What we're listening to: Glee. Volume 4: The Music

NEW CD-MUSICAL ST VARIOUS GLEE
Find it in the catalog!

Glee. Volume 4 includes songs performed by McKinley High glee club New Directions from the first part of season 2, with the exception of songs from the Rocky Horror and Christmas episodes. On this CD you'll find three Britney Spears covers from the "Britney/Brittany" episode: "Me Against The Music," "Stronger," and my favorite, "Toxic." Although I was quite excited for Glee to cover Britney, I thought their versions (and the performances in the episode itself) stuck too close to the originals. I thought that only "Stronger," featuring Kevin McHale on lead vocals, and "Toxic," which utilized the entire cast, did something fun with her songs. The cast also takes on three Bruno Mars songs: "Billionaire," "Marry You," and "Just the Way You Are." Both "Marry You and "Just the Way You Are" are taken from the episode entitled "Furt," where Kurt's father and Finn's mother get married. "Marry You" is one of my favorite Bruno Mars songs, and although I prefer his version, I love the way the song is performed by New Directions as the walk down the aisle at the beginning of the wedding ceremony. Corey Monteith's cover of "Just the Way You Are" had me crying as I watched his character, Finn, sing to his new brother, Kurt. After the past issues between the two characters and Kurt being the target of bullies at school, I thought the performance of "Just the Way You Are" was quite heartfelt and beautiful. I don't know, Glee is often deemed a comedy, but more often than not I'm breaking out the tissues as I watch each week.

But back to the music. More highlights off this CD:

• Chris Colfer's heartbreaking version of the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
• Gwyneth Paltrow covering Cee Lo Green's "Forget You"
• Darren Criss singing Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" -- I've already raved about this performance in my "Great performances in 2010 post".
• Lea Michele's cover of "The Only Exception" by Paramore -- which also was the only non-Britney Spears song covered in the "Britney/Brittany" episode.
• Joan Osbourne's "One of Us" performed by the entire cast in the "Grilled Cheesus" episode.

Missing: Jenna Ushkowitz and Amber Riley's awesome take on Florence + the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over;" Corey Monteith's cover of REM's "Losing My Religion" from the "Grilled Cheesus" episode.

What we're listening to: Burlesque soundtrack

NEW CD-POP NEW AGE AGUILERA BURLESQUE
Find it in the catalog!

You are better off skipping the movie and just checking out the soundtrack to Burlesque. The music (and Stanley Tucci) are the best parts of the film, which has confusing editing choices and over-the-top dialogue and acting. Christina Aguilera sings 8 of the 10 songs and Cher performs "Welcome to Burlesque" and the Golden Globe-nominated "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me."

I am a fan of Christina's music and I actually enjoy the songs from Burlesque much more than those from her album Bionic, which was released this past summer. The retro sound on much of Burlesque reminds me of Christina's excellent 2006 album Back to Basics. I love her covers of "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and "Tough Lover" by Etta James and "A Guy What Takes His Time" by Mae West. Christina also co-wrote the dance songs "Express," "Show Me How You Burlesque," and the gorgeous ballad "Bound to You," which has been nominated for a Golden Globe and is my new favorite song of Christina's. "Beautiful People" reworks the Marilyn Manson song of the same name, and Christina gives the lyrics an aggressive edge with her vocals. Although Burlesque is not one of the best movies I've seen this year, its soundtrack is probably one of my favorite CDs of the year. I had the songs on repeat in my car until I had to return it back to the library.

More Christmas music recommendations

Glee: The Music: The Christmas Album
NEW CD-HOLIDAY VARIOUS GLEE
Find it in the catalog!
The cast from TV's Glee perform Christmas standards such as "O Christmas Tree," "Angels We Have Heard on High," and "O Holy Night" that were featured on the December 7 Christmas episode. The girls do their version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and the guys do their unique take of "Jingle Bells." I love the fun and energetic "Deck the Rooftop" and also Lea Michelle's version of The Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling." Lea Michelle and Corey Monteith's performance of George Michael's "Last Christmas" is one of my favorite songs on the CD. My other favorite is the duet between Chris Colfer and Darren Criss on "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

Home Alone: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
CD-MUSICAL ST WILLIAMS HOME
Find it in the catalog!
One of the reasons I'm a big fan of the movie Home Alone is the music, especially the distinctive "Home Alone Main Title" ("Somewhere in My Memory"). The score was composed and conducted by John Williams. In addition to the instrumental pieces are the songs "White Christmas" by The Drifters, "Please Come Home for Christmas" by Southside Johnny Lyon, and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Mel Tormé. I love the Drifters' version of "White Christmas" -- the Bing Crosby classic is transformed into a soulful groove! Additionally, a choir performs the songs "O Holy Night," "Carol of the Bells," and "Somewhere in My Memory."

