Marissa Nadler, 2011

At the beginning, Marissa Nadler sounds like any other album that she’s recorded. “The Sun Always Reminds Me of You” is a step in the new direction, but not a big one. That step doesn’t occur until “Baby I Will Leave You In The Morning”. The second half also sounds the same, but with “The Wedding” and “In A Magazine” to provide contrast. This is the side with less reverb and like the early records it shows off her gorgeous vocals. All in all, this is a normal Marissa Nadler album. The only difference is less reverb and four new gems in her catalogue. Lovely and intimate, this is a masterpiece from Marissa Nadler. Stripped of some of the gorgeous production of previous records, she presents her elemental self here. And it’s beautiful. The ghosts of her voice are present for many of the songs, but a new element on many songs is the presence of her voice without reverb. Although there are many tales of woe on the album, it still has the warm presence of a compelling storyteller. Where previous records presented an ethereal maiden as troubadour, Marissa Nadler removes that alien aspect of her persona to reveal the woman we always knew her to be and she’s no less beautiful and amazing. It’s unlikely that a more haunting album could be found this year and there’s great pleasure in that Marissa Nadler has recorded it.

Sharon Van Etten: Triumph in Tramp

There is a very refreshing emotional frankness to Sharon Van Etten’s music. Her singing – from the rueful starkness of her first album, Because I Was In Love, to the exorcistical maelstrom of her latest, Tramp – is never less than commanding. Her early work is emotionally devastating in the way it utilizes a simple economy of means: methodical expression of emotional turmoil married to spare acoustic guitar. The lyrics dominate her approach to create drama where music is a background support. Tramp works in the opposite direction – to some diminishing return as noted by Ed Comentale – with volume and furor dominating the usual method of Sharon’s direct lyrics and singing. The furor in the singing here is a welcome development as the songs that benefit most from it (‘Serpents’ and ‘All I Can’) showcase her confidence impeccably. The anger in this album is not scorned or defensive. It instead functions as an assault on the hell that emotional abuse wreaks. Shadows and demons are given no quarter here. Sharon dispatches them easily, but the tension of that battle is how she arrives there to stand over them. Difficult progress as we listen, but not difficult to appreciate. The personal triumph is all hers, but the example is an inspiration to us all.

Skyfall

This was a lot more enjoyable than I'd expected. I've not liked Craig very much, but his scenes with Dench were great. I hadn't expected there to be so much of her onscreen, but it really balanced the film as well as added to Craig's struggle as an old agent needing to focus on his future. Ralph Fiennes was a welcome sight. I feel like Naomie Harris wasn't given very much to do - yeah, James, I get it: she's not a field agent - but she still worked it out well. As a great contrast to these cold, professional Brits, I have to admire Javier Bardem here. The man's elegance and mad charm really made all his scenes out as highlights of the entire film. The Oedipal side of his antagonism towards M and Bond was rather interesting, but I was impressed by how Bardem sold it. Roger Deakins stands very high in my estimation here. The whole film looked excellent, but I loved how he shot Scotland so gorgeously. I had been dreading sitting through it, but along with Deakins and Bardem on the ride the pacing hardly made this feel like it was almost two and one half hours. That title sequence was great as well. I might try to catch this again pretty soon.

Who is Virgil Webster?

I started to watch The Inside today. It's really quite good. What has impressed me the most so far is the character Virgil Webster. He is the federal director of a violent crimes unit and he works with his own agenda in mind, to put it lightly. What fascinates me is how the show treats Webster. The man isn't so very unpredictable as much as he's exceedingly calculating. This seems like manipulation, however. Here is where the show proves most interesting: he always withholds his motives from his subordinates. Or when they're revealed, they seem wholly opportunistic and dangerous. He makes these decisions so as to provoke the two other main protagonists, Locke and Ryan. When interacting with Locke, Webster seems creepy and manipulative. Locke is a genius profiler and Webster relies on her intuitive grasp of her demons to operate at peak level. Sometimes Webster will assign cases that seem to work to Locke's disadvantage. The show pushes quite subtly the dimensions of this dangerous game. The question becomes: who is using their power to what ends here? By all appearances, Webster has a callous attitude toward his subordinates. He sees them only as materials to shape to great ends. But are those ends in the best interests of the law and his subordinates? This is a key question to the show and one that is presented with a lot of dark ambiguity. It's quite interesting to consider given the themes of the show. Still, who is Virgil Webster? What is inside the man? This is what we're left to wonder.

The Visionary Company: Kate Bush and Claire Boucher

Listening to The Kick Inside this morning reminded me of the extent to which Kate Bush opens me up even more to Grimes. I had been thinking about the impact of Enya and Bjork on my listening to Grimes, but it occurred to me how much Kate Bush ends up guiding a deeper appreciation of the new artist. It feels hard to explain this appreciation without making it seem like I’m setting up a comparison or chain of influence of one to the other. It’s just that there’s this element of ecstatic and emotional summoning in Kate Bush that sets off for me the same recognition in Grimes. (I feel a similar recognition vis-a-vis Kate Bush in Antony Hegarty, Patrick Wolf, and Patti Smith.) It’s just that with Kate Bush and Grimes, the musical colors, emotional transitions, and imaginative spaces seem brighter, lighter, and sprightlier. This is just how I believe it reflects on The Kick Inside. I’m not sure if other correspondences would come to mind in other Kate Bush albums. This kinship between the worlds of The Kick Inside and Visions does not feel coincidental. Indeed, it feels like the same beautiful terrain that's been planted and harvested in two different ways.

Rosemary in the House of the Devil

I was thinking about two of the most effective moments of shock in a horror film and what came to mind both seemed quite similar. First, there's the dream sequence in Rosemary's Baby where she's impregnated. Second, there's the attempted sacrifice and escape that ends The House of the Devil. Both of these events occur in the film when the mundane reality and vague threat of the location has been established so well that the sudden eruption of both scenes comes as a major shock. The House of the Devil is very careful in this regard as an earlier scene indicated the underlying menace, but the film transitions to building on that tension with the greater atmosphere of the locale. Rosemary's Baby is especially effective in regards to locale as the claustrophobic hotel feels like a labyrinthine prison.Anyway, I thought of this particular shock in both films and was satisfied by how well each film brought them to erupt within its narrative.

The three faces of Barbara

Barbara Stanwyck is one of my favorite actresses. The Lady Eve is one of my favorite movies. I always marvel at Stanwyck's performance in that film. I marvel at how Preston Sturges was able to write such a character, but the way that Stanwyck brings her to life always astounds me. The film gives us a woman who is by turns romantic, canny, and imperious. Stanwyck blends all of it into one personality seamlessly, but with a careful change of masks that truly befits her character. The performance is never less than rich and insightful. She does so with a maximum amount of comedy as well which only helps make Eve all the more compelling. Stanwyck has never commanded my respect and devotion more fully than in this film. For her and for Sturges, it is a true masterpiece.