Word: balladic
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...track layering. “Plastic Mile” has an appealingly vintage funk-rock beat under a schizophrenic self-duet from lead singer Laetitia Sadier, and “Whisper Pitch” is a more-successful-than-usual foray into psychedelic syncopation that morphs into a pretty ballad. In these songs, though, are just about the only musical moments that manage to separate themselves from the synth soup that is the rest of the record, and even these seeming standouts will struggle for attention once added to Stereolab’s already enormous back catalog. Stereolab hasn?...
...film or TV program is enjoyed by millions, my knee-jerk reaction is to whine about it loudly and recite all the great movies it “ripped off.” Thus, I didn’t start watching the ballad of Tony Soprano until 2004. Even then, I only did it because my dad wanted to have a “let’s-watch-something-on-VHS” bonding session...
...flesh peddler. Old-timers may look at the Best Song category and see a dreadful devolution over the decades, from the Gershwin and Kern winners of the 1930s to ?It?s Hard Out Here for a Pimp? this year. But, hell, the competition comprised of a woozy liturgical ballad from Crash and an uptempo number from the bottom of the Dolly Parton song trunk. And the winners, three exponents of Memphis hiphop, expressed more astonished delight than anyone except the Crash crowd. One of them even thanked the Oscar show?s executive producer, Gil Cates. That guy?ll be invited...
...VIRGIN SPRING INGMAR BERGMAN He dismissedit as "a lousy imitation of Kurosawa." Yet The Virgin Spring won Bergman his first of three Foreign Film Oscars and landed him on the cover of TIME. In this adaptation of a medieval ballad, expanded and Freudianized by scripter Ulla Isaksson, a sweet, pampered girl (Birgitta Pettersson) is murdered by herdsmen, who are in turn killed by her father (Max Von Sydow). A miracle play and a horror movie--it was remade in 1972 as The Last House on the Left--the movie retains its stark grandeur in the chiaroscuro cinematography of Sven...
When they finally slow down for the not-entirely-convincing ballad “Riot Van,” they’ve have already run through six amped-up numbers and they only keep it mellow for two minutes. However, Turner and company regain their footing and the album closes with “A Certain Romance,” a wonderfully observed tale of love among the young and stupid...