Merry Christmas II You by Mariah Carey
NEW CD-HOLIDAY CAREY MERRY
Find it in the catalog!
Mariah follows up her successful 1994 album Merry Christmas with Merry Christmas II You, which again strikes a nice balance between traditional Christmas songs and originals. Mariah co-wrote the songs "Oh Santa!," "Christmas Time is in the Air Again," When Christmas Comes," and "One Child." The vibrant, R&B flavored dance song "Oh Santa!" is probably my favorite on the CD.  Be sure to check out "O Come All Ye Faithful / Hallelujah Chorus," which finds Mariah singing with her mother Patricia Carey. Listening to the song, you'll wonder if they got together because they wanted to see who could hit more consecutive high notes (verdict: Mariah's mom). The CD also includes a live version of "O Holy Night" and an "extra festive version" of "All I Want for Christmas is You." If you enjoyed Mariah's previous Christmas CD you will also like this one.

What we're listening to: Elf soundtrack

CD-MUSICAL ST VARIOUS ELF
Find it in the catalog!

The 2003 movie Elf stars Will Ferrell as an unwaveringly positive candy-loving human raised by elves who journeys to New York City to meet his dad. While Will Ferrell does sing several times during the movie, his duet on "Baby It's Cold Outside" with co-star Zooey Deshanel is not included here. Instead Deshanel duets with Leon Redbone (who also provides the voice of Leon the Snowman in the movie). I still like their version and really enjoy the tone of Deshanel's voice. Redbone also sings "Christmas Island" and "Winter Wonderland." The holiday songs on the soundtrack are complemented by a couple non-holiday cuts, Louis Prima's "Pennies From Heaven" and Billy Preston's "Nothing From Nothing."

The film's soundtrack has a nice selection of retro Christmas music, including Ella Fitzgerald's "Sleigh Ride," Lena Horne's "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow," and Eartha Kitt's classic "Santa Baby." Other songs, like the medley of "Sleigh Ride / Santa Claus Party" performed by Ferrante and Teicher and Les Baxter, Jingle Bells performed by Jim Reeves, and Eddy Arnold's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," make you feel like you're in one of the stop-motion holiday specials from the '60s like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Or maybe that's just me. In any case, these are versions of classic songs that radio stations seem to refrain from playing for the most part (with the exception of "Santa Baby"), so I enjoyed finding a Christmas album that felt new and fresh.

What we're listening to: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World soundtrack

NEW CD-MUSICAL ST VARIOUS SCOTT
Find it in the catalog!

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is one of my favorite movies this year and one of the reasons is due to its music. In the movie, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) plays bass in the band Sex Bob-Omb along with friends Stephen (Mark Webber) on guitar and Kim (Allison Pill) on drums. The soundtrack includes all the songs I enjoyed so much in the movie. The biggest highlights are the Sex Bob-Omb songs: "We Are Sex Bob-Omb," "Garbage Truck," "Threshold," and "Summertime." I love that the CD includes Scott's hastily made intro to "Thresold," which comes at a point in the movie where it appears that Sex Bob-Omb is about to be beaten during Battle of the Bands by the Katayanagi Twins: "We are Sex Bob-Om and we're here to make you sad and think about death and stuff!" The actors actually perform their own songs, and if you read the credits closely you will see that Beck also plays on the songs.

The soundtrack even includes the hilariously short, three second-long "I'm So Sad, So Very, Very, Sad" by Crash and the Boys (performed by Erik Knudsen and Broken Social Scene). Broken Social Scene also has the song "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" included. The 8-bit version of "Threshold" is fun because the music sounds like you're playing a video game. Another of my favorites is Metric's "Black Sheep," performed in the movie by Scott's ex, Envy, and her band Clash at Demonhead.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World disappeared pretty quickly from theaters but I predict this is a movie that will gain a cult following from repeated viewings. I'll write more about its great cast, funny script, and awesome directing after its November 9 DVD release and for my Best of 2010 list. Until Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is released on DVD, be sure to check out the soundtrack.

