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Top 5 country ALBUMS
F ACCORDING TO NICK CONNELT
By no means definitive, still, these releases define the past year of country music, a genre returning to its roots.
5. Alison Krauss and Union Station - Lonely Runs Both Ways
A breath of fresh, pure, bluegrass air. Country's most talented musical group can't make a bad album. With crisp, clean, stirring instrumental prowess, Krauss' hauntingly pure voice, and a batch of gorgeous, rousing old-time music, Lonely Runs Both Ways is prime — evidence that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
2. Trisha Yearwood - Jasper County
It had already been one hell of a year for women in country music by the time Yearwood's Jasper Country rolled around. Nearly every country-cosmopolitan diva had a major release: LeAnne Rimes, Jamie O'Neal, Gretchen Wilson, Sara Evans and Faith Hill to name a few. A comeback album in the truest since, Jasper County not only took Trisha to the top of the charts, it beat out all the others in solidity, originality and sheer superior quality.
4. Sugarland - Twice the Speed of Life
They may be about as deep as a puddle and as sugary-sweet as the name suggests, but this Atlanta trio is one of the best new acts to take hold of the country charts in recent memory. "Something More" became the anthem to every workingman/woman who wanted just that. They play at one volume - loud - so turn it up and let loose, it's what they're good for.
What some saw as career resuscitation was actually more an affirmation. The popleaning, criminally overlooked and unfairly critically panned Something Worth Leaving Behind left Lee Ann Womack to the $5.99 bargain-bin fodder at Wal-Marts the nation over. Smartly, Womack gathered her bearings, followed with a solid and commercially successful Greatest Hits, and then this.
1. Lee Ann Womack - There's More Where That Came From
3. Gary Allan - Tough All Over
Certainly an important album for the maker (Allan's wife had committed suicide), Tough All-Over was just as important for the audience. Whilst Toby Keith and Brad Paisley resorted to ever-reliant gimmicks and cheap hooks, and Keith Urban wrote the same song the fiftyeth time over, Allan was churning out true, heartfelt — and heartbroken — country.
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There's More... is the spark that lit the bonfire of new-traditionalism, a sound that opened a new door to old-country leanings. Just check out Faith Hill or Martina McBride's new releases. Swathed in fiddle, pedal steel and a whole lot of twang, Womack's pure, versatile voice never sounded better. She's made the greatest album of her career, and perhaps one of the greatest country albums of all time.
ACCORDING TO KIT FLUKER
5. Howe's Moving Castle
I actually haven't seen Hayao Miyazaki's latest film. It was supposed to come to Liberty Hall but March of the Penguins played for so long that it was bounced from the schedule. As a result, I have to wait for it on DVD. I hope you're all happy with yourselves.
4. Thin Man DVD Boxed Set
3. Serenity
Many filmmakers seem to think explosions and spaceships are enough. Director Joss Whedon doesn't skimp in that department, but it doesn't skimp in the others, either. Serenity is thrilling, hilarious, and despairing, sometimes all at the same time.
It's about time. William Powell and Myrna Loy play Nick and Nora Charles, an affectionate, sardonic married couple who spend their time drinking, bantering, and solving mysteries. And ever since the first one came out in 1934, onscreen couples have been trying to keep up with the Charleses.
2. Batman Begins
I will defend Michael Keaton's portrayal of Batman with my dying breath, but even I can admit that this Batman movie blows the other Batman movies — and most action movies — right out of the water. The film is an experience, from start to finish, and if you didn't see it in theatres, well, I'm sorry.
1. Pride and Prejudice
The previews for Pride and Prejudice made it look like a romantic drama of the dullest kind. But the film (unlike the previews) does justice to the source material — it's funny, energetic, insightful and makes me want to set up an altar to the casting director. It doesn't hurt that star Matthew MacFadyen puts the "cute" in "cute and broody."