Monday, August 29, 2011

3 For Your Ears, 3 For Your Eyes


…Ok, your ears will be involved in watching the movies too, but you get the idea! Thought I would provide my reviews of 3 albums I recently got and liked, as well as 3 movies I’ve watched in the past week with mixed success. Maybe they will help you find something you like, avoid something you won’t, or just waste 10 minutes of your work day.

Music


1. Owl City – All Things Bright and Beautiful. When I first got this album, I thought it wasn’t as good as the past stuff by Owl City. But to be fair, that’s a tall order, and the number of semi-famous collaborators on this album (rapper Shawn Chrystopher, Matthew Thiessen from Relient K) lead me to believe he was forced in a slightly more commercial direction. But its grown on me as I’ve listened to it more, and there are still some really great tracks here. I particularly recommend “Deer In the Headlights”, “Dreams Don’t Turn to Dust”, and “Galaxies”.

2. Adele – 21. I try to avoid diving too far into Top 40 music, and I especially stay away from the latest female, bluesy flavor of the month (see past nominees Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse, may she rest in peace). Nonetheless, I took the plunge on this one, and it has been well worth it. Adele is supremely talented, and she didn’t have the popularity yet where she took herself too seriously on this album. In addition to “Rolling in the Deep”, which is what got her the attention in the first place, I really like “Rumor Has It” and “Set Fire to the Rain”. She also joins a long list of people to make a great cover of “Love Song”, although I still maintain that the 311 version is the best one!

3. O.A.R. – King. Great to see Of A Revolution getting back to their jam rock roots. I will make a quick shout out to the fact that I saw this Columbus, OH-based band back in my freshman year of college. I will also thank Melissa Lehman for pointing me to the fact that they had a new album coming out. The first single, “Heaven”, is not only a great song, but the lyrics are a perfect expression of my thoughts on the idea of heaven and people who want to say their worship-style is the only way to get there. “Gotta Be Wrong Sometimes” is another song that makes a great point, this time about settling arguments in a serious relationship. Also check out “Taking On the World Today” and “Are You Low?”. I also heard they play some song about poker...



















Movies


1. Limitless (3 out of 5 stars) – I’m still not sure how I felt about this movie. The concept was interesting. It had a fair amount of action and psychological components, which I enjoy. But I’m still not sure about Bradley Cooper’s ability to carry a movie, and the whole thing seemed to end abruptly. In short, worth watching, but temper your expectations.

2. Insidious (3 stars) – The only reason this climbs to 3 stars is because I like horror movies, and this had enough scares and turns to keep me interested (at least on a Sunday morning when I was unmotivated to do anything productive). If you’re into horror, particularly the dimensional/demon stuff, like Paranormal Activity minus the shaking cam, then give it a watch. Otherwise, it’s your typical, relatively predictable horror flick. Side Note: I rarely finish watching a horror movie saying “that was a legitimately great movie”, not just a fun, random horror one. The last time that happened was “A Haunting in Connecticut”. So check that one out if you haven’t!

3. Ink (4 stars) – This a pretty artsy flick, with a lot of great visual imagery and scene-matching, so if that’s not your thing, I wouldn’t recommend it. But I found there were a lot of great little things going on this movie, several interesting and intersecting storylines, an imagination world with cool creatures, and dimensional travelers who “flashbulb” pop when they come across (one of my favorite things about the movie). I watched it on Hulu (not sure if its Plus or regular), and I know I saw it on Netflix Instant as well,

so perhaps a recommendation you might not have otherwise come across.












Sometime this week/weekend, I plan to get up my Browns preview. It likely won’t be as optimistic as some of you may hope, but there are some positive signs for once.



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