Search the catalog for New Moon items

We are in the last week of counting down to the midnight premiere of The Twilight Saga: New Moon on November 20. Here are a couple new Twilight-related additions to Dundee's catalog of items that you probably want to place on hold before the waiting list gets too long!

New Moon: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the first Twilight film was hugely successful and included bands that inspired Stephenie Meyer during the process of writing the Twilight series. This time around all the featured songs are originals written for the film. Death Cab for Cutie's "Meet Me on the Equinox" immediately transports you to the moody Twilight world of vampires, werewolves, and teenage-angst. The soundtrack also includes songs from Thom Yorke, the Killers, Muse, Band of Skulls, Lykke Li, Anya Marina, and more.  No songs are contributed from actor Robert Pattinson, however.
Find it in the catalog!

Whether you're on Team Edward or Team Jacob you'll want to check out New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Mark Cotta Vaz. This book contains color photos from the movie plus information about the making of New Moon. And after looking at the photos I'd say Jasper's facial expressions in this movie are even more hilarious than the ones featured in Twilight. Don't worry-- the book includes plenty of photos of Taylor Lauter's biceps to go around, too.
Find it in the catalog!

What we're addicted to...

(500) Days of Summer soundtrack

My favorite movie of the summer, and possibly the year, has an equally awesome soundtrack, with songs from The Smiths, Carla Bruni, Feist, She & Him, Regina Spektor, and... Hall & Oates (among others).  The jubilant dance sequence set to Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams" is so memorable; if you've seen the movie you'll be happy to have it on the soundtrack, too.

New Moon trailer

So you're on Team Edward?  I thought I was, too, until I saw the photos and trailers released for The Twilight Saga: New Moon, in which Taylor Lautner's role as Jacob is much increased.  In this movie Edward abandons Bella alone in the woods, telling her he must never see her again.  What a jerky thing to do!  Oh sure, he thinks doing this will help protect her (Edward's a vampire, he hangs with vampires, etc.), but the separation drives Bella to have an emotional breakdown.  It makes sense for me to want to switch to Team Jacob.  After all, it's Jacob's strong friendship that helps pull Bella out of her depression.  The website address for the new Twilight film says it all: GoTeamJacob.com

The Tudors (on DVD; also available on Showtime OnDemand)

I think many of the performances are profusely over-acted but I still keep coming back for more of this TV series about the reign of King Henry VIII of England (played by Irish actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers).  It's also interesting to see a part-factual, part-fictional interpretation of such an imposing historical figure's life.  The period costumes are very beautiful (oh, to be a lady-in-waiting!).  Above all I enjoy watching the Duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon, played by Henry Cavill.  Intense and crush-worthy!

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

It's been slow-going for me to get through this 535-page novel.  The main character, Mr. Ryder, arrives in a town to give a piano concert, and everyone has been waiting for him.  His itinerary is booked to the max and people are pulling him every which way.  So these are all strangers, people he's never met, right?  At first this seems to be the case; however, as he meets and talks with people he has hazy memories of past conversations he's had with them, and they bring up things from his history.  Characters speak in long chunks of dialogue, sometimes to a hilarious effect.  For example, when Mr. Ryder arrives at his hotel at the beginning of the book, the porter loquaciously reports why he prefers to carry the luggage while waiting in the elevator instead of placing the bags down on the floor.  I'm a third of the way into reading The Unconsoled and I'm still trying to figure things out.  Ishiguro's writing-style is so different from anything else I've read, and that's the way I like it.

John Hughes: 1950-2009

John Hughes - director/screenwriter/producer - brought us such generation-defining films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Born in Lansing, MI, Hughes moved to Illinois with his family at age thirteen, and his new home would provide the setting for many of his films. While he will best be remembered as the laureate of suburban teens everywhere, John Hughes had his hands in a number of comedy and family films that left an indelible imprint on American popular culture (such as Uncle Buck and the Home Alone series).

Sixteen Candles
Find it in the catalog!

The Breakfast Club
Find it in the catalog!

Pretty In Pink
Find it in the catalog!

Pretty In Pink: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Find it in the catalog!

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Find it in the catalog!

What we're listening to...

Twilight: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:

I think the music perfectly matches the mood of this movie. Rob Pattinson, Edward Cullen himself, even contributes the acoustic guitar track “Never Think.” While Pattinson is a dreamy vampire, he is very difficult to understand when he sings. My favorites from the soundtrack include “Eyes on Fire” by Blue Foundation and “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” by Iron & Wine.

Find it in the catalog!