Movies: Midsommar

Somebody's been watching The Wicker Man. Like that '70s classic (and the cheeky Nick Cage remake), Midsommar takes us to an isolated clan practicing increasingly creepy pagan-like rituals, smiling and gracious all the while. It is fertile territory for a thriller.

Midsommar plods along in the Swedish sunshine for a bit until director Ari Aster takes a hammer to viewer's kneecaps with a singularly disturbing scene. This moment defines the movie, much like a particularly disturbing sequence in his interesting debut, Hereditary, defined that movie. It's treated as a big moment; the music and the visuals of the awaiting crowd amongst the jagged, rocky landscape create a palpable dread of whatever is about to unfold. And, once it becomes apparent, the realization of what is about to happen is almost as shocking as seeing it reach its horrific conclusion. The results are displayed in graphic detail, with another horrifying act capping the gory sequence. It is disturbing, and it will be too much for some viewers.

The two principal characters of Midsommar are in the midst of a fragile relationship, and Aster weaves the emotional wreckage of that into the tapestry of insanity unfolding in the Swedish countryside. The movie is rather long and might benefit from excising the opening half hour or so, which establishes the relationship of the leads and is the weakest portion of the film.

Nothing else in Midsommar equals The Big Scene, but it is an enjoyably unsettling experience that will linger in the mind. 

3.5 out of 5

Midsommar (2019, 227 minutes) is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Also see // The Wicker Man (1974)
The Wicker Man (2006)

Song of the decade

Does a decade's worth of music mean anything anymore? To me, it doesn't feel like it, and hasn't really since the '90s, which probably just means that I'm old. Time flies and a lot of life is happening, so I'm just getting around to taking a look at the past decade. Rather than serving up a big list, I've decided to simply crown my most-played song of the twenty-teens.

The winner is '90s survivor Robyn with "Dancing on My Own," which was released in June 2010 as lead single from the excellent Body Talk album (my #9 album for the decade, including music from all decades, per Last.fm), and which she cowrote and coproduced with Patrik Berger. It's a devastating dance music ballad, all swirling synths and heartbreak, that should have shot an arrow through the heart of the pop music audience. It is the epitome of the melancholy cast against a euphoric upbeat arrangement, which defines so much of my favorite music. How does a song this brilliant (and featured prominently in HBO's Girls) not even crack the Billboard Hot 100? Despite making no impression on the chart, it did, deservedly, go platinum in the U.S.

RIP Kenny Rogers

Whenever I think about Kenny Rogers, I always remember my late Aunt Jackie kindly giving me her copy of The Gambler album around 1983. Perhaps appropriately, we were in a house on a little dirt road in a speck of a town — New Site, Mississippi. Rogers was huge when I was a kid, and "The Gambler" was a fun tune for all ages. I also love that album's "The Hoodooin' of Miss Fanny Deberry," about a girl who walks barefoot down a gravel road and sleeps with the devil. And The Gambler album has one of the coolest covers ever. Elsewhere, "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" with his band The First Edition from 1969 is a killer tune about a veteran, and The Killers gave it a worthy cover back in the 2000s. "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" is a hoot of a song title — was Morrissey listening? Rogers was one of the original country crossovers, and he made country and pop more fun.

In his final words
I found an ace that I could keep

Music that moved me in 2019

Song of the year
Tanners, a relative unknown, won the year with a song from 2018, the urgent "Holy Water." It's hard to describe her vibe; I've been thinking I could imagine Sophie B. Hawkins doing this in the '90s if she'd had a tad more of a pop sensibility.

The runner-up
Dido put out a fine album in 2019, and the lush ballad "Give You Up" finished one point behind Tanners. It's her best track in years.

A year without breakouts
I said this about 2018, as well — there was no single artist or album that emerged as a big thing for me. Madonna's Madame X was a notable lemon in my world, a non-starter for the most part, although "Medellin" did get some spins and "Looking for Mercy" finished at #60 for the year. I feared this album would disappoint when I heard Mirwais was producing. For me, it's her worst since American Life and a real letdown after Rebel Heart, which had a few duds but, to me, is the best since Ray of Light. My most played album for the year was the new David Bowie compilation Loving the Alien (1983 - 1988).

Mildly unexpected
I've liked a random Bruce Springsteen song here and there through the years, but he stopped me in my tracks in 2019 with "There Goes My Miracle," #18 for the year. It's a beautiful tune and I've never heard him sing in this style — like an old-school crooner. Carly Rae Jepsen is not an artist I've given much attention, but her "Want You in My Room" finishes way up at #5 for the year.

When we was fab
I've never been one to listen to the Beatles, but a couple of the players had a good year with solo material — I've really gotten into some of the songs on Paul McCartney's latest, Egypt Station. He finishes #6 for the year with "Dominoes" and #22 with the beautiful ballad "Happy with You," while John Lennon is in at #69 with oldie "(Just Like) Starting Over." Julian Lennon got some spins as well with "Say You're Wrong."

What's so hot about the Hot 100?
We have but one instance of crossover for 2019 courtesy of Ava Max, whose "Sweet but Psycho" closed out the year with a long run at number one on my last.fm rolling chart. Had I discovered it earlier in the year, it probably would have been a contender for song of the year honors. Sounds a bit like early Gaga, doesn't it? It finishes the year at #53 for me and #23 in Billboard. Speaking of Gaga, the big soundtrack hit "Shallow" was a close call for another point of crossover (#134 me, #19 Billboard). And Post Malone's "Circles," which finished at #62 in Billboard, has recently gone onto my current playlist.

