not familiar. This is a song about children being abandoned, lost, forced to grow up too quickly, having to navigate a dangerous and sinister world and having no one to trust. To me it’s also about freedom and survival. The potential of making your own way, remaking the world and finding small moments of joy in otherwise dire circumstances. I really can’t think of anything more appropriate to the story of this particular book and film.
“O Children”, from the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds double album: Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004)
Pass me that lovely little gun
My dear, my darling one
The cleaners are coming, one by one
You don’t even want to let them start
They are knocking now upon your door
They measure the room, they know the score
They’re mopping up the butcher’s floor
Of your broken little heart
O children
Forgive us now for what we’ve done
It started out as a bit of fun
Here, take these before we run away
The keys to the gulag
O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice
Here comes Frank and poor old Jim
They’re gathering round with all my friends
We’re older now, the light is dim
And you are only just beginning
O children
We have the answer to all your fears
It’s short, it’s simple, it’s crystal clear
It’s round about, it’s somewhere here
Lost amongst our winnings
O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice
The cleaners have done their job on you
They’re hip to it, man, they’re in the groove
They’ve hosed you down, you’re good as new
And they’re lining up to inspect you
O children
Poor old Jim’s white as a ghost
He’s found the answer that we lost
We’re all weeping now, weeping because
There ain’t nothing we can do to protect you
O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice
Hey little train! We’re all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We’re happy, Ma, we’re having fun
And the train ain’t even left the station
Hey, little train! Wait for me!
I once was blind but now I see
Have you left a seat for me?
Is that such a stretch of the imagination?
Hey little train! Wait for me!
I was held in chains but now I’m free
I’m hanging in there, don’t you see
In this process of elimination
Hey little train! We’re all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We’re happy, Ma, we’re having fun
It’s beyond my wildest expectation
Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We’re happy, Ma, we’re having fun
And the train ain’t even left the station
2. 
3. 
