Music Review: The Kinks Choral Collection

Wow. That's probably the best word to sum up Ray Davies' new disc, The Kinks Choral Collection. This album, which was released last year, literally came out of nowhere . . . and it's already shot to the top of my most-played list. Ray Davies? Yes, that Ray Davies, the leader of The Kinks, one of rock's seminal bands. With such songs such as You Really Got Me, All Day and All of the Night, Lola and Come Dancing, The Kinks rank right up there with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who. Perhaps in a reflective mood at 65, Davies has taken a collection of awesome songs from The Kinks' catalog and given them new treatments with the backing of the full-on 65-member Crouch End Festival Chorus. Here, on this terrific and inspired CD, Davies has captured the glory that can be heard on one of The Rolling Stone's most famous songs: You Can't Always Get What You Want, which also featured the backing of a choir. Really, I can't say enough about The Kinks Choral Collection and the loving care that Davies has brought to these songs. They sound fresh, magnificent and moving. Here, you'll find brilliant treatments of some of The Kinks' classic melodies, such as You Really Got Me and All Day and All of the Night. But you'll also be treated to less famous tunes such as Working Man's Cafe, Celluloid Heroes and Village Green, all which feature Davies' still clear, beautiful voice and the backing chorus. This album is lovely and rocking at the same time. Fabulous!

Music Review: Spoon's Transference

It's only January, but a strong candidate for album of the year has already emerged: Spoon's Transference. This band can't do anything wrong as far as I'm concerned. Its last two albums (Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga) are bookend masterpieces. I keep waiting for them to fall on their face and to run out of creative energy, but it's just not happening. Without a doubt, Spoon currently wears the title of America's Best Band. I'm not sure how it happened. Maybe it's the air in Austin, Texas. Maybe it's their emphasis on rhythm. Perhaps it's the band's slavery to having fun. Hell, I don't care. The band rocks and their music is joyous. Transference is a step forward. They produced the album themselves. While it might be a bit less melodic, it's more poetic, more experimental, more narrative. That could have been disastrous in another band's hands (i.e., Radiohead). It might have turned out unlistenable and pretentious. But here, it's rocking, beautiful and smart. I love this band.

The Best of 2009

Here you go. The best movie I saw this year. Best music I listened to. Best book I read. Ready, set, go.

• Movie: The critic in me wanted to choose The Hurt Locker, but I can't help but select Up, the great Pixar film that is certainly one of the most amazing film experiences of the year. Don't let animation get in the way of enjoying an uplifting and emotional work of art.
• Music: The album I enjoyed the most this year was released in 1967: Aretha Franklin's astonishing I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. Even though it's more than 40 years old, I rediscovered this dusty CD and never stopped listening to it this year. Beautiful and rocking.
• Book: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman was released in 2008, but it didn't make its way to the top of my reading stack until this year. This book has everything: warm characters we can't help but care about, a crackling plot that won't let you go, and a terrifically satisfying ending. I hope Henry Selick or Tim Burton get their hands on this one.

Music Review: When I Was Cruel No. 2

When a song gets under your skin, it can lodge there, fester and become a cancer. You can't escape it. Such a tune is When I Was Cruel No. 2 by Elvis Costello, a song that appears on his excellent 2002 album, When I Was Cruel. The song lasts more than seven minutes, and every one of them is necessary. It's a sparse, hypnotic track highlighted by Steve Nieve's wanting keyboards and a sample from Mina's "Un bacio è troppo poco." This song has a timeless, unworldly feeling to it, one that will leave you wrapped in its spell. As usual for any Costello song, his lyrics are literate, confusing and alluring: "The entrance hall was arranged with hostesses and ushers who turned out to be the younger wives nursing schoolgirl crushes, parting the waves of those few feint friends; fingers once offered are now too heavy to extend." I'm not sure what he's saying, but I dig it

Book Review: The Beatles: The Biography

If you're looking for the the definitive book about The Beatles, then you've come to the right place for advice. Look no further than The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz. If anything can be termed definitive as it concerns The Beatles, this is it. This is a massive tome: 992 pages of amazing narrative that captures everything and anything about the Fab Four that you've ever wanted to know. Unlike almost every other book about them, Spitz starts at the beginning, with fascinating, intimate biographies about each of their parents. Except for a brief prelude, we don't even meet John, Paul, George and Ringo until about a hundred pages into the book; we get to know where they came from, their lineage, their neighborhoods. As a result, The Beatles: The Biography does the best job of presenting who these people were, not just what they did. Here, we get the whole story, warts and all. And because it's the best biography of The Beatles, it's simply the best rock and roll book ever published. Well, almost. Eventually I'll get around to reviewing Peter Guralnick's terrific two-book biography of the King: Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley and Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley.

>>> READ THE OPENING PAGES OF THE BEATLES: THE BIOGRAPHY HERE.

Music Review: Cruisin'

The most musically talented of The Monkees was Michael Nesmith, who always wore a wool cap. As a solo artist, his best work was his 1979 studio album Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma. And the best song on the album is one that has stayed with me 30 years: Cruisin'. This is a big song, huge in scope, with a hook so big that, as Bill Cosby once said, if it was a belt it would rip the meat off your body if it ever touched you. This is one of those songs that burrows under your skin and won't let go. It forces you to sing along with Nesmith when he growls, "Lucy and Ramona and Sunset Sam, people on the streets trying to find a plan, people on the streets looking for the land, Lucy and Ramona and their brother Sunset Sam!" This is one of those songs that demands to be played as loud as possible so as to best appreciate the sparse guitars, pounding drums and eerie keyboards. Lucy and Ramona!

Movie Review: Hannah and Her Sisters

Happy Thanksgiving! If you're looking for the best Thanksgiving themed movie to watch after you've stuffed yourself, you can't go wrong with Woody Allen's 1986 masterpiece Hannah and Her Sisters. Yes, Allen's movies are wildly inconsistent, and much of his finest work is in the past. But take my word on this one; Hannah is an exceptional film that's funny and serious at the same time. The finely drawn characters resonate richly because we know all of them. The movie begins and ends at a large extended family Thanksgiving meal. In between, the characters fall in and out of love with each other in tightly wound webs of deceit, lust and blunders. There's not a bad acting job in this film, with standouts including Allen, Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Dianne Wiest Michael Caine, Lloyd Nolan, Maureen O'Sullivan and Max von Sydow. The movie brought home a slew of Oscar trophies, including ones for actors Caine and Wiest, and Best Screenplay for Allen. Definitely ranking among Allen's major triumphs, Hannah and Her Sisters is an important triumph