By default it is currently thrash metal staple Overkill's Ironbound. Soon to be released, this album features mostly clean vocals over epic and intricate thrash metal. It's easily my favorite record from Overkill, who've been around since around 1980, the beginning of the sub-genre.
Will it be record of the year? I'd surely hope not. But this great album gives me hope for some more fantastic music in the year to come.
The coming month alone sees releases from folk rockers Nana Grizol, tribal dance post-punk outfit These New Puritans, and dreamy pop group Beach House.
Sherlock Holmes
Yeah, I thought it was awesome. An immersive and detailed world, fantastic performances and chemistry from its two male leads, intelligent, if slightly over-plotted writing, and an adherence to the spirit of Doyle's classic character. It's dark, funny, and massively entertaining. It's no game changer or masterpiece, but it's a fine achievement in Blockbuster filmmaking.
Oh, and it features the best score I heard in 2009. (Ihaven't seen Moon. Clint Mansell is usually the man)
Up in the Air
Awesome? Not so much. It's all finely acted and stuff, but without much meat. Clooney's a character from frame one we know has to change, so he does. Vera Farmiga is fantastic as a character we see has a reveal coming late in the film. Anna Kendrick is good as the character who's supposed to help George Clooney change.
Why? Why is Clooney the emotionally damaged man that he is? His family shows no signs of being broken in any way at all. We get nothing. He's just a fucking creep weirdo that we end up liking because Clooney is that fucking charming. And those testimonials at the beginning and end of real people who've been fired? Why is it necessary. We've got the whole movie giving us a message, so Jason Reitman throws these at us, really forcing it down.
Third act? Feels like a different movie. Something more connected to the story we've been watching for the past 80 minutes should have occurred in what did happen's stead. But we got Danny McBride giving a nicely restrained performance, being funny while letting Clooney be the center of attention.
Still, enjoyable in places. I just have a problem seeing anything under the surface of this film.
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Dude, I agree with you completely. While I thought the film was good, even very good at points, it did seem to have strangely didactic underpinnings.
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