Top 27, Part Deux

Part I is here.

Spoon, “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”
Britt, we still haven’t talked yet about why you agreed to score that weak movie “Stranger Than Fiction” and how, now, whenever I hear “My Mathematical Mind” or “The Way That We Get By,” I imagine Will Ferrell shaving and Emma Thompson pretending to chain-smoke.

Tim Page, “Parallel Play,” The New Yorker, August 20
“My second-grade teacher never liked me much, and one assignment I turned in annoyed her so extravagantly that the red pencil with which she scrawled “See me!” broke through the lined paper.”

Yo La Tengo, performance of “Nuclear War,” Museum of Fine Arts, Nov 15, second show.
Profanity, finger-tapping, Sun Ra. If only Ira knew, as one audience member requested, how to predict the stock market.

The Shins, “Wincing The Night Away”
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Both albums were out in January, which is why, I think, they’re being forgotten when this year’s top 10 lists are compiled. I’m not making the same mistake.

Johnny Rivers, “Last Boogie In Paris”
I’ve always had a weak spot for him, and this reissue of a 1973 gig is smoking.

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Read the book first to appreciate both how Julian Schnabel brought it alive on screen, and the way the artist-turned-director made changes to better tell Jean Dominique Bauby’s story. Stock footage isn’t supposed to leave viewers mesmerized, but I could stare at falling glaciers for hours.

Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”
The voice. The sound. The drama. Doesn’t she know how Donny Hathaway died?

Miles Davis, “The Complete On The Corner Sessions”
I’d love to write a long, reasoned essay detailing, track-by-track, why you need these nearly 400 minutes of early ‘70s jazz funk. But I’m too mesmerized by the packaging to say much more. The Fat Albert-styled graphics are three-dimensional, set in metal, and a fitting conclusion to Columbia/Legacy’s ambitious Miles box campaign.