top 10 singles of 2018

Hi. Here are my Top 10 Singles of 2018!

10.

"Confirmation" - Westerman


Westerman's single is sophistipop at its finest and smoothest.

9.

"New Light" - John Mayer

I'm surprised how much I like a John Mayer song, but alas, "New Light" is tuneful and slickly-produced (those little drumclaps). Knowingly a tad corny but sincere as well.

8.

"Sylvia Says (Tensnake Remix) - Charlotte Gainsbourg

Pulsing, unabashedly Anita Ward-inspired disco remix by Tensnake of Charlotte Gainsbourg's "Sylvia Says" is blissful melancholic pop.

7.

"Dished (Male Stripper)" - Purple Disco Machine

Easy to get the party started with this balloon-synth stomper.

6.

"Shallow" - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

A unifying power pop movie ballad is welcome in any era.

5.

"Immaterial" - SOPHIE

A fury of drum-n-bass and staccato hits, SOPHIE's tune was one of the more exciting records of the year.

4.

"In My View" - Young Fathers

Edinburgh's trio Young Fathers' song, complete with its rich, mysterious lyrics, is confident and grand.

3.

"High Horse" - Kacey Musgraves

The reliably clever Kacey Musgraves' single of sunshiny daytime disco and crystal-clear country twang was a bright spot in the year. The imagery of lyrics is in real lockstep with the sound itself. I wish more country artists were as adventurous as her.

2.

"This is America" - Childish Gambino

Revolutionary tune and video package from Childish Gambino. The song has elements of farce, tonal shifts and booming trap--sonically and lyrically enveloping issues of racism and racial identity.

1.

"In My Dreams" - Kali Uchis

A tune, co-written by Damon Albarn (one of his best songs in years) that bridges between escapisim and reality, delivered with complexity and yearning by Kali Uchis.

Below is my favorites of 2018 playlist on Spotify!

And here's a look back at 2017.

sylvia says

This Tensnake remix of Charlotte Gainsbourg is soooo good.

Acoustic performance of original version below.

"it tastes like ashes."

Lars Von Trier films often thwart and redefine aspects of aesthetic beauty. The blue planet romantically called 'Melancholia' in his latest picture is both a sensuous vision and an apocalyptic terror. His twinned story follows Kristen Dunst as glum newlywed Justine and her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg).  Set in a rambling, remote castle of Claire and her husband John (Kiefer Sutherland), Justine awkwardly flits in and out of her reception in a stuffy white wedding gown and in a slew of events, loses both her job as an art director and her simplistic new husband (Alexander Skarsgård).  The second act focuses upon an unnerved Claire trying to take care of her depressed sister.  As Melancholia approaches Earth (evocatively photographed in the film's sans dialogue opening sequence), Claire becomes more and more rattled by the prospect of the extinction of life while Justine calmly waits it out.

At times creaky, Von Trier frustratingly purges many of his exposition's interesting plot lines and characters (including Charlotte Rampling as Justine and Claire's mother who rants against marriage) and centers upon the psychological fears of earthy Claire and the nihilistic Justine (similar, it seems, to the collision of the two planets).  Gainsbourg is the dramatic anchor the film needs.  While no one comforts her, including her cold husband, she sympathetically tries to ease her sister.  Horseback rides in the fog, a favorite dish of meatloaf ("it tastes like ashes") don't please Justine for very long. In a complicated performance, Dunst oscillates between downbeat grief and a sort of determined and confident anger ("The earth is evil.  We don't need to grieve for it," she bluntly intones to her sister).  Von Trier has said of her character: “She is longing for something of true value. And true values entail suffering. That’s the way we think. All in all, we tend to view melancholia as more true. We prefer music and art to contain a touch of melancholia. So melancholia in itself is a value. Unhappy and unrequited love is more romantic than happy love. For we don’t think that’s completely real, do we?”  Von Trier's handheld cam doesn't linger too much on the beauty of his actors or the picaresque setting (something out of a Vogue shoot; the golden-hued bridal bash appropriate for Vanity Fair) or the castle's crown molding.  The proceedings are even backed by Wagner's grand Tristan and Isolde overture.  But Von Trier isn't one for lush comfort, in effect, he annihilates it. ***


-Jeffery Berg

top singles of 2010

Happy 2011 dear readers!

Here are my Top 10 Singles of 2010.

Who were you feeling this past year?

1. Anyone's Ghost - The National

2. On Melancholy Hill & Rhinestone Eyes - Gorillaz

Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill from Beto on Vimeo.

3. Runaway & Monster - Kanye West

4. Rude Boy - Rihanna

5. Odessa - Caribou

6. Flash Delirium - MGMT

7. Lewis Takes Off His Shirt - Owen Pallett

8. Time of the Assassins - Charlotte Gainsbourg

9. Chinatown - Wild Nothing

10. California Gurls & Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

A look back at 2009's top songs.

the city of your final destination

James Ivory's film adaptation of Peter Cameron's The City of Your Final Destination is a quiet gem. The story concerns a college professor named Omar (Omar Metwally) who travels to Uruguay to the secluded estate of late novelist, Jules Gund who committed suicide there, in order to secure the authorization of Gund's biography from his family. He is met with resistance, primarily by Gund's guarded and bitter widow Caroline (a wonderful Laura Linney). Omar is somewhat naive and doesn't seem effected emotionally by many things. The project of Gund's biography seems more of a love of his stern girlfriend's (Alexandra Maria Lara) than of his own. However Omar is transformed in unexpected ways through the slow unraveling of details from Gund's eclectic clan: his mistress (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and their young daughter (Ambar Mallman), Jules's affable brother Adam (Anthony Hopkins) and his much younger boyfriend (Hiroyuki Sanada). The film thrives on its source material: Cameron's richly observed novel. The Gondola, the title of Gund's only novel, becomes a complex symbol of romance and of the Gund family past as it sits "rotting in the boathouse." And like Capote, the story wrestles with the ambivalent nature of writing about real people and the ones we love, whether in biography or fiction (which is the case of Gund's unfinished manuscript that casts Caroline in an unfavorable light).

One either loves or hates to experience the quiet elegance of an Ivory flick. Remains of the Day is still Ivory's masterpiece, moving leisurely along until it arrives to its sad, unforgettable conclusion. The City of Your Final Destination certainly pales a bit in comparison and it may test the patience of the viewer who wants more action but the film is such an acute character study, beautifully scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and so well-acted (especially by the supporting females: Gainsbourg, Linney, and Alexandra Maria Lara), that it's a joy to watch all of the interactions. Because the film is so carefully mounted, the changes the characters make are subtle but also thrilling. ***1/2

-Jeffery Berg

time of the assassins

A Charlotte Gainsbourg kind of Thursday.

yes she cannes

Lots of haterade went around for Best Actress winner Charlotte Gainsbourg's Balenciaga dress but I think she looks trays chic. She's my best dressed in kind of a ho-hum year for Cannes red carpet.