Sex and the City - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Weezer - Weezer (the Red Album)
Tori Amos - Boys for Pele
Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild
Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
Johnny Cash - America
The Hidden Cameras - Awoo

[CD] R.E.M. - Accellrate
Stephen Thomas Erlewine For Allmusic.com

For years, R.E.M. promised that their next album would be a rocker, an oath to fans that perhaps made sense during the early '90s, when they were exploring the pastoral fields of Out of Time and the gloomy folk of Automatic for the People, but in the years after Bill Berry's 1997 departure, the desire of longtime fans for the group to rock again was merely a code word for the wish that R.E.M. would sound like a band again. Apart from a few fleeting moments -- "The Great Beyond," their "Man in the Moon" re-write for the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic, Man in the Moon; "Bad Day," a mid-'80s outtake revived for a greatest-hits album -- R.E.M. not only didn't sound like a band, but they seemed at odds with themselves and their very strengths, culminating in the amorphous, mummified Around the Sun, a record so polished and overworked it didn't sound a bit like R.E.M., not even like the art-pop outfit the band turned into after Berry's retirement. It was a situation so dire that the band recognized the need for corrective steering, so they stripped themselves down to bare-bones for 2008's Accelerate.

In every way Accelerate is the opposite of Around the Sun: at 36 minutes, it's defiantly lean, it's heavy on Peter Buck's guitars and Mike Mills backing vocals, its songs don't drift, they attack. Even the songs constructed on acoustics feel like they're rockers, maybe because they hearken back to the eerie, ramshackle grace of "Swan Swan H" whose riff echoes through both "Houston" and "Until the Day Is Done." This is not the only time that R.E.M. deliberately refers to the past on Accelerate, but reverential self-reference is the whole idea of this project: they're embracing their past, building upon the legacy and the very sound of such underground rock landmarks as Lifes Rich Pageant and Document. Not that this album could be mistaken for an exhumed classic from the '80s: Michael Stipe's lyrics are forthright and never elliptical, and the same could be said about the music, as it's sonically streamlined and precise, hallmarks of a veteran band. One of the benefits of being veterans is knowing how to create a record this focused, and Accelerate benefits greatly from its concentrated blast of guitars, as the brevity of the album makes R.E.M. seem vital even as they're dredging up the past. By no longer denying the jangle and pop that provided a foundation for the group's success, they sound like a band again.

Such praise dangerously threatens to oversell Accelerate, however, suggesting that the album has either the unearthly mystique of Murmur or the ragged enthusiasm of Reckoning when it has neither. This is a careful, studied album from a band that knew they were on the brink of losing their audience and, worse, their identity. Accelerate finds R.E.M. attempting to reconnect with their music, with what made them play rock & roll in the first place, instead of methodically resurrecting a faded myth. They reconnect handsomely, creating an album the can stand next to work from their peers, like Dinosaur Jr.'s exceptional comeback Beyond and Sonic Youth's casually vital Rather Ripped (whose "Incinerate" reverberates in the dissonant open-ended "Accelerate"). As comebacks go, that's relatively modest, but the very modesty of Accelerate is what makes it such a successful rebirth as R.E.M. no longer denies what they were or what they are, and, in doing so, they offer a glimpse of what they could be once again.

[DVD] In Bruges
Reviewed by Jarad I. Wilk for cinemablend.com

In Bruges is one of those small movies that will keep you skeptical up until the point you stick it in your DVD player. It's a movie with some top-notch talent - Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes and Brendan Gleeson - giving superb, proanity-laced performances (the F-word and all its derivatives are said more than 125 times in this 117 minute film), in one of those movies that you and your friends probably have never heard of and may not rush to give it a chance. The truth is, if you give it a chance, you will find a quirky and dark, yet insightful and hysterical gangster film that has the right amount of drama, comedy, and bloodshed and will leave you thinking at the very end.

Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson) are two hitmen who just completed a difficult job where Ray accidentally kills a child. Their boss, Harry (Fiennes), a family man who happens to be in the business of killing people, is not happy with the results of the hit, so he holes them up in Bruges, Belgium - which could be the last destination for one of the men. The two men spend their days in the medieval city sightseeing and visiting local pubs, like regular tourists. As Ken enjoys all the town has to offer, Ray hates it and continuously breaks into profance rants about fat people, midgets, Vietnamese people - often while drinking, snorting cocaine, and dropping ecstacy, but also while being 100 percent sober. While all this is going on, Ray also finds love in a woman named Chloe (Clemence Poesy), who actually tries to rob him, and befriends a midget actor named Jimmy (Jordan Prentice).

