Saturday, February 12, 2011
Song of the week: Paolo Nutini's "Coming Up Easy"
I bought Scottish singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini's first album, These Streets, back in 2006, on the strength of its singles "New Shoes" and "Last Request" and discovered the eventual single "Jenny Don't Be Hasty" as a highlight afterward. Sadly, nothing much else on the album stuck out to me. There was nothing unpleasant, but nothing exceptional either. I was at a CVS Pharmacy a month or two ago when I heard this great soul song on the radio. I wrote down a few of the lyrics in my phone and made sure to look up what the song was when I got home. I found out it was Paolo Nutini's single "Coming Up Easy", off of his new album, Sunny Side Up. I was a bit hesitant to buy the album, afraid I'd only get 3 good singles and some filler again, but I went ahead and took the plunge. Well, the album is a wonder, miles beyond what was on These Streets. Full of passion and nuance and a certain amount of unassuming ambition. At just 24-years-old, Nutini has made something of a masterwork. At the very least he's made the statement that he's a true blue artist and someone worth listening to, not just a guy who can write a couple of goods songs on an album, throw some listenable pap in there and call it good. But "Coming Up Easy" is still the song that lights me up the most.
It starts off in a relaxed sorta groove, B-3 in the background and a few horns giving a sense of soul. Nutini lets his accent shine through a bit, which is nice. Too many singers try to lose their accent, losing a bit of distinctiveness in the process I think, but that's another topic for another day. Nutini sings of a guy wavering on breaking up with his girl. His friends tell him he should, she tells him to remember the good times they've had, watching the sun coming up or laying out in the rain. But when the break comes is where my interest truly piques. The line that struck me while I was standing there in the pharmacy was "It was in love I was created, and in love is how I hope I'll die." The drums start building, the horns start blaring, and Nutini repeatedly and jubilantly belts out the line like he's Otis Redding. That last 90 seconds or so of the song are what drew me in, it's what keeps me coming back, and really it's the reason I picked this song as my song of the week. It's a great bit of a young artist nodding to one of his influences and yet making it his own. It sounds easy, but it can actually be very difficult to show your influences without simply stealing from them, but Paolo if flawless in his execution, I think.
I want to reiterate how tremendous his new album is overall though. And "Coming Up Easy" is not the only Otis Redding tribute on Sunny Side Up, the song "No Other Way" is an even more overt attempt at a Stax Records sound (and it's a great attempt). But Nutini covers a lot of ground, does it well, and gets me excited for his next album. I really recommend picking it up if you get a chance.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Song of the week: Cee Lo's "Fuck You!"
One of the few times I regret not keeping up more with pop culture is when a worthy part of it slips through the cracks and I don't discover it until later. Cee Lo's "Fuck You" came out in late summer 2010, was named as the best song of the year by Time magazine, and is up 4 Grammy's including Song of the Year and Record of the Year. It's even, apparently, been covered on the hit TV show Glee, although naturally in its censored form "Forget You!". I only heard "Fuck You!" a few days ago, and I have to say that it's the best song I've heard in a long time. Of course the title grabs the attention, but getting past it I found one of the best Motown songs Motown never made. Pumping with tremendous R&B bass and percussion, and skanking along with classic funk guitar, Cee Lo's amazingly distinct voice shines through, the rasp, the falsetto, and his humor perfectly in tact. Going into a song called "Fuck You!" one doesn't really expect lyrical complexity, and Cee Lo doesn't disappoint. Nothing groundbreaking here in subject, just a wronged guy giving the middle finger to his ex and the new guy she's going out with. But we're shown yet again why something doesn't have to be new to be great. We're treated to an absolutely perfect pop/soul song, an instant classic that'll be around for a long time to come. I won't write any more, since I'm on the late shift getting onto the bandwagon, the original video has over 42 million hits on YouTube, the clean version hasn't hit 3 million yet, I thought that was funny. But if you're even further behind the 8 ball than I am, here you go.
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control

Blood into Wine

Jesus Camp

Exit Through the Gift Shop

How to Cook Your Life

Babies

Super High Me

The Buddha

This Film is Not Yet Rated

Dick also shows the shadowy nature of the board and how none of its members' identities are released to the public, so he hires a Private Investigator to find out who they are. This section of the movie is fairly interesting, but I would've love if the whole movie were dedicated to examining the ratings themselves and the politics behind them and less on the "gotcha" kind of moments that this part focuses on. Still, it's a terrific movie and highly recommended to those of us who have been angered so many times over the years by the many idiotic decisions the MPAA has made.
Pressure Cooker

Doc crazy!
So, snowed in for the last week, my wife and I watched quite a few movies. We were in a documentary mood and really went through quite a few that we had on our Netflix Instant Watch queue. So here's a rundown of them.
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