Previously
Go here for the best of 2018 and links to numerous previous years.

Movies: The Bedroom Window (1987)

With The Bedroom Window, it seems director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) set out to make the Hitcockiest movie Hitchcock would make if he and Alma were around in the mid to late 1980s. It’s so overtly Hitchcockian that you almost expect to see the old master walk by in one of the bar scenes or seated in the crowd in the theater scene, casting a knowing fourth-wall glance at the camera. 

It’s got the signature Hitchock ingredients of romantic intrigue and an innocent man wrongly accused and digging himself ever deeper a hole in a plot that involves the protagonist Terry (Steve Guttenberg) doing the boss’ wife (Isabelle Huppert), who witnesses an assault of a woman from her lover’s bedroom window in the middle of the night after hearing screams. To cover up the affair, Terry, rather than his paramour, goes to the police. In terms of plotting, it’s a clever idea that sends our protagonist into a series of mishaps and errors.

Currently available to stream on Amazon Prime, The Bedroom Window often does look like a Hitchcock film in style and staging, and there are a few scenes in which Huppert, dolled up to the max, is framed like a ‘40s vixen. It generally doesn’t look much like an ‘80s movie; the bar scenes, however, with Mario Brothers and Ms. Pac Man video games in view and ‘80s music playing, are exceptions. A curiosity that struck me is a song that plays in both bar scenes — a repetition of music that seems intended as a harbinger of the villian's presence. Particularly in '80s movies, I'm always trying to identify the music, and, in this case, it’s a third-tier Robert Palmer single, "Hyperactive," that many viewers probably wouldn’t even notice had been played in the earlier scene. "Hyperactive" was a single of the time; it crawled to #33 on the Hot 100 on the coattails of its #1 predecessor, "Addicted to Love." Why not use a more identifiable tune or a bit of ominous orchestration that recalls Bernard Hermann?

Most of the movie is a fun watch as Terry gets on the trail of the villain and begins to make a mess of things, but the movie’s final act is rather unimaginative. I think Alma would call for a rewrite.

RIP Roxette's Marie Fredrikkson

From about 1988 to 1992, Roxette were masters at both big, shiny power pop such as "The Look" and "Dangerous" and also devastating pop ballads like "It Must Have Been Love," "Spending My Time" and "Fading Like a Flower," the latter of which I recall even drew praise from my father. Marie Fredrikkson, who was half of Roxette with Per Gessle, passed this week after a very long battle with cancer that had not deterred them from making music. Many casual listeners might be surprised by the hefty body of work left behind by Roxette — they were workhorses, and the quality is generally there throughout, although some albums are decidedly stronger than others. There's lots of Roxette music worthy of exploring beyond Look Sharp and Joyride — one I definitely recommend is Room Service (2001), and I think their final album, Good Karma (2016), was the best since their chart-topping heyday.

My top 10 played Roxette tracks weaves an enjoyable mix of hits and deeper cuts:

Top 7 things about Classic American Top 40 on iHeartRadio

We’re counting down now to my top seven thoughts about Classic American Top 40 from the 70s and 80s (I’m there for the 80s), back in the days when it felt like the charts really meant something, on iHeartRadio. And it doesn’t stop till we get to the top!

#7 Casey Kasem had a voice and charisma that made him perfect for counting down the hits. He was the best ... sorry, Rick Dees.

#6 It's always fun to rediscover good tunes that you forgot you knew. One of those that resides in my current playlist as a result of listening to these shows is Sylvia's hilarious country crossover hit "Nobody" (#15 in 1982). Your nobody called today / She hung up when I asked her name …

#5 The writers for this show had a curious obsession with the geographical identity of the artists. Born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens, recording out of Nashville, vacationing in the Poconos ...

#4 I’ve always had an inordinate interest in music charts — I think it is somewhat tied to OCD tendencies. It's satisfying to know that both of The Motels’ substantial hits peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 (or "the Hot Hundred" as Kasem sometimes called it), among endless other chart minutiae.

#3 Listening to the shows from the 80s, one thing that has struck me is how the big power ballad duets of that era, often teaming major stars, are a lost art. Songs like "We've Got Tonight" by Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton, "Separate Lives" by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin, and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" by Aretha Franklin and George Michael. A number of them were movie soundtrack songs — another driver of the charts that has diminished in today’s music scene. 

#2 Another thing that has struck me is that there are some fine tunes from the first half of the decade that never resurface in 80s playlists or flashback radio shows. One such nugget that I recently playlisted is John Lennon’s excellent "Just Like Starting Over" from 1980, and there are countless others.

#1 If you listen with any regularity, you'll almost immediately begin to hear repeats, because a relatively small number of countdowns (considering how many there were) are in rotation. If you listen frequently, you'll be able to recite the long distance dedication letters along with Casey and sometimes know what song is coming next. I know there's one show in which Belinda Carlisle debuts at #30 with "Circle in the Sand," one in which Level 42 holds at #7 with "Something About You" and one in which Diana Ross moves 40-29 with a ridiculous song written by Michael Jackson called "Muscles" about unbridled desires for beefcake men (!) . It'd be great to hear some "new" old countdowns added to the rotation. I'd actually love to hear shows from the Shadoe Stevens era as well (Kasem departed in August 1988, so the tail end of the decade is underrepresented). Stevens presided until the 1995 cancellation, and there was still some fun left in the top 40 format into the first half of the 90s, although I pinpoint the beginning of the end to be somewhere around "Rump Shaker" (#2 in 1992).

Till next time, keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars!