Erasure's forthcoming album art

 

I've long been a fan of Erasure's sleeve art as well as their music, with some rare exceptions, such as the uninspired, cheap-looking artwork for the Other People's Songs campaign. It got a big dodgy again for the last album, Light at the End of the World; I remember someone commenting that it looked like a Zale's jewelry circular. And now, the artwork for Tomorrow's World, which looks like a fairy's heart exploded butterflies, is leaving me cold. Based on sculpture by Kate MacDowell, it looks like something that would be on the cover of a 12-year-old girl's diary. I'm not feeling it, but at least buzz is good for the Frankmusic-produced album.

The folly of Netflix streaming

For a company that has gotten things so right most of the time, Netflix's new price hike seems punitive and incredibly boneheaded. Customers will now pay the price, literally, for the company's misguided placing of all its eggs in the streaming basket as the studios demand higher and higher fees for streaming rights.

I'll be switching to the $7.99 DVD-only plan with Blu-Ray. Streaming plus DVD plus Blu-Ray is no longer a deal after two price increases within the space of months.

And it's not that I'm a streaming naysayer. I got a Roku late last year, thinking that I'd love it. I have enjoyed it from time to time, but the streaming selection is notoriously mediocre, and there's the larger problem of picture quality. I have a cable broadband connection, but I almost never get an HD stream. I've invested in a quality home theater, and I don't care to watch VHS or less quality on my new HDTV. I think many people agree with me, whether it's because of broadband issues or the desire to have top-notch picture quality. Netflix has made a surprisingly large miscalculation in its attempt to jettison the DVD side of its business.

It may be a few months down the road, but I predict Netlix backs off the new pricing and cuts the fees to some middle ground.

GSN brings Lingo back from the grave

Verdict: 3.0 out of 5

No love for Chuck Woolery? Such is the state of game shows in the 2010s, an era in which game show hosts get by not on their polished presentation skills but on their resumes as comedians or C-list personalities. Classic-era host Chuck Woolery helmed GSN's 2002-2007 revival of Lingo, a relatively obscure format that had a single syndicated season in the late 1980s, and it is somewhat surprisingly back (given that GSN seems to think tawdry relationship shows is now its bread and butter) in a slightly tweaked version now helmed by "blue-collar comedian" Bill Engvall. Illogical a pick as the new host may be, he has brought some appreciable deadpan wit to the format, a combination of word game and Bingo in which teams try to guess five-letter words to earn the right to draw a couple of balls which can help them score a Lingo on a numbered field set up like a Bingo card. Adding insult to Woolery's exit is that the show has now added a clue for each word in a style ripped from NBC's Scrabble, hosted by Woolery for the duration of its exceptionally enjoyable run of 1,300-plus episodes from 1984 to 1990 and again briefly in 1993. While the new, genreric rock music theme is another dubious move, GSN deserves kudos for making some overdue changes — correct guesses and Lingos now earn cash rather than points for the winning team, and the cable network has finally made the obvious move of including prize balls amongst the drawing lot, as well as a wild ball that, when selected, can be used to fill any open slot on the Lingo card. I'd also suggest a progressive jackpot ball — those side elements can break the monotony of a highly repetitive format (think Super Password's always-fun Cash Word). GSN has remade Lingo's end game in a way that boringly excises the Bingo element; the teams just try to breeze through five words in 90 seconds to collect $100,000 — an awful lot of loot for a simple, if compelling, word game. And, unfortunately, the game has stripped away a level of Woolery-era  class by wallowing in inuendo. It needs "enema" as one of its five-letter words (I'm not making that up) as much as it needs Big Money Syndrome.

Lingo airs at 7 p.m. (Central) weekdays on GSN

First impressions: Lady Gaga's Born This Way

I'm still getting to know Born This Way, but here are some initial impressions of some of this Event Album's tracks (using the special edition):

Born This Way // While I don't agree with the lazy comparisons to Madonna's "Express Yourself," the lead single didn't particularly excite me. Not to say I don't like it — it has grown on me and I especially admire the positivity — but it feels a bit overcooked, and, in the long run, I don't think it's a song I'll revisit often. I actually prefer the earthy Country Road Version to the hyper album and single mix.

Government Hooker // Gaga has said she's awfully fond of this one, but I'm inclined to skip it.

Judas // Insistent, addictive and deserving of better than its chart performance thus far. If we could fix the first half of the bridge, it would be Gaga/RedOne perfection and possibly a bigger radio hit.

Scheibe // Annoying; a likely skip.

Bad Kids / Fashion of His Love // I'm finding I like the latter stretch of the album better, starting with these two.

Highway Unicorn (Road to Love) // Apart from "Judas," this is the one that really grabs me right out of the gate … if I had to choose one favorite at the moment, this is it. That "we can be strong / we can be strong" refrain really digs in.

Yoü and I // This rock-ish, Queen-assisted ballad feels like a future hit, even if it's easy to imagine Shania Twain doing it on her Come on Over album (hello, Mutt Lange! Didn't expect to see you here!). I would have flipped its position with "The Edge of Glory" and made this the album closer.

Granted, the special edition throws in several extra tracks, but can we agree that the album is too long? Chopping three or four tracks could make this a better listen … think of how powerful The Fame Monster is in its brevity. Some free advice: With no single really asserting itself after "Born This Way," I'd make a big push for "Yoü and I."

Review: The Rite

Verdict: 2.5 out of 5

Exorcism flick The Rite may lack spewed pea soup, but it does have Anthony Hopkins doing his thing, and doing it well. It seems to have become fashionable to trash the bulk of his latter day output, but I'm content to feast on these morsels in anticipation of the next pleasant surprise, such as the excellent thriller Fracture. Somewhat similar in tone to The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Rite, directed by Mikael Håfström, who helmed the so-so adaptation of Stephen King's 1408, is one of those movies that easily sets itself apart from the baser majority of horror films while, at the same time, failing to ever be truly compelling. It's set in Rome with Hopkins as a veteran exorcist who's given an apprentice of sorts — an American seminary student (Colin O'Donoghue) who is coming down with a bout of atheism. The church has decreed more exorcists are needed, and the student's mentor decides a tour of duty with the exorcist will cure what ails him. The movie offers two exorcisms, the first centering on several sequences with a young girl who contorts and gets fiesty, and the second serving as a twisty curveball in the movie's closing stretch and the ultimate test of the student's doubt. Neither takes us anywhere we haven't been before, but it pushes some of the right buttons over the course of its too-long 120-plus minutes, and Hopkins, as always, is worthy of our faith.

The Rite is available now on Blu-Ray, DVD and pay per view.

Cheap Gaga

I had no doubt Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way would pop out a little early, but seeing Amazon pimp it for 99 cents since around midnight is a surprise. It's an obvious pick for deal of the day, which is sometimes as low as $1.99, but this redefines "loss leader." It's probably a smart move by Amazon, which is looking to goose its share of digital music sales, since this will likely be the biggest album release of the year, and the gimmick price will lure sales and a flurry of blog posts.

A quick look over at iTunes reveals they're having none of this madness, with the regular edition going for $11.99 and the special for $15.99, with a bonus remix of "Judas" by Thomas Gold available (hope it's better than all the other ones — sorry, Hurts and Goldfrapp).

I'm wondering: Would it be silly to buy the regular edition for 99 cents and then individually download the missing special edition tracks? Yeah, it probably would. Looks like I'll be going with the special edition on Amazon for $12.99.

MTV's Skins

I'm all for MTV giving this a go, but these are my impressions:

• It feels like taking a four-and-a-half star movie from two years ago and reenacting it with lesser actors for no good reason and with embarassing results. (In a similar vein, Let Me In takes a five-star movie from a couple years ago and reenacts it … but with excellent results.)

• The removal of a straightforward equivalent of the Maxxie character feels like pandering to American male tastes in the worst possible way.

• Watch the BBC original and forget this mess.