Tag: 2013 albums

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

And so we come to the end of the publication year for Spectrum Culture, which meant a huge batch of “best of” evaluations of the pop culture from the preceding twelve months (well, okay, eleven-and-a-half). I had my couple cents in every last one of them, but I also had one more full-length review to put out there. I was cautiously hopeful about grabbing the new film from Neil LaBute. Though it’s been ages since I’ve liked one of his films, I used to like them, a couple quite a bit. And this new effort seemed like a back-to-basics outing, … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

We’re winding down to the end of the year at Spectrum Culture, so there’s a lot going into prep for that. I’m spending so much time trying trying to assemble my various lists–mostly extensive listening and re-listening to the most interesting music of the year–that keeping up with the new stuff week to week becomes kind of dizzying. For example, I have to keep reminding myself that I’ve got a late contender for the Best Albums list in the latest from White Denim. This also represents one of the few times (maybe the first time) that I’ve returned to a … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Considering it was a short week, I had a lot of material up at Spectrum Culture. The most challenging piece to write was my “Revisit” on Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill, part of my ongoing attempt to exhaust all of my pop culture touchstones for the site. I suspect the result reads as a little more unkind towards the film than my actual, official stance on it, but I went where the writing took me. The other film I wrote on was a new documentary on Bettie Page. I picked it up because of the promise that the famously private … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

When trying to find films and records to write on each and every week, there are time when the material is going to be extremely unmemorable, neither good enough to stir genuine excitement nor bad enough to engender the flush of resentment for the time given away to it. That’s basically where I landed this week with Spectrum Culture. For instance, the film I reviewed had some promising elements, especially when it came to the performances. It was nice to see skilled performers who don’t usually land particularly worthwhile roles getting the chance to dig into some meaty material and … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This week at spectrum Culture, I started with an album review. Specifically, this was another of my attempts to write about an artist who I like a great deal, but whose work is a little outside of my proverbial writing wheelhouse. I’m somewhat satisfied with the resulting review of the new record from M.I.A., but I do feel like it could have used more precise and detailed descriptions of the music itself. I was somewhat at a loss to describe the melange of sounds she creates. M.I.A. makes fantastic songs, but I don’t thing she’s yet pulled off a album … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I had a nicely balanced week at Spectrum Culture: one film review, one album review. First I reviewed the new album from Minor Alps, a duo comprised of Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws, the latter best known as the leader of Nada Surf. His involvement piqued my interest, though, because of his preceding tenure with the Cost of Living. And thus my quest to cite obscure bands from my college radio days in Spectrum reviews marks another tally. On the film side, I wrote about a new documentary tracing the genesis, production and influence of George A. Romero’s The Night … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Though I was otherwise up to my Adam’s apple in cleaning, painting and other coordination involving a distant house, I still had a couple contributions go up this week at Spectrum Culture. First, I had a new film review, covering a horror flick from the director of Splice. I selected this because a certain member of my household always welcomes a new cinematic excursion into horror, even though they often disappoint. That was certainly the case in this instance, although I’ll admit that it had a promising enough premise that a few changes could have made it into something interesting. … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

In only had one full-length review at Spectrum Culture this week, but it was a fairly big one. When music reviews for the week were handed out, I picked up the new album from Cults. While I think the writing sums the record up well enough, I struggled to figure out the numeric ranking. On a gut level, it felt a little lower than the 4.0 I wound up with, but aside from one blip of a song, I also couldn’t find anything particularly problematic with the album. We’ll see how it ages for me. I also pitched in a … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

It was a fairly standard week for me at Spectrum Culture: one film review and one album reviews. On the movie side, I covered an entry in that most woeful of categories: the genially dark indie film comedy. I’m not sure why these sorts of films are so hard to pull off, but the art houses are littered with dismal examples of underdeveloped comedies every year. And, as is the case with the one I reviewed this week, a remarkable amount of the time, the films in question are blessed with incredible casts. On the music side, I drew the … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Culture

Dan Seeger

Now that I look at it, this week at Spectrum Culture was entirely about music for me. Even the film review I contributed was bursting with it, appropriate considering it was about the legendary Muscle Shoals recording studios that have factored into countless classic rock songs. It’s a good thing the director was able to drop in plenty of the songs (which must have cost plenty), because the film doesn’t have much else to recommend it. On the music review side, I covered one disappointment and one winner, and they didn’t fall into those categories in quite the way I … Continue reading Spectrum Culture