I have never been a huge Colin Farrell fan, but I must admit, the character of Ray plays to his abilities perfectly. He was allowed to use his natural Irish accent and profanity-laced vocabulary to his advantage. Farrell shows great range, going from a fun-loving stereotype-swirling guy in love, to a suicidal man ready to leave his life behind because the memory of a small child lying in a pool of blood continues to haunt him. Farrell, despite the profanity and violent nature (he hits a couple in a restaurant after they complain of his girlfriends smoking), gives his character a lot of heart - an unexpected thing for an apparently coldblooded killer to have. The same goes for Gleeson. He gives his character an even bigger heart and, while his views often differ from those of Ray, the two not only get along but Ken seems like a fatherly figure in a way, always looking out for Ray's best interests. They truly are the heart of the movie, and while some of their scenes may seem to drag, they all lead to an ending that will give you closure and hope that there is understanding in this world.
It also doesn't hurt that you have a fine actor like Ralph Fiennes as the antagonist of the story. He may not have a lot of on-screen time, but his presence is always felt, leading up to the portion of the film where he has a more prominent role - including several gunfights that are both exciting and funny.

Writer/director Martin McDonagh does an excellent job of weaving these characters together (both in his direction and writing) in this unusual gangster film that includes Ray karate-chopping Jimmy (the midget) in the presence of Belgian prostitutes while snorting lines of cocaine and arguing about what religions or creeds would join a race war between whites and blacks, or letting a fat guy chase him around the town square after telling him he and his two fat companions would die of a heart attack trying to climb the stairs of the bell tower. If that doesn't tell you how much this is truly an off-the-wall tale, I don't know what will. The amazing thing is, everything fits together perfectly, from the town to the characters to the story itself, that the blood and unpleasantness will not register in that, "Ewww, that's disgusting" way. While Bruges may not seem like much on the outside, once you're In Bruges, everything will come together if you give it a chance.

[CD] Volumn 1 – She and Him
Stephen Tim Sendra For Allmusic.com

She is actress Zooey Deschanel, Him is alt-singer/songwriter M. Ward. The two met on the set of a movie, found some musical common ground, and began working together. Volume One is the resulting album and it's one of the better albums ever made by a movie star, male or female. Good enough that it even heads off the obligatory suspicions that she only got to make a record because she was a Hollywood star. After a few spins of the album one could make a compelling case that Deschanel could quit her day job, or at least justifiably call herself an actress/musician. The common ground that the duo found and explore on Volume One is a kind of magical place where light-'60s pop meets strummy country tunes and candy-coated folk, a mythical meeting place between Sandie Shaw and Tammy Wynette with cameos by Richard & Linda Thompson.

Deschanel's songs are simple and sad tales of heartbreak and missed connections, with hooky melodies and not a single artless moment to be found. For sure there's not a single instance that sounds like she got the gig because of who she is, instead of what she can do. Even if her songs were weak, her strong, assured vocals would carry the day. Sweet and rich with no annoying folky warble, she can croon ("Take It Back"), cry ("Sentimental Heart"), be playful (the bubblegum snappy "I Was Made for You"), or just sweep you off your feet with sweetness ("Sweet Darlin'," which she co-wrote with another artist who overcomes his Hollywood roots, Jason Schwartzman). As for Ward, he keeps his quirks mostly to himself, providing sympathetic backing unadorned by the kind of tricks and gimmicks that make his own albums slightly uneven. The occasional whistle here or slightly unconventional string arrangement there are the only traces of his artistry on Volume One.

The rest of the time he and the band (which includes the ubiquitous Mike Mogis) create a soft, gentle feel equally inspired by the Brill Building and the Countrypolitan sound of Nashville in the late '50s. The only place the album falters is on the two covers the duo attempt. Deschanel doesn't add much to "You Really Got a Hold on Me," and Ward's backing vocals are just the kind of affected, arch singing she avoids elsewhere. Their take on the Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better" is better but still awfully close to a novelty. The album would have been more successful without both tracks, but even with them stands as a lovely coming out party for Deschanel. If you run screaming at the thought of singing actresses, give She & Him a chance and it might calm your fears.

You may even forget the origins of the singer and simply be charmed by the singing, the songs, and the sounds found on Volume One.

[DVD] Darjeeling Limited
Reviewed by Rafe Telsch for cinemablend.com